Last weekend, students from the Digital Media & Journalism Department celebrated their hard work at the Woodstock Film Festival.
The following is a message from Gregory Bray, DMJ department chair:
In six short days, students created 20 + videos for the Woodstock Film Festival, covering the festival for the organization’s YouTube page. This is the 13th festival that we have been involved in. The Festival, along with its sister organization, The Hudson Valley Film Commission, has SUNY New Paltz in its DNA. From their interns, operations staff, volunteers, photographers, and videographers, you’ll find many SUNY New Paltz students and alumni working in their offices and on location.
This year was a particular challenge as Covid-19 caused the festival to be mostly virtual, with nightly double features at three drive-in locations: Overlook Drive-in in Poughkeepsie, the Greenville Drive-in in Greenville, and a pop-up Drive-In in Woodstock. Our students covered the drive-in events with the help of Associate Professor Gregg Bray at Greenville, DMJ (’19) graduate and Woodstock Assistant Ops Manager Zach Bell in Woodstock, and Assistant Professor Megan Sperry at Overlook. We had to be mindful of social distancing, mask-wearing, and had wipes and hand-sanitizer on hand as well.
In addition, Professor Megan Sperry works as Director of the WFF Summer Youth Film Lab, whose work has been posted on Woodstock Film Festival’s YouTube page.
Meira Blaustein, co-founder and executive director of the Festival, thanked professors Bray and Sperry for their contributions.
“I wanted to give special thanks to your students. They played an integral role in this year’s film festival and have become a part of our essential crew.
Please give them all our deepest thanks, and let me know if there is anything we can do for them.
Megan, thanks again for being a true and integral part of this year’s festival also, couldn’t have done it without you!
We are very lucky to have the support of you, Gregg, you, Megan, and the SUNY digital media team! Teamwork makes the dream work.”
Photos provided by Megan Sperry from the Overlook events.