Welcome to Alumni Live: The Podcast.

These are conversations with Grand Valley State University film and video

graduates about the industry, the film, video, major and alumni profiles.

Hey folks, welcome to another episode of Alumni Live.

My name is Spencer Everhart.

I'm here as an alum.

I graduated in 2012 from the film and video program at Grand Valley,

but I'm also actually a frequent instructor in the program.

I'm also a member of the Grand Rapids Film Society, an organizing

committee who puts on the screenings and community events and everything

else that the Film Society does.

And I am here to talk about that.

And I'm joined by a couple of fellow members of the Film Society committee to

dig into a lot of the community building efforts that we put on, how we're trying

to shift Grand Rapids and even West Michigan in terms of its film culture and

film community, get more people involved, both Grand Valley students, alums, and

otherwise, and to try and keep pushing, the film culture forward in the area.

And so I'm joined by a couple of folks here that I'd like

to have introduce themselves.

These are dear friends of mine who I've been working with for a while, and they

have played an important role not only in terms of the development of Grand Valley's

alumni presence but also specifically with the Grand Rapids Film Society.

So I will pass it off first to Nick.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Nicholas Hartman, graduated Grand Valley in 2012.

And I am now Wealthy Theater's Film Curator and also the President

of the Grand Rapids Film Society.

Hi guys, my name is Breana Malloy.

I graduated in 2021 and I am a Producer based in Grand Rapids.

I work on narrative film, feature shorts, but my day job is a Producer at a local

production company and I'm also their integrator and I am a member of the

Grand Rapids Film Society committee.

yeah, I became a part of the Grand Rapids Film Society committee about

one or two years ago now, helping out with community events, and it's been a

wonderful part of my life ever since.

My name is Jackson Ezinga and I graduated from the film

program at Grand Valley in 2013.

I'm also a committee member for the Grand Rapids Film Society.

I'm a full time freelance filmmaker.

I get hired to work mainly in production, such as assistant directing, production

coordinating, producing, and directing.

I also own my own production company called Ezo Productions in Grand Rapids.

Happy to be here to talk about Film Society.

And so obviously we're all here today because we are part of

the organizing committee behind the Grand Rapids Film Society.

The Film Society itself has existed for a number of years in various forms and

at various levels of activity in Grand Rapids, but the most recent version

of it is the one that we're a part of, which is entering its third year, and

is generally housed at Wealthy Theater.

And is a broader effort to try and put on not just screening events at Wealthy

Theatre, show cool movies, bring people together to watch them in that wonderful

historic space, but also to put on different social community events to

bring people together, maybe get people, together to collaborate on film projects.

But maybe also to just meet fellow like minded film lovers.

There's a lot of different aspects to what film society is doing.

There's also a lot of ideas that we have about where we can take

it to make it bigger and better and keep growing the film culture

and community in West Michigan.

First thing, I think, film screenings.

That's a big part of what we do.

In many ways, it's the core of what we try to provide for the community

in terms of showcasing films.

Some new ones, but mainly looking back into film history.

So, In terms of film screenings, film programming as part of our mission.

I wanted to have Nick speak a little bit about that since he is the

Film Curator at Wealthy but also, of course, as you mentioned, the

leader of the Film Society itself.

In terms of programming, for Grand Rapids Film Society, I personally want

to make it as democratic as possible, and bringing on like minded people . And that

goes in so many different variations.

One thing I think is really fun that we do is just saying, hey, we want

to play this movie, and this is why we want to play this movie, because

we can sell it to an audience, we can get people excited about it.

We say, hey, we want to do fun series, so coming up in January,

we're doing Michael Manuary, really unique events to get people excited.

So when it comes to programming, at the end of the day, it's bringing like minded

people that are excited and passionate to put on the best movies on the big screen.

Definitely and I'll add to that too saying that there's been ever since the

sort of post pandemic film programming world has kicked back into gear, there's

been a lot of talk, especially in bigger cities much larger than Grand Rapids,

about repertory film blowing up and lots of people wanting to go see older films.

Part of that might be, maybe exhaustion with the newer films that are coming out.

But, a lot of interest, especially amongst younger people, in going to

the theater to see older films and getting together in that communal space.

And I feel like, the film society is definitely riding that wave.

And we've seen it.

I feel like we've seen it with attendance.

