Congratulations to our students for their Award of Excellence at the Broadcast Education Association International Festival of Media Arts: Erin Wolcott, Conner Sweeney, George Catechis & Jillian Pugliese, SUNY New Paltz (all Digital Media Production majors, class of 2020). Their Documentary short film, Ben (Not the Fish), earned this highly competitive prize during one of the most unusual years in our world’s history.
Ben was produced as the students’ capstone project in Seminar in Digital Filmmaking, Spring 2020. It was a turbulent semester, as the students had to quickly transition to an online format mid-way through, just after the water issue caused the campus to close for a week in February.
Despite these challenges, students created meaningful and compelling work. And it’s such a joy seeing their work earn recognition from such a prestigious international organization. The film premiered at the Hudson Valley Film Festival (held in a drive-in this summer) and has enjoyed being selected for several film festivals after. The film’s poster and link to the documentary below.
Please join in extending our congratulations to the students! Click the poster to view the film on YouTube: