UConn Film Club presents the 2018 Short Film Exhibition at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry on April 27th from 9pm to 11pm and Saturday, April 28th from 7pm to 9pm! Join them for the world premiere screening of EXIT, directed by Matthew Bilmes and LET’S BE FRIENDS, directed by Ryan Glista. Other films to be screened include OPENING NIGHT, THE POND, CITIZEN’S ARREST, DUDE WHERE’S MY SOCKS, and SUNNY SIDE UP. The films represent the work of dozens of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Connecticut across a variety of disciplines.

The club was founded in the Spring of 2016 with the goal of providing a place for students to both learn about the narrative filmmaking process and work on their own original productions. While the university does not yet have a dedicated filmmaking program, the purpose of the UConn Film Club is to fill that gap. Each of their projects are led by a Director, Producer, and Cinematographer, who are not only responsible for the creation of the film, but also to train newer members in the film production process so they can lead their own projects in future semesters. Below are preview synopses of the featured films.

Directed by Ryan Glista

Chris is the drama director for a high school production of ‘The Dark Knight: The Musical’, and the show is falling apart. In order to heighten the drama between his leads, Chris begins a series of manipulations to pit them against each other. His thirst for a standing ovation leads him down a dark path on a violent night the audience will never forget.

Directed by Christian Partenio

This 16mm experimental psychological thriller was created with a small team of students in collaboration with the Cuban experimental filmmaking duo, Juan Carlos Alom and Aimara Fernandez. The film was shot on two 100ft rolls of Kodak Tri-X and a Bolex H16 Reflex.

Directed by Matt Bilmes

Olivia works at the local Exit Bureau, where she spends her nights convincing people to end their own lives for society’s greater good. One evening, after her supervisor issues a chilling ultimatum, her world begins to fall apart.

Directed by Ken Asada & Christian Partenio

The story of two nerds whose lives are transformed when one of them inherits a lucky pair of socks from his dying grandmother. When they lose the socks at an epic party, the duo risk it all in a quest to get them back.

Directed by Alex Rouleau

When college student Kevin Lewowski is tired of crime and bullying on his campus, he decides to take matters into his own hands. After discovering a shocking betrayal, his vigilante methods are put to the ultimate test.

A 24 hour film created by Ryan Glista, Matt Bilmes, and Ken Asada

While making breakfast, a struggling couple faces the absurdity of obsession. Created for the LDS 24 hour film contest by Ken Asada, Matthew Bilmes, Coleman Churchill, Ryan Glista and Sarah Jensen.

Directed by Ryan Glista

Connor, the new kid in school, is a lonely boy whose only friend is a stuffed toy named Beadie. When Conner brings Beadie to school, despite his father’s warnings, a run in with a bully leads to horrific consequences.

For more information about the 2018 Short Film Exhibition, click here.

Film Club is lead by founding President Ryan Glista (2nd year DMD MFA student), founding Vice President Matt Bilmes (senior DMD student) and Faculty Advisor Tim Miller (DMD Visiting Assistant Professor). Upon Ryan and Matt’s graduation, Christian Partenio (junior DMD student) will take over as President and Regan Kilkenny (sophomore DMD student) will take over as Vice President.

“The Film Club is for anyone who has ever had any desire to be a part of creating a cinematic story for the big screen. Whether you wish for it to be a full fledged career, or just want to be a part of a larger project, anyone is welcome. There is always so much to do when it comes to creating a film, that we can never have enough help. It is the goal of this club to bring a greater knowledge of film to the Storrs Campus and to involve the student body through screenings and festivals.

Each semester we create one or two professional short films. We pitch ideas and then vote on what script(s) to write. Next members take on different roles in the film production process- directing, producing, camera work, lighting, costumes, design, etc. If you’d just like to help out and learn more about the filmmaking process, you can be a production assistant. Finally, we edit the final films for the end of the semester to present at a UConn screening and local festivals.”

We’d like to congratulate the following Storrs students on receiving scholarships at this year’s convocation!

Katianna Seman

Jonathan Goodrich

Corlis Fraga

Anna Jannott

Hanna Marchini

Nicole Mason

Yuxin Kang

Daniel Bean

Isaac Bilmes

Tianxiang Cai

Sarah Shattuck

Morgan Rossi

Christina McDonnell

Brittany Shuster

Malik Harris

Nicole Harvey

Ronald Jones

Andreea Rotaru-Barac

Helena Sirken

Corey Freer

Thomas Gambardella

Kyleigh Hillerud

Christopher Holguin

Mia Marasco

Thomas Carter

Matthew Crowe

Shane Deptula

Rachel Enzie

Rachel Wright

Julianna Rodrigues

Bridget Sweeney

Tyler Shuster

Isaiah Edwards

Tiffany Terilli

Devin Quinn

Devin Pashapour

Shay Albert

Emma Cooper

Emma Cooper

Christopher Glenn Jr.

Donming Suh

Shanna Surena-Mattson

Shawn Chen

The project “Museums and Civic Discourse: History, Current Practice, and Future Prospects” has received a 2018-19 Whiting Public Engagement Seed Grant from the Whiting Foundation’s Humanities Program, which supports faculty in the humanities who embrace public engagement as part of the scholarly vocation. The project’s research focuses on the fact that while the 20th century marks museums’ gradual entrée into intentional civic discourse work, there is no critical accounting of this history, no scholarly overview to contextualize and inform current deliberations over future paths that museum work in this area might take.

In short, decision-makers in museums, funding agencies and communities lack a ready assessment of what has (and has not) been thought, done, and evaluated. Divorced from this historical knowledge, the field becomes prone to cyclical patterns of immediacy and reinvention in response to local and national crisis points. Also lacking is inclusion of scholarly perspectives from groups historically underrepresented within these decision-making circuits.

Work on this multi-faceted research effort began in 2015 led by the editorial-research team of Jennifer Scott, Director of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in Chicago; scholar-curator Elena Gonzales; Nicole Ivy, Director of Inclusion for the American Alliance of Museums in Arlington, VA; Robin Grenier, Associate Professor of Adult Learning in UConn’s Neag School of Education; and Clarissa Ceglio, Assistant Professor in the Digital Media & Design Department. Initial grants from the Public Discourse Project of UConn’s Humanities Institute and UConn’s Research Excellence Program supported the team’s early work, which has also involved DMD students as undergraduate researchers. The Whiting Foundation grant will enable the team to collaborate with Greenhouse Studios | Scholarly Communications Design at UConn in the design, production, and dissemination of its research to the museum, public humanities, and allied fields.

To learn more about the project, the editorial team, and some of its early collaborators, click here.