We've seen it in terms of interest.

There is a real kind of culture, or there's something in the air

right now with people wanting to look back at film history.

, And I think in terms of some of the programming, that we've tried to put

on the screen, we've been able to see that interest and we've been able to

see that kind of help us build something

I can definitely say, back in July, I went to Art House Convergence, and Art House

Convergence is this giant conference of film exhibitors and film distributors.

You get this opportunity to listen to all these different panels and

there's one panel specifically about repertory screenings.

You had so many theaters and distributors talking about how

big repertory is right now.

And a lot of studios that were there like A24 and Neon we're having a hard

time competing with repertory screenings.

There's a whole conversation about it.

People revisiting these classics.

And then people that are getting older, bringing their kids, they grew

up watching these movies, now they want to share them with their kids

. Repertory is really big right now.

I've even experienced it with things that we've screened where there's

an older movie that I missed when it was in theaters or I was too

young to go to theaters to see it.

And I hadn't seen it yet.

And for people who love going to the theater, seeing an older movie that

you missed your chance to catch on the big screen, it's cool to be able

to provide that experience for people including myself, but, I've talked to

a lot of people, who've come to our screenings who have said similar things.

So I mentioned earlier that in addition to screenings, the Film Society is

also actively involved in trying to put on what we generally call

social events or community events.

And that's a pretty important aspect of what we're trying to do

in terms of community building.

It's not just that we want to get people into the theater to hang out, watch a

movie, maybe talk about it but there's a lot more going on there as well.

Firstly, I would say one of the things that Film Society has taken on as a

part of this is Open Projector Night.

And Open Projector Night is a seasonal film festival that's existed in

Grand Rapids for many years and it existed in previous versions and

at different locations before but in the post pandemic world and with

the creation of this new version of the Film Society, Open Projector

Night was taken up and revitalized.

And myself and Jackson and Nick, who are here talking, have been a part

of Open Projector Night for many years, and it's now become a pretty

big part of what Film Society offers.

So I was wondering if Jackson, if you could talk a little bit about that, maybe

in terms of the idea behind it, what it is, and also how you see it fitting

into this community building aspect.

Yeah.

So I got involved with Open Projector Night, in its previous iteration, when

it was hosted at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts downtown.

And for a while, that's where we were holding this quarterly seasonal film

festival where we take submissions from filmmakers that have some kind

of connection to Michigan, either, if it was made here or if there's

a filmmaker who say lives in L.

A.

or even in another country who used to live in Michigan, or if

somebody somewhere made a film that is about Michigan or takes place

there, or references it in some way.

Just a local showcase of independent short films.

And the reason it's called Open Projector Night evolved from its first show.

Its first show was almost a gong night for karaoke where it's like you bring

your hard drive up there, your flash drive and you plug it in and play it until

you get kicked off, but now it does run more like a traditional film festival.

We usually curate a program that's about 90 minutes or so.

Nick and I have described it as a cinematic mixtape where

we play any type of film.

We play narrative fiction stuff, documentaries, animations,

music videos, experimental work.

We've even played some really creative, commercial and, corporate work before.

But it's just a great way to get a bunch of filmmakers and people who

love film in a theater watching these independent films up on the big screen.

And then we always do a Q & A afterwards with any attending

filmmakers and have an audience vote where we offer prizes for the first,

second, and third audience choice.

So that's in a nutshell, what we do, and we've been doing it for

a while, like over 10 years now.

It's great cause you never really know what you're going to get as

programmers ourselves, we never know what we're going to get.

And then the audience walks in just knowing the titles, and

the filmmakers who made them.

And then they're treated to this eclectic mix of independent short cinema.

I always try to put myself in the mindset of a student or someone that wants to

get interested in film and look at it from the outside to make it better.

And I always think, man, if I was a student, if I was on the outside

and I saw this program, I would be thrilled, because you're bringing so

many people together and it's not just about playing your film on the big

screen in front of a live audience.

It's a way to connect with other filmmakers around you.

It's a way to get inspired.

And, it's all about community building.

That's one of my favorite aspects.

Definitely.

And I'll say too, for my own part, as an attendee.

just over the years to see the work that we get and what we end up showcasing,

it is meant to be a spotlight on West Michigan mainly, but there's also a lot of

far flung filmmakers connected to Michigan in some way, but even if they're from

here, maybe they went to Grand Valley, maybe they're coming out of Detroit.

