Emerson filmmakers win big at Campus MovieFest
An Emerson-produced film, The Street Crusade, earned top honors in the Campus MovieFest's social justice competition, ElfenWorks. The Street Crusade was one of the top three nominees in the nation to win a $2,500 prize, and in competition with the other two films went on to win a $10,000 grant at the best film. The Elfenworks competition challenges students "to create films that capture the often untold stories of those in our communities who are 'in harmony with hope' and making a difference in helping with domestic poverty," said the contest's website. The student filmmakers are team leaders Corinne Mesa '10 and Rosalind Fraser '10 and team members Eric Tollar '09 and Drew Cookson '10.
Another film by Emerson students Ryan Cook '09, Michael McGarry '10, Jeremy Albucher '09, Derek Desmond '09 and Steve Rossignol '09won the Best Picture prize at the Campus MovieFest Boston Grand Finale held at the Colonial late last month. Their movie, Looking Up, is about a man who experiences a life changing visitation from an angelic young woman after he accidentally kills someone. Looking Up will now compete at the national level, which will be held at the Hudson Theatre in New York City on Saturday, May 3. Looking Up competed against the top 16 short movies made by teams comprised of more than 8,000 students this fall at Northeastern, Boston College, Bridgewater State, MIT, Emerson, Boston University, and Tufts.
During the Boston festivities, alumnus Richard Arlook '83 gave a Golden Tripod Premium Edition award to fellow alum Brad Epstein '85 for Epstein's work as a leader in the film industry, according to Emerson's JSONS news service. The MovieFest website's describes Epstein as "a prolific Hollywood producer, having spent the last half decade as the senior vice president of production for Disney's Buena Vista Studios, where he worked on various films including Confessions of a Teenaged Drama Queen, Around the World in 80 Days and Ladder 49. Prior to that role, Epstein was the president of Robert De Niro's production company Tribeca Films, working on films such as Analyze This, Wag The Dog and Meet the Parents. He has served as producer on About a Boy, Dan In Real Life and is in production on Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Arlook formerly with the Gersh Agency in Los Angeles, recently opened his own management/ representation company.
For Campus MovieFest, participating teams across the country are each given an Apple laptop and a digital camcorder and asked to make a short film within a week's time. The completed movies are then judged by a panel of students and staff at individual schools. Campus MovieFest is the world's largest student film festival, with more than 150,000 students participating in the competition.
Alum's books acquired by creator of blockbuster films
The political action thriller novels by author and Emmy Award-winning television producer Gary Grossman '70 have caught the eye of Sparkler Entertainment, the Los Angeles-based production company behind the blockbuster feature film franchise of National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets. The company has acquired the feature film rights to Grossman's books, Executive Actions, Executive Treason and an upcoming third novel in the series. The books tells stories of political election intrigue, conspiracy and behind-the-scenes power plays. "Gary has one of the most exciting minds in this genre," said Charles Segars, a partner in Sparkler Entertainment and the creator and executive producer of the National Treasure film franchise. "He has an amazing command of detail and a gift for presenting complex and layered stories in an incredibly compelling manner. His story plotting is progressive and real -- and passionate. These stories are relevant now and are ideal for the big screen. We're excited to be building what will be another hugely successful franchise of popular movies. We're confident that moviegoers will be as engaged and enthralled as his readers have been with these books."
Grossman's first novel, Executive Actions was distributed by Simon & Schuster. New York Times best-selling author Michael Palmer described the book as a "masterpiece of suspense and the best political thriller….." The sequel, Executive Treason, was called "intricate, taut and completely mesmerizing" by techno-thriller author Dale Brown.
Grossman has written for The New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald American. He is also the author of two non-fiction books, Superman: Serial to Cereal and Saturday Morning TV. He covered presidential campaigns for WBZ-TV in Boston, and produced television series for NBC News, CNN, ABC, CBS and FOX. His company, Weller-Grossman Productions, is Emmy Award-winning and boasts more than 9,000 programs and numerous awards to their credit.
Actor alum lauded for support of urban youth programs
The Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts (CBMM) recently honored award-winning actor Clifton Powell '78 for his support of urban youth programs at the 19th Annual Andrew J. Davis Jr. Unity Breakfast. Powell received the Paul Robeson Award for Leadership. A celebrated actor, producer and director, Powell has built a resume of memorable performances in films, on television, and on stage since he began his professional career. He has appeared on the big screen in the Taylor Hackford film Ray, opposite Jamie Foxx, and as 'Pinky' in Friday and Friday After Next, on television as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Lord, Selma, and on stage in the national tour of David E. Talbert's The Fabric of a Man, as Blair, for which he won the NAACP's Theater Award for Best Actor. A native of Washington, D.C., Powell started his acting career at Workshops for Careers in the Arts, a professional program designed to train aspiring young artists.
