Chapman University film alumni excel at Sundance Film Festival, on PBS and elsewhere

Several Chapman University film alumni worked on three movies selected for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival: The independent feature film Breathe In, screening in the Premieres category, was co-written by Ben York Jones ‘11; the independent feature film Virtually Heroes, screening in the Midnight category, was written by Matt Yamashita ’00; and the independent short film Record/Play, screening in the Short Film category, was produced by Chris Bryant ’11 and featured these other Chapman alumni on the crew: Alec Contestabile ‘11 (production designer), Christian Quintero ’10, Jeff Robinson ‘10 (first AD), Ngoc Ho ’12 (second AD), Stephanie Wagner ’11 (art director), Bre Wing ’11 (set designer), Micah Embry ’11 (set decorator), David Markun ’13 (prop master), Matt Brailey ’11 (sound mixer), Veronica Zabrocki ’11 (boom operator) and Jocelyn R.C. ’11 (still photography).

In addition, Chris Sepulveda ’05 and Mike Anderson ’06 produced a feature film titled He’s Way More Famous Than You, which was selected for the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, next month.

Three Chapman films have also been selected for KCET television’s 15th season of Fine Cut – KCET’s Festival of Student Film. Fiasco (Nadia Hamzeh ’09), Homecoming (Gursimran Sandhu ’11), and Shoot the Moon (Alexander Gaeta ’11), will be featured in four 60-minute programs, airing consecutive Thursdays starting Jan. 17, 2013.  The films can be seen on air exclusively on KCET and streamed at kcet.org/finecut.  The Fine Cut preview event and red carpet reception will be on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 6 p.m. at the Television Academy in North Hollywood.

Three Chapman films have been selected for the PBS National Online Film Festival: Breathe Life (Matthew Jekowsky ‘12, Carly Berryhill ‘14, Samantha Andre), Still (Michael Barth ‘13, J.T. Bijos ‘14, Pasqual Gutierrez ‘13, Ruby Stocking ‘13) and Worlds Apart (Brendan Nahmias ‘12, Paul Hextall ‘13).

Three Chapman documentary films won awards in the International Student Documentary Competition, held at Columbia College in Chicago: Among Giants (Chris Cresci ‘13, Ben Mullinkosson ‘13, Sam Price-Waldman ‘12) won the Best In Competition. It also won best in the category “Exploring Our World” (environmental/nature documentaries).   In the Shadows (Drew Heskett ‘13 , Max Miller ‘13) won best in the category “The Social Doc” (social/political documentaries).  Sebastian (Katie Valovcin ‘12, Dan Duran ‘13, Kellie Henika ‘12) won best in the category “My Story” (personal/biographical documentaries).

Other honorees: Derek Dolechek ‘12 and Ryan Walton ’12, for the film Light Me Up, Runner Up for Best Animation at the Anchorage Int’l Film Festival in Alaska last week.