RIT has strong showing at spring film festivals

An animated film by Rochester Institute of Technology School of Film and Animation (SOFA) students about a poor boy discovering a seed of hope was one of the top highlights of Rochester’s spring film festival season.

“A Fortune” chronicles a young boy who “finds an apple tree in an old, decrepit building during the depression era and begins to take advantage of it,” according to the film’s creators, Tim Stringer and Mirjam Makovec. For their efforts, the SOFA students earned one of three juried awards in the adult category at the April 13-14 Fast Forward Film Festival, a showcase of work that raises awareness of environmental issues. 

Stringer and Makovec were part of a large group of RIT students, faculty and alumni featured in local film festivals in April. RIT was heavily involved in both the Fast Forward Film Festival and One Take Film Festival, a celebration of non-fiction filmmaking presented by the Little Theatre from April 19-22.

Marissa Steinheimer, a master of science in environmental science student at RIT, also won an adult juried award at the Fast Forward festival. Her and Josh Dubock’s “A Light Conversation” tells the story of “an often-overlooked way of reducing your environmental footprint,” Steinheimer said, through an interview with Eric Hittinger, Ph.D., assistant professor public policy in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts.

Other College of Art and Design (CAD) at RIT students and alumni whose works were shown at the environmentally-focused festival include:

• Michelle Bao (SOFA): “Golden Days”

• Cynthia Chu (SOFA): “Run”

• Shana Dixon (SOFA): “Rise”

• Emily Haldeman (SOFA): “Static”

• April Lau (SOFA): “Glint”

• Austin Quinlan ’17 (SOFA): “Ghosts of Seneca Lake”

• Taryn Ward (fine art photography): “Dog Days”

The CAD students and alumni in the One Take Film Festival’s short films program were:

• Kaitlyn Dolan (photojournalism): “Planting in Concrete”

• Camille Howard (SOFA): “Communists in the Summer House”

• Elkin Jaramillo (advertising photography): “Philip Jamison Pianos”

• Joey Ressler (photojournalism): “My Brother Blake”

• Nathaniel Silverman ’17 (SOFA): “Ringside”

RIT also played a major role in a documentary screened at One Take titled “Photo City,” by John Murphy and Traolach O’ Murchú. It concentrates on Rochester’s “photographic and creative community as it struggles to maintain a link to its analogue past and forge an identity in this new digital age.”

Willie Osterman, RIT fine art photography chair, was interviewed for the film and appears prominently throughout. For his part, he “spoke from the heart about what photography is for me, how I practice it and how I teach it.” Additionally, images of RIT and mentions of its strength and history in imaging are in the film, Osterman said.

Max Schulte, a 1997 RIT photojournalism alumnus who is now a photojournalist for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, was also featured in “Photo City.”

The One Take festival catered to virtual-reality enthusiasts, as well, with RIT helping to make that possible. Festivalgoers could receive an immersive documentary viewing experience with the VR Garden, a space dedicated to screening accepted virtual and augmented reality non-fiction projects. The exhibit was curated by the Little Theatre and Frameless Labs, an RIT student-and-faculty organization that unites AR, VR and MR makers.