Spending a Saturday afternoon in the bioethics library isn’t atypical for Georgetown students, except if you have a camera and a crew of 10 people trying to turn it into a film set. Whispering directions to his two actors, Alex Waldon (COL ’15) and Taylor Mansmann (COL ’15), Andres Figueredo (COL ’13) is in the middle of shooting a scene for his Film & Media Studies thesis project, Muse, and attempting to avoid the wrath of the librarian in the process.
At a university known more for its strong political bent, this kind of occurrence is something that turns heads. Though Georgetown boasts a high-ranked theater department and famous alumni in both the film and comedy worlds, it’s never been known for a strong arts community, and student films are few and far between. A severe lack of arts funding and unification of arts groups makes pursuing projects like Figueredo’s, which was principally self-funded, a major challenge for students.
“I think that there needs to be more unity in the arts at Georgetown—more activities and events around campus,” he said. “There are actually interesting creative people here and if they find each other, it can work.”
Producer Katherine Propper (COL ’15) agreed, “Georgetown is not necessarily hostile but it’s definitely inconvenient to film on this campus because there’s not much support or connection between the arts departments. We had to go out of the way to ask people to get involved, so it would be nice to have easy access to people with artistic abilities.”
Figueredo emphasized the collaborative aspect of filming, from the writing stage to post-production.
“One thing I try to emphasize to other film minors is to work together—not making it an individual process. The more talented people you bring on board, the better it will be.”
Featuring a talented director of photography, Brooks Birdsall (COL ’14), and original compositions from Lyell Evans (COL ’13), Muse certainly highlights the span of Georgetown’s artistic talent.
When asked about the inspiration for Muse, Figueredo pointed to a quote from Albert Camus: “A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.”
“With this film, I was just trying to capture the internal struggles of an artist or writer, related to that quote from Camus,” Figueredo said. “I was trying to go for the dichotomy of trying to create from experience and from imagination—there needs to be a perfect combination.”
The film itself has a metaphysical aspect, following an uninspired screenwriter (Mansmann) who lives between two worlds of reality and imagination. In his imaginary world, an artist is struggling to complete a painting and is inspired only by death. The muse of the title is a girl (Waldon) who flits in and out of his conscience to inspire him.
Currently in the editing process, Muse will be screened at 4 p.m. on April 22 and May 1 in the Film Screening Classroom. This Saturday, April 20, however, GUTV will stage a film festival with over 20 short films from undergraduates.
The focus of the festival will be narrative films, though it will also include documentaries. The festival chair, Nick Sennott (COL ‘13), noted in an email to the Voice that he was inspired to revamp the event and create more opportunities for student collaboration out of his own personal experience.
“I wanted to make a film but didn’t know how to find cameras, actors, or any of the necessary tools,” he said. “I managed to figure it out but realized that the final product could have been much better with support.”
Sennott also emphasized that the expansion of the Film & Media Studies program to include narrative storytelling as well as documentaries marks a new direction for the arts community.
“With so much recent success by Georgetown alums in the film industry, the program is growing in significance and reputation,” he said.
With this kind of progress, time can only tell if we have an Oscar contender in our midst.
finally an article about student films!