Film festival features student works

Hannah K. Webber, Staff Writer
Published On: 10/ 6/2008

Eight short films made by UAB students received a public screening at the 2008 Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival from Sept. 26-28.

According to a UAB Media Relations article by Gail Short, the films first debuted on Sept. 27 at the Carver Theater venue.

The students made their films as part of an ethnographic filmmaking class offered to UAB Honors students through the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The course, taught by Michele Forman and Rosie O’Beirne, was created to teach students to document and analyze aspects of human social life using film and video.

The description of the course as it was offered to Honors students states that, through ethnographic filmmaking, students will “learn ethical and practical methods for representing someone else in a visual narrative medium” as well as “develop an understanding of the visual syntax and narrative structure of successful documentary films.”
The UAB Media Relations article says that ethnographic research deals with the description of a specific culture or human social phenomenon. Students in the course made short documentaries about people and communities in Birmingham.

The UAB student films screened at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival were:

• Emily Jackson and Neeta Kirpalani’s “Birth Right,” a film about the lack of choice for Alabama women to have natural, midwife-assisted births at home.

• Tyler Godsy and Chris Lee’s “Under One Roof,” about an early childhood program for autistic children.

• Rachel Thompson and Jim Warnock’s “Food to Fuel,” a film that examines local biofuel programs and the larger implications of converting food to fuel.

• Paul Sholly and Jonathan Sutton’s “Hopheads,” about grassroots legislative activism uncovered among Alabama beer connoisseurs.

• Jerald Appling and David Bala’s “Making the Most at Hoover,” a documentary on “Black Flight,” the move of African-American families from city schools to the suburbs.

• Joshua Vazquez and Stephen Webb’s “Positive,” a film about a clinic that treats people living with HIV.

• Nejla Harris and Logan Talbot’s “A Whole-Way House,” a documentary about the only residential facility in Alabama which allows women to live with their children while they recover from addiction or transition from prison.

• Ingrid Pfau and Linh Tran’s “Saved: The Story of the Watercress Darter,” a film about the relationship between a church and environmentalists to save a small, endangered fish.

Godsy says he made a film about autistic children because his brother was diagnosed with a high-functioning type of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome. Godsy says that making “Under One Roof” with Chris Lee “was possibly one of the most positive and constructive ones of my college career.”

Godsy feels that this is one college course with definite “take-home” messages.

“In many classes, it is difficult to say what you come out of it with,” he said, “but with this class you have something tangible that you can show other people and say ‘I made this with my own blood, sweat, tears and time, and I can carry it with me and show it to anyone who wants to see it,’ and that is an incredibly wonderful feeling.”

Harris says she and Talbot learned a lot from speaking with the women at the facility documented in their film. They also learned a lot about filmmaking during their experience.

“We learned so many excellent technical skills, gleaned stylistic knowledge, learned to operate documentary equipment, and did a ton of research and critiquing other films,” Harris said.

Harris and Godsy would both recommend the class to other students, though they also agree that it requires a large time investment.

“You become so enamored with your film,” Godsy says, “that you very rarely, if ever, see it as work or as school.”

Email: hwebber@uab.edu