Author Archives: Rosalynne Whitaker-Heck

Filmmaking Major Wins Student New England Emmys

The Boston/New England division of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced that Shirley Reid, a senior Filmmaking major, has won two Student New England Emmys. Reid was the winner in the Animation/Graphics/Special Effects category as producer/director and designer, as well as the winner in the Audio/Sound category as sound designer.

Filmmaking Senior Shirley Reid wins two student Emmys

Reid pulls her inspiration for her work from a worldview philosophy. “There is a ballet of crisis and spectacle inherent in my world view. The struggle between beauty and war, generosity and greed, ecstasy and terror, narrowed into meaningful minutiae is what I strive to explore with video and digital media,” says Reid.

She also credits mentors Gordon Glover, Malcolm Francis, Eric Sample, Julia Swift, Kevin Murakami and Gary Scudder, who she says she owes “a renewed sense of awe in the splendor of people, even my fellow students, and the rest of earth’s wonders and agonies.” Reid was surprised that she has been honored this way, but despite taking the road less traveled by, she believes in her message:  “Be vigilant and grateful. I look for the moment when my actors engage in themselves and the moment.  As the Buddhist saying goes: you cannot invite wind, but you must leave the window open.”

 

Champlain College Student Showcase Premieres on Vermont PBS

Promo Video

The Division of Communication and Creative Media at Champlain College and Vermont PBS have partnered to present a one-hour broadcast premiere of Champlain College Student Showcase to air on Vermont PBS at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 2. The program, which is a collection of 12 student-produced works by 17 Broadcast Media Production and Filmmaking majors, will be part of Vermont PBS’ Made Here segment which “defines a broad range of content from local filmmakers, allowing Vermont PBS to share a wider range of local stories as seen through many different eyes.” Coordinators of the Champlain College Student Showcase are Senior Manager of Local Content- Vermont PBS Eric Ford and Professor Van Dora Williams, program director of Broadcast Media Production, Filmmaking and Sonic Arts at Champlain College. http://current.org/2016/12/with-made-here-initiative-vermont-pbs-homes-in-on-locally-sourced-programming/

The Champlain College Student Showcase line-up:

Student ProducersProject Titles
Kaylee Mumford, Veronica Minor, Caroline NollVermont Symphony Orchestra Green Room
Caleb Cioffi and Spencer PearsonBurlington Records
Olivia LyonsMural Project
Olivia Lyons12 Hour Comics Day
Alex SabatellRising Stars in Burlington Music
Kamerin StroudSerenity
Tyler KillerCircles
Sean GoodwinRule 3
Dillan HodakCelluloid Stories
Christa BennettSTEM
Katherine Lawrence, John Amigo, Scott Nickerson, Kirsten PottsOld Spokes Home
Ryland ChinPine Island Community Farm

 Additional Champlain College Student Showcase Airings:

Thursday, March 2, 8 p.m. on Vermont PBS
Friday, March 3, 2 a.m. on Vermont PBS
Wednesday, March 8, 8 p.m. on Vermont PBS Plus
Wednesday, March 8, 8 p.m. on Vermont PBS Plus
Saturday, March 18, 2:30 p.m. on Vermont PBS Plus
Saturday, March 18, 2:30 p.m. on Vermont PBS Plus
Thursday, March 30, 9 p.m. on Vermont PBS Plus
Thursday, March 30, 9 p.m. on Vermont PBS Plus

 

Rhea Hayes Selected as Al Roker Entertainment Intern

Broadcast Media Production Senior selected as intern for Al Roker Entertainment

Broadcast Media Production Senior selected as intern for Al Roker Entertainment

You may be familiar with the name Al Roker, the Emmy-winning host and weatherman of NBC’s Today Show. He also is the CEO of Al Roker Entertainment, Inc. (ARE) http://www.alroker.com/ and Rhea Hayes, a Broadcast Media Production rising senior will be an intern with the multimedia company in the Fall. Rhea, who will live in New York City for the internship, will be researching new ideas/concepts and following trends online, pitching ideas, and assisting producers. Rhea credits her Broadcast instructor, Keith Oppenheim, for her training on the school’s Tricaster live streaming system that she says gave her a competitive edge since ARE also uses a Tricaster for its productions.

