Author: chicagofilmfestival

Samantha Farrell is a first time filmmaker and recent graduate of Occidental College.

 

A documentary short in which director Samantha Farrell explores her family’s past and present, reflecting on her older sister, Morgen’s, struggle with mental illness.

•  Website

When you look at me, you don’t see bi-racial. Yet, in my lifetime, my parents were not allowed to buy a home outside of Santa Ana, the deemed location where minorities were permitted to purchase property and raise families in Orange County, CA. You can’t tell I’m gay per say, based on whatever society’s version of what a Lesbian is supposed to look like, act like, and be. Who knew 40 was now a protected demographic? Well, I hit that and I don’t look or feel it. Being female is the only box people will put me in when they meet me, even though my dimensions are much deeper and brighter than what they see. I am a woman. A proud woman raised by 2 parents whom defied societal norms and instilled a sense of power within me and an understanding that just because that door is closed now doesn’t mean it can’t be opened later.

Director Statement

My long and varied career in the industry has not only afforded me many unique opportunities and experiences, it’s also given me the skills and confidence needed to be an effective leader, communicate effectively and make timely decisions. I approach each project with an unrelenting passion and energy. Surrounding myself with likeminded people, I enjoy collaborating and crafting a clear artistic/creative vision, culminating in a work that inspires and motivates everyone involved.

After receiving a BA in film and media studies at the University of Florida, I spent a number of years in the commercial audio-visual industry with organizations such as Walt Disney World Co. honing my skills as a cinematographer, editor, sound & light technician. I acquired an MFA from the University of South Florida which has helped me to develop a rigorous studio practice, and immersed me in the world of contemporary art. I am currently the Instructor of Art and Media at USF’s School of Art and Art History while also pursuing a PhD in Media Studies from Western University.Director Statement

8 3/4 was made on a shoestring budget by a family of artists in the wake of enormous change. The film challenged us to accept a new reality while reminding us that we are still loved. Simply put, it’s exactly the kind of film we need right now.

 

Armed with a formidable knowledge of Italian cinema, an unusual eight-year-old boy helps his grandfather recover from a catastrophic loss.

Project Links

•  Website

Laurie Ouellette places the show COPS within a historical and cultural context of reality media that participates in racialized police violence.

Cancelling COPS — Film Quarterly

There is no such thing as business as usual now. And most certainly, no film as usual: every festival canceled, every movie theater dark, as the names of the closures and cancellations bring sadness and grief for curators and filmmakers, film critics and distributors, cinema owners and workers, film studies professors and students, and, yes, their audiences—all, of course, as of print time.

When Is an Editorial Not an Editorial? The Covid-19 (Quarantine, Era 1) Edition — Film Quarterly

Michael Boyce Gillespie leads a roundtable with scholars Jonathan W. Gray, Rebecca A. Wanzo, and Kristen Warner to discuss issues of medium, genre, fandom, and African American history in the highly regarded HBO series Watchmen. Characterizing the HBO series as a disobedient adaptation that modifies, extends, and redirects the world making of its source material, the famed twelve-issue comic-book series of the same name, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, Gillespie et al. explore the ways in which Watchmen remediates American history, starting with the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 that serves as the historical and ideological trigger that sets the series in motion. In a wide-ranging conversation that encompasses subjects including fan fiction, adaptation, cultural mythology, and black superheroes, the authors argue for Watchmen’s significance as some of the most consequential television of the century so far.

Thinking about Watchmen: A Roundtable — Film Quarterly