Film & Media Arts: Student & Faculty Work

Prof Leena Jayaswal's film, Crossing Lines, was picked up for national distribution to educators by New Day Films. Company members carefully pick the films that enter the collective and titles included in the New Day catalog have won numerous film festivals awards, 4 Emmys, an Academy Award and 9 Academy Award nominations. New Day films have been broadcast on PBS, HBO and other media outlets. It also won a Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival, was named best documentary at the California Arts Association's First Digital Short Film Festival and received a Gracie Allen Award for Outstanding Documentary Short-Format from the American Women in Radio and Television. Read more

Two students from Professor Sarah Menke-Fish's fall TV Studio Production class, Matt Genebach and Dimitri Papaloizos, were interviewed on NBC4's Daily Connections in December. Afterward, NBC4 aired a segment they produced, "Metro Monsters: Christmas Tree Edition". The next segment will be shot at the National Zoo and another at the NBC4 Health Expo.

Professor Larry Engel's three-part series "The Human Spark" premieres January 6 on PBS. Engel was the director and director of photography for the show. "The Human Spark" with Alan Alda will continue with the second and third episodes airing on January 13 and 20. Check out Engel's latest blog post on the show.  Read more

Prof Signs Exclusive Distribution Deal for New Documentary
Professor Brigid Maher signed an exclusive distribution deal with John Sinno’s Typecast Releasing for her documentary, Veiled Voices. The documentary will be released on PBS for Women's History Month. Maher launched a really unique online campaign that hasn't been done before. People are encouraged to visit the site, Veiled Voices, and request the documentary to play in their community. Women across the Arab world are redefining their role as leaders in Islam. Veiled Voices investigates the world of Muslim women religious leaders through the eyes of three women in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. Watch clips or read more

Prof Takes Backpack Journalism to Harvard Club
Professor Bill Gentile was invited to speak about backpack journalism at the Harvard Club in New York City. He also screened his recent film, “Afghanistan: The Forgotten War,” which was broadcast on PBS last year. Gentile took questions from the crowd of strictly Harvard graduates and special guests after his presentation. Read Bill Gentile’s blog or visit his website.

Student's Thesis Wins Oscar
Lauren DeAngelis, MA '08, beat competitors from some of the country's top film programs to win an Oscar for A Place to Land, her thesis documentary that follows the cross-country journey of abused or abandoned parrots, once in captivity. A second SOC student, Joe Bohannon, Director of Cinematography and Sound Technician for the film, was interviewed by NBC about the documentary. This is the second consecutive year that a student from American University's School of Communication (SOC) has won an Oscar for documentary from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Laura Waters Hinson, MFA '07, won a Student Oscar last year for As We Forgive, a documentary about reconciliation efforts in Rwanda.

Hinson appeared on The Diane Rehm Show to discuss her film, which won the Gold Medal for Documentary at the 2008 Student Academy Awards. As We Forgive follows three Rwandan genocide survivors as they face the men who killed their families. Watch the trailer or read a Washington Post profile of Hinson.

SOC Grad Student Lifestreams His Journey for Ford

Alex Morrison, a Film and Media Arts graduate student was one of 100 people selected out of a pool of 4000 to receive a new Ford Fiesta and record and share his driving experiences via a video blog, pictures and social media. Click here to follow Alex's journey as he completes various missions across the country.