Students vie for MTV Networks film deal
Three visual and media arts students were among the top ten finalists for mtvU's Best Filmmaker on Campus Award. The nation-wide contest began with over 2000 submissions, and will culminate with a "crowning" at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards. Of the ten finalists, Emerson had the most students represented. Columbia University is the only other institution with more than one finalist, with two of its students in the top ten. The other colleges represented are College Station, New York University, Towson University, Columbia College Chicago and Art Institute of Portland. The Emerson students, senior J.D. Marlow, junior Chris Cullari and sophomore Chris Faulisi made the top ten based on votes cast by both the general public and official competition judges from mtvU. Cullari's film advanced to the top five and can be voted on at http://www.bestfilmoncampus.com/contests/bfoc/default.aspx.
The top five filmmakers will have their work featured on MTV.com, mtvU.com and Bestfilmoncampus.com as well as on Video on Demand. The winner will be recognized at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles and presented a golden popcorn statue. The winner will also receive a film development deal with MTVNOC and/or MTV Networks- a Paramount Pictures' label responsible for films like Hustle & Flow, Napoleon Dynamite, The Longest Yard, Coach Carter and the recent box office smash Blades of Glory.
Each student competing created a profile on bestfilmoncampus.com that features a selection of his or her work. The students are judged on the entire body of work presented. According to mtvU, the students are being judged on "originality, creativity, how well the script is written and how well the plot is relayed to the audience, as well as technical merit including, but not limited to, lighting, editing, camera operations and sound."
Broadcast to more than 750 college campuses and via top cable distributors in 700 college communities nationwide, mtvU reaches upwards of 9 million students, making it the largest and most comprehensive multi-platform channel for college students.
Fulbright Fellow at Emerson writes 'poetry of hope'
"Bhuchung D. Sonam practices the poetry of hope," begins a profile on Tibetan native Sonam, an Emerson graduate student in journalism and a Fulbright Fellow. Last month he traveled to the Torrington campus of the University of Connecticut to be part of a reading at the Litchfield County Writers Project, reported the Litchfield County Times. "[Sonam] was smuggled out of his central Asian land at the age of 12 at the height of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was schooled in Northern India, where he and his wife, Tenzin Sangmo, a radio journalist for the Voice of Tibet, live," said the profile.
Sonam has published a number of poetry books, including Dandelions of Tibet and Conflict of Duality. He edited a collection of Tibetan poetry, entitled Muses in Exile: an Anthology of Tibetan Poetry in English. "Poetry is an expression of your thoughts, your feelings. They don't have rules. They don't have boundaries," he told the paper. "It's a form of protest. It's a form of expression of what we as a society go through," he said of his own work.
Alumna takes on new project for Miramax
Alumna Alexandra Milchan '94 is joining forces with Scott Rudin, Aimee Peyronnet and Miramax Films to produce writer Ann Cherkis' darkly comic drama Man Under, said The Hollywood Reporter. The drama "revolves around the drab, depressed and dysfunctional members of a suburban family," the publication explained. "A young photographer who takes their family portrait is murdered, and the photo makes its way to her high-profile museum retrospective, thrusting them into the spotlight of a trendy art scene and changing their lives dramatically." the article said, noting that the project "generated industry buzz last year after making the rounds of several studios and agencies" and is "one of several high-profile films No Country for Old Men producer Rudin has in the pipeline with Miramax." Milchan is behind numerous other current and future productions, including Street Kings, Righteous Kill and Mary Queen of Scots.
Film professor's feature receives special Boston screening
The Museum of Fine Arts Film Program this month presented a special screening of 3 Américas, a feature film by Cristina Kotz Cornejo, an associate professor of visual and media arts at Emerson College. The film tells the story of 16-year América Campos, who is sent from her home in America to live with her anti-American grandmother Lucía América in Argentina. The girl struggles to find her place with a woman she has never known and to hold onto a friendship with a neighbor twice her age. Reviewers have described the film as "beautifully shot" and called the screenplay "a marvel of minimalism in which every word matters."