Wherever it is, the amount of talent and the quality of the

work that is out there is amazing.

It's an amazing showcase of what is being created here, and how many different

people are involved in filmmaking, especially really low budget, personal

kind of small scale filmmaking.

And I think to your point, Nick, thinking about maybe like students or just young

people in general who might come and see that, and then they get the filmmaker up

on stage talking about how they made it and they might be talking about how tough

it was because they didn't have any money or they didn't have any resources and they

just talk about we did it anyway because we wanted to, and we were able to do it

because I have a team of people I trust.

And to be able to get people on the screen, but also on the stage

and share that kind of information to folks who maybe are interested

but not sure where to start.

We'll usually ask the filmmakers what kind of advice would you give to young,

artists or filmmakers or film students?

And almost all of them are like just do it.

Just figure out a way to do it, don't let any kind of boundaries

or personal hindrances you think you have stop you or be put in your way.

When you hear filmmakers say that, and then you see the work

that they've done and it's on the screen, it's pretty inspiring.

And I think it does a lot for, again, going back to this idea of

building a community and getting people aware of what's going on.

And then just one more thing that I want to add is you also never know,

what could come from the films that screen at Open Projector Night.

Really early on, we actually had one of the original short films of Marcel

the Shell, which is now a A24 film, play in the program because one of

the crew members was from Michigan.

And then also recently we had, Lindsay Normington, direct and act in a film

that won the audience choice vote.

And now she is in, the film, Nora, which won, the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year.

It's independent stuff.

A lot of it's low budget and small, but you never know where the people

that make these films are going to go.

I'm a huge music fan, and you hear stories about CBGB or Nirvana

playing these small venues, and then they become giant rock stars.

And it's like, I would love to hear the success story of yeah, I put my

first film in OPN, in that venue.

And then they're giant filmmakers, this is a fun thing to think about.

In addition to Open Projection Night under the umbrella of social events,

community events, we have some more regular recurring monthly or semi

monthly things that we put on as well.

Some of these events, involve what we call Round Tables.

We also put on a thing called Pitch Night and a thing called Rough Cut Night.

So Breana, I wanted to ask you about these, you play a very

central role in the organization and running of these types of events.

So I was wondering if you could talk maybe a little bit about each

of these, what they are, how they work and how, they fit into this.

Yeah, so this was actually pivotal to me joining the board.

I remember talking to Spencer, at an event and I was like, I have all these

ideas that I've learned from all my different business conferences that

I go to that work sends me to, and I'd love to bring it to a creative

space to bring people together.

And he was like, okay, come pitch it to the board.

And so I came, pitched it.

They liked it.

I spearheaded it at the very beginning, but I will really say it's a team

effort with everybody on the board now.

So yeah, we started with Round Tables.

It was something I took from my time working in leadership Round Tables.

It's where, specifically for me, it's women in leadership.

We would go to these Round Tables and talk about issues and how to work through them.

And I was like, why don't filmmakers have that?

And so I wanted to bring it here and we workshopped it and found a

way for it to work for filmmaking.

And so we usually split it up into cinephiles, general

filmmaking, and screenwriting.

And it gives people a chance to not only if they have issues,

bring them up or talk through, but also just meet other people in the

community and talk about their craft.

Because for a lot of these people, it's not their day job.

They have 2, 3 jobs.

And so it's just nice to be around people who love what they're

doing and want to talk about it.

And then we had screenwriters saying, Hey, I've written all these scripts.

I need help figuring out how to present these to people.

So the committee went back to the table and we were like,

all right, how do we do this?

And we were talking a lot about how pitches happen.

Pitches are a real thing in filmmaking.

And we're like, why don't we just start that here and do a practice Pitch Night?

And we started allowing roughly four filmmakers to

come in, with a presentation.

We time them.

They get to pitch their idea and we have panelists that are filmmakers in the

community, who have pitched themselves.

Just this last one, we had a filmmaker who works at the news and makes short films.

We had a filmmaker who runs one of the companies in town and then a Producer

in AD at another company in town.

We just bring people from all walks of life together.

They have the chance to pitch their work and have people sign up to work on it.

And then Lastly, we have Rough Cut Night, which we had talked about a

little in our committee meetings.

