Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design
Inspiration
October 2009
Boondock Saints II Stars on Campus: Troy Duffy, the writer and director of The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, was on campus along with stars Sean Patrick Flanery (Young Indiana Jones) and Norman Reedus on Thursday, October 22nd. Duffy showed clips from his new movie and discussed making the film.
First Person Film Fest at Drexel: Philadelphia’s First Person Festival is dedicated to presenting personal stories in the form of memoirs and documentary films. The college presented two outstanding documentaries and hosted the filmmakers to speak with the audiences following the screenings.
William Kunstler: Disturbing The Universe was the first film about the controversial lawyer who defended the Chicago Seven, Attica State Prison rioters, a number of Black Panthers and some of those charged with the first World Trade Center bombing. Kunstler’s daughter Emily, along with her sister Sarah, produced and directed the film.
The second film screened was Still Bill, a documentary about Bill Withers, the singer-songwriter responsible for such monster hits as ‘Just the Two of Us,’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ and ‘Lean on Me.’ Filmmakers Damani Baker and Alex Vlack convinced Withers to tell his story after a 23 year absence from the music industry. The compelling and thoughtful movie explores Wither’s issues with the industry and his life as an outstanding songwriter and performer.
Oscar Winning Director On Campus: The Oscar-winning filmmaker Costa Gavras visited campus Thursday, October 22 to screen his 2005 film Le Couperet and take questions from the audience. Le Couperet was nominated for two Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.
August 2009
Westphal alumni Nick Gregorio, Eric Levy, Juan Cardarelli and Matthew Sanchez were featured in a front page Philadelphia Inquirer story about their film Happy Birthday Harris Malden, which was screened at Drexel in October 2008.
May 2009
Mike Figgis, the acclaimed director and writer of Leaving Las Vegas screened his film and hosted a Q&A session.
In recent years, Figgis has been incorporating innovative digital video technologies into his filmmaking with such films as The 4 Dreams of Miss X, Co/Ma and Timecode. He also directed for HBO’s The Sopranos and an episode of the PBS documentary series The Blues, which was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. While on campus, Mike spent three days with the Department of Cinema and Television and its Film & Video and Screenwriting & Playwriting programs conducting workshops.
February 2009
Award-winning independent producer and director Mike Rubbo visited for a several day residency to work with students and screen two of his 50 plus films, Sad Song of the Yellow Skin and Waiting for Fidel.
Waiting for Fidel is considered one of the first stalka-mentries, inspiring Michael Moore to make Roger and Me. In fact, Rubbo was a pioneer of the personal authored documentary, one of the first practitioners, if not the first in English. Waiting for Fidel is part of the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Mike has been honored with retrospectives of his documentaries in New York at Film Forum, the Chicago Art Institute and in San Francisco at the Pacifica Film Archive, Berkeley.
January 2009
Filmmaker Malcolm Lee (Spike's Cousin) screened his film Soul Men followed by a Q & A session. Malcolm Lee has directed many successful films including Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, Roll Bounce, The Best Man, and Undercover Brother. He got his start working with his cousin Spike Lee on the sets of Malcolm X and Clockers. Click here to read about the event.
Co-Op in Ireland
Film & Video major Brian Johanson spent his co-op on the set of Neil Jordan's latest film while it was shooting in Ireland. Neil Jordan, the director and producer of The Crying Game and Interview with a Vampire, recently completed production on Ondine starring Colin Farrell.
Brian told us that he worked with a crew of top film professionals "who had worked on everything from Lawrence of Arabia to the Harry Potter movies. I was the video operator and my responsibility was to record everything the camera sees so that the director and crew could get a sense of how each shot is working." Brian worked at ten different locations and fifty sets in Castletownbere and West Cork Island, shooting in cottages and fields in these small Irish villages.
May 2008
Four Thorns for Aiden, directed by students Josh Smith ('07) and edited by Dustin Carpio, ('07), was a double award recipient at the West Chester International Film Festival. The film won the 'Chester' award for 'Best Pennsylvania Filmmaker' and received Honorable Mention for 'Audience Choice.'
Student Bryan Green's ('08) film Something in the Way of Things received an Honorable Mention Paul Robeson Award in the 'Best Experimental' category at the Newark Black Film Festival.
Film Festival Information
Short films (under 12minutes) have the best chance of getting into film festivals. Festival programmers want to show as many films as possible therefore they tend to avoid longer films.
Look for film festivals with a student category -- it reduces the competition and gives you a better chance of being screened.
To make applying to numerous film festivals easy, check out this website: Without a Box -- It's an oneline film festival submission service.
The Ultimate Film Festival Directory Film festival news, festivals listed by month, screenwriting - friendly festivals and lots of industry links
Film Festivals.com Elaborate festival listing that can be selected by country or month
NextFrame/University Film and Video Association provides an directory of national and international festivals friendly to students
Film Festival and Markets Calendar provides links, along with contact information for film markets and festivals -- national and international.
Drexel Purchase Steadicam
In December, Drexel became one of the first schools in the nation to acquire a Steadicam. Two students became certified operators through Steadicam workshops held in December and January.
New Facilities
This January, the Film & Video Program relocated to our new space in University Crossings. We are extremely proud of our two new screening theaters, post-production labs, green-screen shooting studio, and seminar and equipment rooms. We look forward to completing our new recording/ foley studio in the near future.
Drexel Instructor/Filmmaker Covers Aftermath of Tsunami Disaster
Drexel instructor and filmmaker, Antonio Tibaldi covered the UN's humanitarian relief operations in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Part of a team that fed stories and footage to broadcasters around the world, Tibaldi documented the international community's efforts to contain the health crisis and aide victims including the displaced, the homeless, and children.
Reality Show Films at Drexel
Endemol Productions, which produces shows such as "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and "Fear Factor" filmed their newest reality pilot at Drexel. Drexel FMVD students were on-board as Production assistants.