PennWest Faculty on the red carpet (L to R): Animators Jeremy Galante, Jordan Held, Brad Pattullo, Mike Genz, and Karabo Legwaila; Philmmakers Brian Fuller, Natasha Kravchenko.
(Edinboro, PA – December 7, 2023)
PennWest’s Philmmakers and Animators ended the semester with a screening of completed films and other exercises in the Pogue Student Center’s Multi-Purpose Room. The venue was initially staged to seat an audience of 252, but additional chairs were added last-minute to accommodate a turn-out of more than 300 popcorn-eating moviegoers. Predictably, enrolled students were well represented. But alums, staff, faculty, friends, and family, showed up in large, supportive numbers.
Also in attendance were the subjects of documentaries made in ART3205 Non-Fiction Filmmaking. Producer Lacey Buswell and director Jeff Quirk profiled the work of ceramicist Lauren Dietrich in Flame & Form. Dietrich offered her pottery for sale at a table she shared with chocolate samples provided by Sandy Steinheiser. Steinheiser, owner of Edinboro Chocolaterie was featured in a documentary produced by Lizzy Joseph and directed by Jacob Feiock. Their film focused on the making of salted chocolate-covered caramels, the Chocolaterie’s best-selling confection. Barber Josiah Stuart was there, encouraged by the audience’s enthusiastic response to Blades of Brilliance. Stuart’s precision razor work is a highlight of the documentary produced by Sebastian Woolstrum and directed by Jared Bupp.
The screening also attracted actors Patrick Thiem and Mike Decorte, veterans of the historic Erie Playhouse. Both have roles in Glory Days, a narrative film produced by Anthony Ferraro and Directed by Ryan Hess. Thiem and Decorte are “Joey” and “Marco,” respectively, two seasoned poker players who unsettle a novice with a distracting revelation about a celebrated Yankee baseball player. Another narrative short, The Damsel Trope, produced by Brett Borland and directed by Madison Kuhns, was well represented by actor Drew Kaczmarkiewicz who plays an electrified super-villain. His intended showdown is foiled by an unexpected intervention in a scene crackling with shocking visual effects and Foley.
For the first time, the biannual showcase incorporated displays of still photos taken by students of Professor Natasha Kravchenko’s ART2005 Introduction to Photography course as well as her upper-level offering of ART4105 Color and Image Enhancement. Kravchenko is new to the Philm faculty, taking the place of recently retired professor Fred Scruton. She earned an M.F.A. from Penn State’s College of Arts and Architecture. Her experience in event photography was put to good use before the screening when many attendees had pictures taken by Kravchenko and Philm student Riley Francis on a well-lit red carpet at the rear of the cavernous room.
From the opening sizzle reel, class projects at all levels of instruction and polish were screened for the public, including an exercise entitled Espionage. Different iterations of the same well-worn script were on display Thursday night so the audience could witness a progression of proficiency from first-year encounters with filmmaking equipment to more accomplished senior-level storytelling.
The next public screening is scheduled for May 2, 2024, Thursday of Final Exam Week. The spring program is expected to feature animation more prominently.