Matt Everett, who is amazing, wanted to spearhead it and I was like, thank you.

I'm a Producer.

I do not understand technical stuff.

So I don't think I'm the best person to run this event.

And so I talked a lot with him in the conceptual stages,

but he's done a great job.

It's just a time where people can come, they've shot a film, they've got an

edit and they want to show a part of it.

I think we show up five minutes.

And the audience is allowed to give feedback and tell them

what's working and what's not.

And it just all around makes a better film at the end of the

day, hopefully, for everyone.

I just love how there was like a natural progression from talking

to getting the word out there.

And then.

showing the results of these ideas that were discussed and pitched.

And now here they are on screen.

And the idea was to have this pipeline.

Round Table to Pitch Night is definitely like a lot of people do that, but, Breana,

can you think of anyone that's done like Round Table, Pitch Night, Rough Cut Night?

I know there's two examples that I can think of.

I don't think she's gone through all of them, but Taylor, she came to the first

Round Table, came to everyone since and she ended up making friends from Round

Table who were like, I'll edit the film.

I'll do this for the film.

So she met her entire crew through Round Table and then did two different

Pitch Nights for her feature.

She came with an idea and she would workshop it with the screenwriting group.

She met filmmakers in the general filmmaking group and then she pitched

her movie and has met an entire group of probably 10, 15 people that

they're helping her make this movie.

So it's very cool.

But Neil, who came to our Round Tables, he's an older gentleman,

retired, and he was having trouble.

He had no idea how to edit.

He came in and he was like, guys, I don't know how to process film.

He had gone to Paris when Jean Luc Godard had died and he had this cool

film he wanted to show and make, and he couldn't, he didn't even know how to edit.

And so we were like, here's resources that can teach you how to edit for free.

You can borrow laptops.

We showed him how to get his film processed he did all of that, edited

his movie because he was so inspired and then it got accepted to OPN.

So yeah, not Rough Cut Night or Pitch Night, but it was really

inspiring to see, and he turned it all around in two, three months.

It was just beautiful.

I will say, the most exciting thing about these community

events is just seeing everybody connect and just become friends.

We cannot, fund all these movies and just make every movie happen, but

what we can do is connect people so they can lift each other up, and I

think that's one of the most rewarding parts of doing this and volunteering.

I think about that a lot and I think it really shows the community events

show that like cinema goes beyond the screen, goes beyond the theater.

It bleeds into your communities.

Then you see our community come together.

You have your writers, your screenwriters and cinephiles, and everyone come

together in these rooms to talk about movies, to get movies made.

It's just a beautiful thing.

Absolutely, and that actually segues into the next thing that I wanted to talk

about and ask everybody to reflect on is the idea of the impact of all this.

I mean, I think when each of us joined this crew and started to become active

in it, we're constantly thinking about and even talking about in our

discussions how this is going to serve people I think, what you all

were just saying is a big part of how it impacts filmmakers in the area.

I can say for my part in terms of film screenings, or even at our Round

Table that Breana was describing, we'll often break up into different

groups based on a topic or an interest.

And one of them is just a cinephile group.

So it's if you're not necessarily a filmmaker, or maybe you are, but

you'd rather just sit down and talk about movies, maybe something you

watched recently, or maybe there's a particular, topic that you want to

discuss with some people in the area.

We'll just get together and hang out and talk about movies.

It's been really nice to see the amount of people who will just show up to

one of these because they hear about it because they just want to meet

people who share a common interest.

They want to get in a room, sit down with other people in a real space

and share that interest and discuss or just engage with other people.

And in a time when that is easier to do than ever before through digital means,

I think it speaks volumes that people are interested in doing it in a real.

living space, with folks who are in the area.

So I think the non filmmaker side of things, just the film lover, film fan,

it's been really nice to see people who had no idea that film society was

the thing, but that there were so many other people in the area who were so

interested in older movies or independent and art house films, and when you can

see that realization happen, even the kind of light bulb go off with people

being like, Oh yeah, these are sort of my people, or at least these are some of my

people, these are my movie people, that's something that is just so nice to see.

And when you see it happen in real time, you see it happen

in front of you in the room.

It really illuminates a lot of what the mission is, , of bringing people together.