Raised in Argentina and the United States, Cornejo graduated from the University of Southern California and earned her M.F.A. from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She joined the Emerson faculty in 2001 and received the Mann Stearns Award for Distinguished Faculty Work in 2007.
3 Américas was a 2004/05 Sundance Institute's Screenwriter's Lab semi-finalist and the recipient of 2004 & 2007 Moving Image Fund Grants from the LEF Foundation. The film was also selected for the prestigious Sundance Institute's 2004 Independent Producer's Conference as well as the NALIP Latino Writer's Lab. In 2005 Cornejo was selected to participate in the Independent Feature Project/NYDirector's Lab with 3 Américas.
New grad's film enjoys premiere at famed 'SXSW' fest
Jeremiah Zagar's ('03) film In A Dream had its world premiere at South by Southwest 2008, where it received the Emerging Visions Audience Award. The film is a documentary on his father, mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar.
Zagar is working as an editor for Academy Award winning documentarian Ross Kauffman, editing Kauffman's new film Wait For Me. Kauffman, who won an Oscar in 2006 for his documentary Born into Brothels, is an executive producer for In A Dream.
Faculty writer pens essay collection
Professor DeWitt Henry's latest book Safe Suicide: Narratives, Essays, and Meditation was recently reviewed by the Boston Globe. "In this interconnected collection of autobiographical essays, we're brought into the fascinating life of a Boston-area novelist and editor struggling to build a viable writing career, sustain an important literary journal, and become a loving husband, father, and friend," the review notes. "Since these struggles are all accompanied by drama and pain (but also unexpected pleasures), DeWitt Henry's vivid collection reads like an absorbing coming-of-age memoir." The review goes on to say, "Safe Suicide is held together by Henry's searching voice, his attempts to do the right thing even when it's difficult."
Henry is the founding editor of Ploughshares, a Boston-based literary journal housed at Emerson that has published literary luminaries such as Joyce Carol Oates, Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie, and Richard Yates.
Students compete to be 'funniest college student'
Emerson junior Jordan Clifford has been voted one of the funniest college students in the nation, according to RooftopComedy, a company that produces comic videos. He is one of 17 regional finalists in RooftopComedy's National College Comedy Competition, reported the Hartford Courant. From 500 to 600 students from 32 campuses have participated in the contest. Clifford told the Courant he started performing at open-mike nights in New York City comedy clubs about a year ago. His stage fright "faded quickly and now he hopes to continue doing stand-up and pursue a career in comedy writing," said the paper.
Keele Howard-Stone '10 also participated in the competition. The "19-year-old veteran comic…has performed at well-known venues like Carolines on Broadway," said the New Haven Register. Howard-Stone made it to the second round of RooftopComedy's first National College Comedy Competition. The paper says Howard-Stone's performance "shows an at-ease comedian whose material ranges from his observations about women's clothing to his take on the Last Supper." According to the article, "comedy was a major reason Howard-Stone chose Emerson -- a school attended by comedy giants like Steven Wright, Jay Leno, Dennis Leary and Norman Lear." While at Emerson, he has been heavily involved, developing a one-hour comedy show and creating his own group that showcases performances from comedy to slam poetry.
Emersonian wins Massachusetts scholarship pageant
Amanda Zayas '08 was named Miss Massachusetts 2008 by America's National Teenager Scholarship Organization, and now she's preparing for the national pageant in Nashville, Tenn. in July. The top prize is a $5,000 scholarship. As part of the competition's emphasis on community service, Zayas and the contestants in Nashville will spend part of their time helping out at the local Boys and Girls Club.
Zayas, who is expecting to graduate a semester early in December, is studying marketing and communications. She currently works part-time for the Goodwin Group, a public relations firm based in Sharon, Mass. She stays busy at Emerson as co-editor of the beauty and fashion section of em magazine. She also organized a fashion show last month, utilizing the talents of student models and student designers, and she's preparing for a national marketing competition in Atlanta this summer. What's more, she's active in the Student Government Association. "[Student government] helped me be more self-confident, and it helped me be a better speaker," Zayas told the paper. "That was definitely a big, big confidence booster."
Zayas told the paper the competition's focus on academics and community involvement, rather than physical appearance, drew her to compete. In fact, according to the article, sixty percent of the competition has nothing to do with appearance. "It's a little different from the rest," Zayas said. "I think it would be a really great opportunity for a lot of girls."
