The Digital Filmmaking Program of the Department of Mass Communication and Theatre will screen four graduate thesis films on April 3 at 7 p.m. in the Reynolds Performance Hall.
Graduate students in film must complete two years of coursework and then present their script to a faculty committee in the spring of their second year for approval before beginning their thesis project. This project is the only work they do in their third year of the program in preparation for the screening. After the screening, they must meet with their faculty committee to have their completed film approved for the Master of Fine Arts degree.
A screening will be held for the following films: Sam Abaza’s “Voices in the Walls”, Justin Bauer’s “Decaf”, Emily Lane’s “Our Place”, and Jason Knowles’ “Midnight Lyric”.
“These films represent the culmination of over a year’s worth of work,” said Dr. Bruce Hutchinson, associate professor and director of graduate studies for digital filmmaking.Knowles, from Rock Creek, Kan., graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor of general studies degree with an emphasis in filmmaking and computer production in 1998. He then earned a master of science degree in instructional design and technology in 2004 from Emporia State University. His “Midnight Lyric” features a struggling freelance screenwriter who moves into a newly renovated apartment above a supposedly haunted movie theater in a small Southern town. He soon becomes romantically involved with a troubled young woman who lives across the hall.
Abaza, a Chicago native, completed his associate of arts degree at Henderson State and graduated from the University of Arkansas Little Rock in 1999 with a bachelor of arts degree in radio, television and film. His film, “Voices in the Wall,” features a group of five friends who must take refuge in a rundown house in the woods. When they begin seeing a strange little girl roaming the house and hearing voices from the walls, things go from bad to worse.
Bauer, a Fort Smith native, graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor of arts degree in broadcast journalism. His film, “Decaf”, is a comedy that features a young man who becomes addicted to caffeine until his girlfriend insists he attend addicts anonymous meetings to quell his urges. Former University of Arkansas Film Club President, Bauer is a member of the UCA Film Club. He had a film accepted to the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in 2008 and has taught several Film Appreciation courses here at UCA.
Lane, from Greenbrier, graduated from UCA in 2006 with a bachelor of arts degree in mass communication with an emphasis in television. Her film, “Our Place”, features a woman who cares for her ill mother while dealing with a slacker daughter in this story of obligation and suffocation.
For more information, call the Office of the Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication, at (501) 450-3293 or e-mail smaiden@uca.edu. – Sean Simons