But I was also curious, for all of you, if you could speak on that as well in

terms of maybe filmmakers the impact you'd hope that it would have, but also

the city in general, as a kind of broader environment in a community, what you

think the impact is, or what you hope the impact to be that film society can have.

Yeah, I have an immediate thing that comes to mind.

Outside of filmmakers, which I think is beautiful.

I've met some people that I think will be in my life for the rest of my life

just because I come to these events and I hope other people feel that,

But we've started reaching out the community more and, we just partnered

for Rushmore, with Campus Elementary.

We raised 600 for a teacher who was in need of school supplies and so that just

showed me, yes, we're filmmakers and a lot of our stuff is geared towards

film, but we can have a big impact on the community and hundreds of kids even.

And so it's just, yeah, through film, we can touch so many other parts of the city.

Not only just sharing art and older films that maybe people haven't seen

and teaching them about the films, but we can build up the community.

Movies are a way to escape the world around you.

We live in pretty difficult times, we always will, always have, but

the impact that I want to have on our community, the city, is knowing

these people, can communicate with other film lovers around them.

They can go into a movie.

They can come dressed up for one of our events.

They go to a comedy.

They laugh away the pain.

And they walk out, and they say, Hey, you know what?

I forgot about the world around me for X amount of hours.

And I got to be with people that are like in communities, I always say that

word community, but I really mean it.

It's so important.

Community creates friendships.

The impact that I want to have is creating a space for people.

I think cinema also allows people to create lasting memories for

themselves and their families.

And I think that we've put on some events that some people will never forget.

There's one in particular that we did, last summer, where we put on a screening

of The Sand Lot in a baseball field, just outside of downtown on the West side.

So many people showed up.

There was probably hundreds of people there.

And these were people, couples and families having a great

summer night, watching a classic movie in a baseball field.

And I think there's going to be a lot of people, both young and old who will

never forget something like that because it's just a little bit different than

your classic movie going experience, but it was free and open to the public and,

putting on things like that is something really special and can make a lasting

impact on people's lives and just create a fun memory for them to look back on.

It's funny because we're like part of the programmers who

are putting on these events.

And it's had a huge impact on me.

I remember that night, walking to the back of the field, had a hot

dog in my hand, a nice cold beer, and I was like, man, we did it.

This is awesome.

You know, And it was like a moment of being proud and seeing people come

together, it's just so beautiful.

Yeah, when we've had certain events that we've put on, and, we

fill Wealthy Theatre, uh, and you can feel the energy in the room.

There's nothing like it.

but There's a certain kind of energy and there's a feeling in the air when you

get people together and they find the same wavelength, you know, during a film

or even before a film when everybody's just sitting there waiting, they're

chewing their popcorn and we've got the pre show going, the music playing.

And I've definitely had those moments too.

Even those small moments where I'm in the back waiting for it to start.

Or maybe, we're doing our thing, handling the lobby and just feeling excited

and proud that we can get people to come together for this kind of thing.

One of the things that we often strive to do with our programming for screenings

in particular is to try to think of ways to make the screening special

in some way beyond just the movie.

Like showing the movies one thing and that's always great and we love to do

that, but there's anything else that we can do to make it a little more extra, a

little more special, we try to do that.

So, we did Titanic before and we tried to turn Wealthy Theater into

the Titanic, had people dress up.

We did a similar event not too long ago that Breana was a big part of where we

showed the, 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, got people to come dress up.

We had books for sale from a local bookseller related to Jane Austen.

So trying to transform the space, add something extra.

Those are the type of movie experiences, going back to your point, Jackson,

that people really remember because it's not just sitting down in

the seat and watching the movie.

There's something else going on, that adds to the experience and again, going

back to my earlier point in a time when new movies come out, you can go to the

multiplex and see them, when you come to a place like Wealthy Theatre and not

only maybe see an older, interesting film, but that there's all this other

wild, fun things happening, it's a different type of movie going experience.

And I think that makes it stand out.

It creates a kind of contrast and it makes it different and

seem a little more special.

And I'm glad that this was brought up because that was one of the other things

I wanted to ask you all about in terms of impact, but more an impact on you.

But maybe before we get to that, what motivates you to be a part of this,

or what have you been gaining from it personally by your involvement in it?

We're in year three now this whole crew and the other committee members who aren't

here with us right now, how do you see it playing a role for you and in your life?