Alumna's comedy 'defies gender stereotypes'
"She isn't interested in telling jokes about how to land a man, but instead puts a comedic spin on issues of sex, race and class," said a recent review of "Bernadette Pauley's ('90) comedy act. Pauley is defying gender stereotypes in the comedy arena, according to a report in the Centre Daily Times of State College, Penn. The comedienne, who lives in New York, has been doing stand-up comedy across the country for more than 10 years. Pauley told the Daily Times she has had to deal with a lot of stereotypes and assumptions about her material. Pauley says a lot of comedy club bookers are reluctant to take the risk of booking a woman. "Comedy is a very subversive thing. You put a woman in the mix and it's doubly offensive to some people," she says. However, this doesn't keep Pauley from talking about controversial topics during her act, such as domestic violence. "I think things are pretty messed up today," she says. "If you don't laugh at things, you'll go crazy."
Student prizes abound in different disciplines
The winner of a screenplay competition sponsored by Aimee Entertainment Agency is Kerri Donnelly '11, for her screenplay Lemonade. She will win representation with the Los Angeles-based talent agency, whose president, Emerson alum Sharif Ali '94, created the contest.
Emerson MFA student Jason Wiener won a 2007 Cecil B. Hackney Literary Award for his story "Footprints." Contest winners were announced at the 28 annual Writing Today Conference on March 7 and 8, 2008, at Birmingham Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama. The event included a public reading of Jason's first place story. Sponsored by the Cecil Hackney family of Birmingham, the literary competition awards $5,000 at the national and state level for poetry and short fiction each year. One novel is also selected for recognition. Past winners of Hackney prizes have included Rick Reiken, Associate Professor of Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson. Wiener's story "Damages" was a finalist in the 2007 Sonora Review Short-Short Contest. Before coming to Emerson, Jason worked as a 3D animator and college instructor for film and video games, including a summer contract at Pixar Studios. He is currently completing his graduate thesis, a novel.
Emerson College chapter members of the National Broadcasting Society (NBS) Kyle Morrison '09 and Andrew Nicholson '09 won the grand prize in the Video Drama Program category for their project Mercy, a short film about a young WWI soldier who must listen to an enemy die just beyond his trench. The film consisted of a full Emerson cast and crew. The award was part of the 45th Annual National Student Electronic Media Competition at the NBS/AERho National Convention. At the NBS Freedom States Regional Competition Ezra Horne '08 received the best drama script award for his script Maze and Jill Garreffi '09, Daniel Leich '09 and Tina Densmore '09 won for best movie trailer for the film The German Wheel.
The Emerson College Slam Team traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico last month to attend a national poetry slam contest at the University of New Mexico. They were nominated for several awards and team member Carrie Rudzinski '09 was named Best Female Poet. The other members of the team were Maxwell Kessler '09, Steve Subrizi '08 and Carlos Williams '10.
Alum's feature film takes place on Vineyard
Writer-director Taylor Toole '01 will be filming this third movie, Mow Crew, on Martha's Vineyard this summer, the Island's Gazette reported. Mow Crew is a romantic comedy about a landscaping team on the island resort. "I think it might be the first movie with that focus," said Toole. "The plot ...revolves around a young couple playing music on the Vineyard," said the paper.
After studying at Emerson, Toole worked as a camera operator on Project Greenlight, a reality show about getting films made, and then as a writer's assistant on the HBO series Deadwood. In the intervening summers, he returned to the Island to produce his short film, Standing Up, in 2002. In 2006, he produced Black Eyed Girl. Mow Crew, Toole's first full-length feature film, has a crew of 20, a budget of $200,000 and a scheduled three-week shoot.
Emersonians take on diverse acting projects
Shonda Leigh Robbins '04 is starring in Natural Causes this year at the Independent Film Festival of Boston. The film explores the ups and downs of life and love of three 20-somethings. Natural Causes made its world premiere in 2008 at The SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Tex., and also sceened in April at the Sarasota Film festival in Florida.
Chrystee Pharris '98 presented her one-woman show In Search of O last month at the Powerhouse Theatre in Santa Monica for the "What's The Story" festival.
Alumni journalists take home awards
George Falkowski '87 won his fourth New York Emmy Award in the category of 'Sports Series' for a series he did on the New Jersey Devils 25th anniversary in the Garden State. Fellow Emerson alum Charles Werneke '92 also received an Emmy as a photographer on the series.
Liz Raftery '05 recently won the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's Keystone Press Award for Best Feature in the Division IV category for "New Arrests, Old Wounds," an article she wrote while working at the Press Enterprise last year.