David Rocchio, Founder of Stowe Story Labs presents fellowship awards to filmmaking majors with Dean Willoquet-Maricondi.

Champlain College celebrated the success of its stellar students in the Division of Communication and Creative Media (CCM) by awarding $1,000 CCM Dean’s Scholarships for eligible returning undergraduate students and 10 CCM Excel Awards for graduating seniors.

The recognitions took place during the Honors Night ceremony on Thursday, April 13 at Champlain College. The event featured a Star Art reception where the honorees and their guests mingled with student artists who painted watercolor works of celestial-themed art on site.

In addition, winners of the annual Vermont Association of Broadcasters Scholarship were announced, as well as recipients of the Stowe Story Lab Fellowships for aspiring filmmakers presented by Founder David Rocchio, and the CCM Dean’s Choice Award for the college’s second annual 2017 Juried Student Exhibition.

“We are tremendously proud of our CCM students’ accomplishments. Honors Night is an opportunity to publicly recognize and celebrate their talent and hard work, and their dedication to serving Champlain’s mission of being ‘the finest small, globally and professional focused college in the United States,” says Paula Willoquet-Maricondi, Dean of CCM.

See the photos from the event HERE

CCM Dean’s Scholarship winners: Broadcast Media Production Major – Kirsten Potts, Sophomore; Communication Major – Jessica Shultz, Sophomore; Creative Media Major – Jeremy Partyka, Junior; Filmmaking Major – Simeon Pol, Junior; Game Art & Animation Major – Colton Orr, Junior; Game Design Major – Amanda Gates, Sophomore; Graphic Design & Digital Media Major – Rachel Farrell, Sophomore; Professional Writing Major – Jordan Upshaw, Sophomore; and Public Relations Major – Jadelynn Ye, Junior.

CCM Senior Excel Award winners: Dillon Delogue, Broadcast Media Production Major; Sarah Steward, Communication Major; Ricky Rizzo, Creative Media Major; Gillian Racine, Filmmaking Major; Emma Campbell, Game Art & Animation Major; Levi Rohr, Game Design Major; Zachary Denis, Graphic Design & Digital Media Major; Sarah Wilkinson, Professional Writing Major; Margaret Kuchinski, Public Relations Major; and Laura Fillbach, MFA in Emergent Media Major.

Dean’s CCM Choice Award – Juried Student Art Exhibition winner: McKenzie Brandon, Sophomore – Creative Media Major

Stowe Story Labs Fellowship winners: Cassandra Crowley, Senior – Filmmaking Major and
Brian Holder, Junior – Filmmaking Major

Vermont Association of Broadcasters Scholarship winners: McKenzie Cordell, Junior – Broadcast Media Production Major; Noah Kidney, Junior – Broadcast Media Production Major; Kaylee Mumford, Junior – Broadcast Media Production Major; John (Spencer) Pearson, Junior – Broadcast Media Production Major

ChampTalk Presents “Free Speech in the Classroom”

The second live event in the groundbreaking “ChampTalk” series will tackle a hot-button issue both on the Champlain campus and nationwide: free speech in the classroom.

The event, which is free, will take place in Champlain College’s Alumni Auditorium on Thursday, April 6 at 8:30 p.m. and will feature two speakers: CCM Assistant Dean Dr. Eric Ronis, and Special Assistant to the Provost, Diversity and Inclusion in Academics, and Jade Ye, a junior public relations major and Lead Student Ambassador. Ye will be speaking on “Freedom of Communication and the Responsibility of Listening” and Ronis will be speaking on “Redeeming The Unreasonable: Free and Familial Discourse in the College Classroom.”

Ronis has been researching the state of inclusion in Champlain classrooms for a year now. His speech draws on this as well as his lifetime of experiences as a performance artist, gay rights advocate, and academic. Ye’s speech compares how public relations professionals are taught to skillfully communicate with what she has observed in her classrooms at Champlain.  Both talks aim to enlighten the audience on how to strengthen the climate of freedom of speech on campus specifically through the art of listening.