Movies have played a role in my life since I can remember.

uh, When I was younger, I was sick at epilepsy, and suffered quite

a bit, and my only escape was laying in bed and watching movies.

And that movie for me was Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

It took me out of my pain, I felt like I was on the road with Pee Wee Herman,

that has always been a motivation for me, uh, when talking about movies and

getting people excited about movies, just providing, a space for people to forget.

And that's what honestly motivates me every single day.

And just my passion for movies.

I love movies.

I love to talk about movies with my friends.

I'm a huge horror fanatic.

I love getting together and, binging horror movies with friends

and just celebrating all that.

I would say the passion motivates me.

Absolutely.

I think it's really the same for me as long as I can remember.

Movies have been a huge part of my life, both watching and making them.

I bought my first camcorder when I think I was 11 years old

and haven't looked back since.

When Nick offered me an opportunity to come and sit on the committee

and it was at its really early stages, there was no hesitation.

I think that having something to do outside of work, that I can volunteer

my time for, that's something that I'm really passionate about, I felt like

that's something that was missing.

And so being able to participate in the Film Society almost weekly it

really gives me something to look forward to, that isn't just work and

isn't, the day to day life stuff.

It's something I'm really passionate about and just really enjoy being involved in.

It motivated me to feel that I had a sense of belonging.

I didn't know a lot about movies when I went to film school at Grand Valley.

And so I oftentimes felt insecure about the movies I liked and my

opinions, because I didn't feel like I had as much experience.

As I finished school, I was like, I really have more opinions and stuff,

and, I felt like I needed a place where I could continue to grow those.

And so I was starting to go to Film Society events and joining the

committee, it makes me excited about making movies because I think as we

get older and we get more into our careers, we're like, it's just a job.

It's a fun job.

It's reinvigorated my love for movies, but it also allows me to just continue to grow

an array of knowledge and love for movies and also helps me be confident in what

I enjoy because you guys have all taught me it's okay to like the most pretentious

movie and it's okay if you want to watch a Hallmark movie, we probably won't screen

it, but, it's okay to like everything and there's such, a vast ocean of movies.

And so I think that's what gets me the most is the community and love for movies.

Yeah, and I'll also say to touch on that, that it's been really fun to be

a part of a group of people who I think share that general idea in what we

select and what we program, we try not to discriminate, like we're just as

happy to play older, independent, even more like challenging films alongside

Hollywood block buster entertainment.

As you said the range and the diversity of cinema that's out there, all of its

different avenues and different channels has worthy valuable stuff there and we try

to grab from it all and try to provide a wider swath of offerings rather than have

a particular identity because we want to bring in, I think, as many people as

possible, and maybe that's bringing in people who wouldn't necessarily watch

one of those challenging films, but think, okay, maybe I'll give it a shot.

And then on the other side of things, maybe people who wouldn't necessarily

think to go see, one of our Summer of Sequels offerings, like the Road

Warrior or Gremlins 2, but deciding to come and being like, whoa, wait

a minute, there's something here.

I mentioned it earlier, but asking now that I was wondering if any of you do

you have any favorite experiences or any favorite stories from anything that we've

done with Film Society so far any kind of highlights that you want to mention?

One comes to my mind right away, this past October we had Open

Projection Night Halloween Edition.

And like I was saying earlier, Open Projection Night started in like 2012.

And it started off very small.

First one we had, my film was in it, and there was like

five people in the audience.

And the last one we did, Halloween Edition, I hosted it, and I was

on stage, and I looked out, and it was like an ocean of people.

And everyone was just so excited to be there and everyone was

just cheering each other on.

There was just so much love and compassion and excitement for Michigan film.

And there's like this moment of clarity was like, We did it.

It's like a field of dreams.

You build it and they will come.

And that's just how it felt.

So I would say that's my favorite experience.

We've started this annual tradition of, every year on Twin Peaks day, which is a

certain date that has meaning if you're a fan of the show Twin Peaks, directed

by David Lynch, we usually put on the first two episodes of the TV show.

We've shown the film adaptation Fire Walk With Me.

And we're planning on doing it again this coming year.

That was my favorite show growing up.

I discovered it in high school and I had this really small group of friends

that would all watch it together.

