Announcement
Boston, MA —
On Thursday, February 28, five student filmmakers will screen their work at the Emerson College Film Festival at the Harmony Gold Preview House in Los Angeles. Each year, students throughout the College submit their films for a chance to attend the coveted event and showcase their films in front of film and entertainment industry professionals, including Emerson alumni.
The Emerson Film Festival begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $25 (free for current Emerson students) and includes a reception following the screening. To secure tickets in advance, register online. Tickets can also be purchased at the event (cash only): Harmony Gold Preview House, 7655 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.
The Festival highlights the best of Emerson College student film and video work. This year’s selected films cover international subjects (a girl's school in Africa) and local themes too (a barbershop in Boston's North End). Two of this year’s films were graduate student projects and three of the films were directed by emerging female directors.
The films explore experimental and narrative genres, and share a common underlying theme of hope.
The King of the House by Paul Michael MacCarty ’16 shares the story of a barbershop owner and the importance of family values at home and in the workplace; Graceland Girls by Jordan Salvatoriello, MFA ’12, highlights the power of education to bring about positive change for girls living in poverty; Love or Farewell by Shaun Clarke, MFA ’12, is a collection of five dance films that explore the potential to transform dance performance through cinema; in Solutionism: A Design Documentary by Hsiao-Yen Jones ’14, Artivist Designer Matt LeGrand examines the possibilities that design brings to both the visual and real world; and in Got You by Bianca Morris '12, Lexi, an eight-year-old only child, discovers her mother's thoughts of suicide. The bond between mother and daughter helps them face adversity.
At the start of the program, special guest, filmmaker James McTeigue (The Matrix, The Raven, V for Vendetta) will participate in a Q&A moderated by Emerson alumnus Aaron Ryder, president of FilmNation Entertainment. Also at the event, TV host and Emerson alumna Maria Menounos will present the Take Action Hollywood! Award, which she co-founded. The award is given to a student whose film most powerfully explores a current social issue.
Watch this year’s selected student film trailers here.
About the College
Based in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite the historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city’s Theatre District, Emerson College educates individuals who will solve problems and change the world through engaged leadership in communication and the arts, a mission informed by liberal learning. The College has 3,780 undergraduates and 670 graduate students from across the United States and 50 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 90 student organizations and performance groups. Emerson is known for its experiential learning programs in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, the Netherlands, London, China, and the Czech Republic as well as its new Global Portals, with the first opening last fall in Paris. The College has an active network of 51,000 alumni who hold leadership positions in communication and the arts. For more information, visit Emerson.edu.