Student and faculty art collaborations are an exceptional aspect of Antioch education and culture. Last summer, media students David Blakeslee ’18, Ellie Burck ’18, Lillian Burke ’16, Odette Chavez-Mayo ’18, and Charlotte Norman ’18 who took AudioVision: Video Production Intensive collaborated with professors Forest Bright and Charles Fairbanks to create a documentary film about the 2016 Republican National Convention. During the term, they travelled to the convention in Cleveland, OH, and conducted interviews with attendees of the event and filmed various aspects of the convention. The final product was a feature-length film entitled Elephant in Our Room, along with a corresponding short called Seriously Not Funny.
The film delves into issues surrounding the 2016 Presidential election, but also the spectacle of the RNC. Regarding the film, professor Charles Fairbanks says “ELEPHANT IN OUR ROOM documents the carnivalesque 2016 Republican National Convention from the outside – the people’s side. We interviewed dozens, if not hundreds, of people. We filmed protesters and counter-protesters, as well as ironic, comedic, magical, musical, belligerent, and prayerful demonstrations. We lost all hope, we found deeper meaning, we cried and we laughed and we kept the cameras rolling.”
Seriously Not Funny premiered at the Athens International Film and Video Festival in Athens, OH on April 5th, and at the Indie Grits Festival in Columbia, SC on April 21st. The film received praise at both festivals, and won the award for Best Student Film at the Indie Grits Festival. Congratulations to the students and faculty who produced this amazing project!
To view the film Elephant in Our Room, click here!
Text quoted from Charles Fairbanks via the Little Art Theatre website.
Image acquired via Indie Grits Film Festival website.