Anytime I try to talk about it with anyone else at school, everyone'd

be like, what are you talking about?

I've never heard of that.

It's an old show.

That's weird.

Whatever.

But then I just remember the first Twin Peaks day we had, which I gave

the introduction for similar to Nick.

I got up on that stage.

We are also had costume party and just a full audience of people who

loved the show or really wanted to check out what the show was.

And, think that was kind of a affirming moment for me as well.

And I feel like this has come up a lot in a lot of our answers, but it's true.

Just feeling like we're not alone in our interests and passion.

And, that screening in particular, I'll never forget.

I love a costume that makes no clear sense.

You have Lord of the Rings, we did costume contest.

I was the ring.

, , And then, Twin Peaks day, if you watch the show, I was the fish in the percolator.

I still have that costume.

And so that's a big one for me, but honestly, a big one

for me, it was Nosferatu.

It was sold out, packed like sardines in the theater . And I didn't realize

it would affect me so much, but I was just sitting there and as it's

starting to play, I got a little emotional because I was like, this

is what they talked about in school about how people used to watch movies.

They would go to a theater, the movie would play, and there

would be a live accompaniment.

I got chills, because I got to experience something that might seem

small, but is just really special.

It's like when you see your first actual film, in the theater and

you could just feel it in the room.

That's one of my favorite moments.

Yeah, that's the one I was gonna mention too.

It was Nosferatu, the original Nosferatu, a 16 millimeter film with live music.

We never done anything like that and that's not anything that's really offered

around here also so unique and special.

So many people came out for as well.

To come and watch a 1920s silent German vampire movie, was amazing, and then, to

experience it and take it all in felt, think I even said to the people around me

that it felt like once in a lifetime, but I actually don't want to say that because

we should probably just do it again.

We're taking a short break to tell you about the Dirk Koning

Memorial Film and Video scholarship.

Here's Gretchen Vinnedge remembering Dirk Koning.

The Koning Scholarship enables students to get that kind of an education, to be

a good filmmaker, to be able to express their voice and to continue Dirk's dream.

For more information, and to donate to the scholarship, visit

the link in the description.

Now, back to the show.

What type of experiences or what are some things that you learned at Grand Valley

are helping you or serving you now as a part of this Society and as a part of

trying to do this community building work?

For me, Grand Valley actually gave me confidence to speak up.

I can reflect on a couple different classes.

Film theory with Toni Perrine.

She's listening.

Love her.

She's great.

I remember getting into college and I was terrified to share my opinion.

Even though we're there to learn and actually remember a specific

class a lighting class I was taking and I felt like I didn't know what

to do and I was too embarrassed to raise my hand and ask for help.

Later down the road it kicked me in the butt because I didn't speak up

and I didn't really learn anything.

But putting my pride aside and saying we're all students.

I'm not supposed to know everything . Learn and ask questions and speak up.

And that was a general thing I've applied to my life.

With the film industry or what I'm doing as a film programmer.

Or working with you guys as a committee.

If I don't understand what you're trying to say, well I'm gonna ask you a question.

And that just makes everything easier.

I totally resonate with that as well because I feel like I was extroverted

in high school, but then once I got into college where I barely knew anybody, I

went back into my shell a little bit.

The classes that I took, especially in the film program where you're creating work

and then putting it up for critique, and collaborating with other students, and

having to communicate your vision and your story to people who you might not even

know, was huge in helping me break back out of my shell that I put myself into.

The collaborative, group projects that a lot of the film classes

have helped me tremendously, both professionally and, when we meet

as a committee, because we are all collaborating towards the same goal.

And even when there's miscommunication or, issues arise, we're all there

to work that out and continue forward and, put on the best events

that we can at the Film Society.

I think for me, like I said, I knew nothing about film.

So going to Grand Valley, first of all, I learned basic knowledge right there.

My freshman year, I still didn't really know much.

Sophomore year, I started to really figure stuff out . The thing that

really impacted me and helped me a lot was meeting like minded people and

just learning to be in that space.

Confidence was a part of it, like Nick said, and just honestly

being able to network and conceptualize projects with people.

I just think Grand Valley along with the education also gave me a

lot of opportunities that helped me succeed early on in my career.

Meeting professors like Spencer and Suzanne and Joel, who I'm now

friends with and working with on committees is, such a special thing.