In the fall of 2016, President of the College Donald Laackman released his personal statement on his views on the topic in which he said, “A college or university must be a place where members of the community explore ideas without inhibition and pursue knowledge without hesitation,” but that “threats, harassment or disruptions of fundamental functions undercut the respect we should afford each other and cannot be permitted.” The talk’s goal is to further open these discussions, and Ronis and Ye will be giving both the faculty and student perspectives on this complex topic.

About ChampTalk

The event was created by a group of students in Champlain’s Publishing in the 21st Century class who were inspired by the flood of discussions regarding free speech on college campuses. The “ChampTalk” is directly inspired by the infamous “TedTalk,” and operates in the same format. The talks are about 15 minutes each, will each give a personal perspective on the topic, and are delivered in a narrative style that engages the audience. For more information, contact Maggie Bean at maggie.bean@mymail.champlain.edu.

Ti Laurent, is a 2015 film directed by Champlain College Assistant Professor of Film John Rasmussen premiering Thursday, March 30, 7 p.m., at Main Street Landing Film House in Burlington.  He will be in attendance at the screening to introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.

Film Director John Rasmussen

Ti Laurent centers on a young, poor boy (Pedro Bellabe) who is fighting for survival. Scenes were shot on the streets of the La Savane section of Les Cayes, the most impoverished region in southern Haiti. A review of Ti Laurent was recently reviewed in Seven Days.  For ticket information, visit The Vermont International Film Foundation website: vtiff.org

Rasmussen is a filmmaker working in narrative, documentary and experimental forms.  His work ranges from project documentation for organizations such as Oxfam, The United Nations Ethical Fashion Initiative and Americorps to grassroots local narrative filmmaking in the U.S. and Haiti.

Rasmussen’s work has been exhibited in festivals in Mexico, Haiti, France, Canada, China and the United States.  He has taught a wide variety of courses in filmmaking at The University of Miami, Miami International University of Art and Design, Le Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince and founded a film group in the low-income neighborhood of La Savane in Les Cayes, Haiti.

 

 Under the Influence Accepted for Publication

Under the Influence, a collection of poems, short fiction, and creative non-fiction by Professional Writing Professor J.C. Ellefson has been accepted for publication by Fomite Press. Ellefson’s poetry has been published throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Japan, and he has taught writing and literature at Shanghai University and the Universidade Dos Acores. He holds a BA from Penn State University and an MFA from Norwich University.

“Welcome to Vermont: Four Stories of Resettled Identity”

The Core Division of Champlain College will host a screening and discussion of the documentary film “Welcome to Vermont: Four Stories of Resettled Identity” on Monday, March 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Perry Presentation Room in Perry Hall. It is free and open to the public.

“Welcome to Vermont: four stories of resettled identity,” a 65-minute documentary, offers a nuanced view of lives of forcibly displaced people once they have achieved their ultimate desire to resettle in the US and “live the American dream.” In four vignettes, it takes us inside the daily lives of four families from Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, and Rwanda who have recently resettled in Vermont, one of the smallest and most homogeneous states in the country. The documentary raises questions about identity, assimilation, and diversity and explores how the adaptation process differs from one ethnic group to another, from one individual to the next.

The filmmaker, Mira Niagolova, who teaches part-time in the Communication and Creative Media Division at Champlain, will join a panel discussion afterward, along with Kesha Ram, Vermont House of Representatives, and Rev. Susan Cooke Kittredge, associate pastor, Charlotte Congregationalist Church.

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Swift Reviews “The Great Wall”

Champlain College Filmmaking Assistant Professor Julia Swift reviewed the Matt Damon monster film The Great Wall on Local 44 Morning Brew. The film, directed by Zhang Yimou, is the largest production ever filmed entirely in China. The movie is rated PG-13. Swift appears weekly as a movie reviewer on The Box Office segment, a production of Fox TV-WFFF’s Local 44 Morning Brew. See the movie review here:  The Great Wall . 

Swift Recaps Oscar Surprises

Champlain College Filmmaking Assistant Professor Julia Swift and film critic shares her thoughts on the winners of the 89th Academy Awards. She also discusses the end of the night’s Best Picture blunder and Jimmy Kimmel’s performance as Host. Swift appears weekly as a movie reviewer on The Box Office segment, a production of Fox TV-WFFF’s Local 44 Morning Brew. See the review here: Oscars Review