Ohio State film studies on stepping stones to expanded programs

Danielle Seamon
Thu, 28 Aug 2014 04:54:10 +0000
Campus, alan berliner, john davidson, nobody's business, rescue in philippines, same name syndrome, sweetest sound, wide awake

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For the film studies program at Ohio State, the events scheduled for fall semester aim the spotlight towards the future.

The eight-year-old program is in the planning stages of what John Davidson, the director of film studies at OSU and a professor in Germanic language and literatures, calls a “moving image production unit” on campus — a stepping stone to what Davidson ultimately says he hopes leads to a new major option for OSU students interested in production.

“We’re really pretty convinced that our people who are really successful at (production) would use a place like OSU because of what it has to offer in terms of critical and historical knowledge and contact with people, too, to make themselves better,” Davidson said. “It’s a lot better than just going to vocation school.”

Davidson said the goal is to develop a Bachelor of Fine Arts in moving image production at OSU surrounding four modes of production, including experimental, animation, documentary and narrative. This semester, he said, will be dedicated to searching for a senior filmmaker to work with OSU’s film studies program’s administration and other departments within the university and develop potential curriculum.

He reiterated, though, the entire project is a work in process.

In the immediate future, the film studies program plans to bring to campus numerous guest directors and scholars in American cinema and gender studies issues — among other genres — as well as put on film screenings for all OSU students during the fall semester.

Experimental documentary filmmaker Alan Berliner is a director of considerable note, Davidson said, who will be stopping by in November. While at OSU, Berliner — who is known for such documentaries as “Wide Awake” and “Nobody’s Business” — is set screen his 2001 documentary “The Sweetest Sound,” which explores Same Name Syndrome (being mistaken for someone with a similar name), as well as speak to an Intro to Documentary class.

Additionally, the film studies program will screen the documentary “Rescue in Philippines” for the first time in the state during November’s Jewish Film Festival in Bexley.

OSU’s film studies program also plans to bring in Australian filmmaker Richard Tuohy on Oct. 15, film professor and practitioner Jodie Mack on Oct. 22, experimental filmmaker Vincent Grenier on Oct. 29 and German documentary filmmaker Andreas Voigt on Nov. 17, among others. Details of the events’ times and locations are yet to be determined.

Full schedules of OSU’s film studies program for the fall are available at film-studies.osu.edu.

This is the fourth of five stories The Lantern will run this week previewing the upcoming works of Ohio State’s arts programs. The series also includes music, theater, fine arts and dance.