I just feel like my time there really helped build me up as a

filmmaker and as a person, along with the technical knowledge.

So that is going to lead me into, a classic question, what advice

do you have for current students?

Come to Grand Rapids Film Society events.

I would say outside of that, find your own communities where you are.

If you are out in Allendale or you are downtown, a place like the Grand Rapids

Film Society is great and encourage you to come, but also having a more

close knit group of people that can function on a similar level, but, more

interpersonally, just having friends, and, close collaborators that you

can bounce ideas off of, experiment with, film and video techniques and

things like that outside of class.

I feel like when I was at Grand Valley, I was just always trying to

find people who were making stuff.

And trying to volunteer on projects that were being made for

classes that I wasn't even in.

And I think that is how I was able to find a community.

When I was at Grand Valley.

I think that is what set me up to have the career that I have right now as

a freelancer, where I was just always trying to find out, okay, who's shooting

what and where, how do I get involved?

The advice I would give is always remain and be yourself.

Whatever you're interested in, whatever you like, apply it to your art.

Don't let anyone else intimidate you, if tons of kids are making a

certain type of film, don't feel like you have to make that film,

because everyone else is doing it.

Find your own voice, be who you want to be, and celebrate who you are.

Take

So my one thing I'm choosing is something that I just have felt

has come back around many times.

And as a producer and as a boss of people at my job, is just to genuinely

care about people and try to be a good person every day and take care of

the people that are working with you.

You don't make a lot of money all the time.

A lot of times you just make stuff with your friends and you help each other out

and it's, oh, this is a passion project.

Just genuinely care about the people make sure they're fed.

Make sure they feel appreciated on set.

I think those things are the things that at the end of the day matter to me

the most and I want people to feel when they're on a set that I'm producing.

You will go much further in life if you just genuinely care about

people and do the right thing.

I think maybe I'll say something I think about a lot, especially as someone who

is in the program still as an instructor.

The thing I think about and the thing I have told some students when this

comes up is, and this is hard to do.

This is one of those things that's coming from an older person

who's been there trying to tell a younger person who's in it.

Try to appreciate it while you're there, it's difficult because when you're in

it's the hardest thing to do, right?

But try to realize that when you're in film school you're in

an extremely unique environment.

You are surrounded by people who are there trying to do the same,

or at least similar things as you.

Those people are possible collaborators, creative partners, artistic comrades.

You are also given access to resources.

I'm talking about cameras and computers, the actual stuff

that it takes to make films.

You're never going to find this again, really, when you finish school and

you go out into the world, you're not going to find what is essentially a

filmmaking collective or almost filmmaking kind of commune like environment.

Although, I will say, some of the stuff I think we're trying to do with

Film Society is trying to build that outside of a school environment and

trying to allow people who are in the public, to access those things and

have that type of experience, but it's just something that is so unique and

not really available anywhere else.

And so I guess my advice with that in mind is like, just try to take advantage of it.

Do everything you can, try to use all the equipment that you can try to meet

as many people and just do as much as you can while you're in that environment.

Because, it's not going to be available for, as long as you might want it

to be, because once you graduate and get that degree, you're going

to have to figure out and adapt to a different type of environment.

So yeah, just take advantage of it for all it's worth while you're in it.

Last thing I want to say to you is, while you're in school, find friends

that give a damn about you and care about you because Spencer and Jackson,

I've known them since film school and have been friends ever since,

have been there for me since day one.

I could not do Film Society and Open Projection Night without them...

Meeting Breana has become a blessing, a great person, and

will be a lifelong friend.

So, surround yourself with people in school that care about you, that will be

there for you, because they will carry you through this beautiful thing called life.

I want to thank everyone for listening to this episode.

For people who are interested in learning more about Film Society, in

terms of our events and our programming, or if you want to subscribe to our

weekly newsletter, which is called Beam from the Booth that has all kinds

of great stuff, interviews, essays, features, different types of content

. If you'd like to hop on our community discord channel, follow us on Instagram,

all that stuff, all of those links and all that information is available in

the description for this episode where you can get connected to us, find out

more and hopefully become involved.

and you know, If you come in to one of our events introduce yourself.

We would love to meet you.

We'd love to have you become a part of this broader thing.

Thanks again everybody and we'll see you at the movies.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Alumni Live: The Podcast.

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