The Films and Electronic Arts Department will host a live virtual event showcasing around a dozen student films on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.
“Collective Resilience: A Selection of Student Films” will bring short films made before and during the coronavirus pandemic. After the movies, some of the directors, producers and writers will stick around for a live Q&A with the audience.
“We thought it was time we did at least another screening for a year and during COVID times,” Kent Hayward said, professor and creator of Collective Resilience. “It just seemed like the right thing to do. We all want to see what people are doing during COVID, and how we’re surviving and how we’re being creative and resilient.”
One movie Hayward said he is excited to show is “No-No Boy.” Written and directed by Kate Ruthenbeck, this film is about two Japanese men needing to prove their loyalty in the Manzanar internment camp in California during World War II.
Also showing will be the 2018 California State University Media Arts Festival Best in Show winner “For Vivian.” This documentary, by filmmakers Samantha Hernandez and Austin Aviles, is about Hernandez’s aunt who suffers from an intellectual disability. “For Vivian” also won Best Documentary and Audience Choice awards at the 2018 CSU Media Arts Festival.
The event will show about an hour’s worth of short films. Genres include documentaries, animation, narrative and experimental films.
Each film has a different style and premise but the same significance and purpose. Sarah Len, film and electronic arts community engagement specialist, acknowledged the filmmakers’ resilience.
“The goal and the purpose of the event is to demonstrate the depth and breadth of the Creative Nonfiction and Narrative Production programs in the Film and Electronic Arts Department,” Len said via email.
Events for the Film and Electronic Arts Department are typically held at the end of the year like the rest of the art departments that want to showcase students’ work. But Hayward made it a point to have an event when other departments aren’t. According to Hayward, most students are focused on their own events at the end of the year, so this was perfect for him and his students.
“So we wanted to do something that wasn’t at the end of the year, so that the rest of the school and the administration and friends and family and other people can come and check it out too,” Hayward said.
Part of the reason that Hayward wants to get more eyes on the showcase is to bring attention to his students and their work ethic during a pandemic. He called his students “scrappy” and “clever” for figuring out ways to make meaningful films without the usual access to equipment and crew.
Hayward also credited his students for overcoming obstacles by “making lemonade out of lemons.”
“COVID is a particularly difficult challenge, but in life we are always presented with challenges of all different shapes and sizes,” Hayward said. “So, being resilient to those changes, in those problems, is what it’s all about. Filmmaking is all about problem solving.”
Visit the Film and Electronic Arts Department’s website if you are interested in watching the showcase live on Zoom.