Student film thrives at Yale

It's no easy thing to make a film; even Hollywood honchos with million dollar budgets and whole slews of gaffers, grips, and caterers get stress ulcers and wind up in detox. College students, who have to contend with papers, and labs, and track practices on top of their shooting schedules, are certifiably loopy just for trying--and Yalies are loopier than most. Unlike their peers at schools like USC and NYU, they must struggle for basic funding, academic recognition for their efforts, and access to decent equipment. Since Yale has little in the way of film production classes and even less in the way of money earmarked for movie projects, calling the filmmaker's odyssey here "challenging" is an understatement. In typically overacheiving Eli tradition, however, movies are getting made on campus. In fact, student enthusiasm about film at Yale is at an all-time high.

Rob Ronan

Nobody's quite sure why; maybe the mainstream success of recent independent films like Trainspotting or Welcome to the Dollhouse has piqued interest, or quickly bestowed icon status on upstarts like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriquez, and Kevin Smith. Maybe the first babies to have their infantile milestones enshrined by Camcorder have come of age, bringing unprecendented comfort with video technology to campus.

Most credit, however, is due to Jon Andrews, SM '96, whom many still refer to as the "Yale film god." Andrews won a Student Academy Award for last year's "Short Change," a humorous take on a convenience store robbery that raised Yale's film profile on and off campus. He also founded UPix, an organization that lends equipment, film crews, and know-how to aspiring filmmakers.

While UPix, now headed by Dylan Robertson, SY '98, doesn't produce films itself, it does make the movie-making process much friendlier for those who do. Housed at 305 Crown St., the organization has already held training workshops for frosh and plans this year to reach out to senior Film Studies majors who are working on their senior projects. "Things are looking good for the future," board member Rene Brar, ES '99, said. "This is going to be a pretty transitional year for us, because we've received money from an alumnus, and the new dean of the Art School is a photo professor. We're expecting to upgrade all our technology, and it looks like we'll have the resources to do it."

UPix isn't the only film group on campus. SpiderGraph Films, based out of JE, made a big splash on campus last year. Founded by Rob Ronan, JE '99, the group aims to make a 15-minute 16-millimeter color film each year. Its first effort, Maggie and Jonesy, premiered last spring to large and enthusiastic crowds. Maggie and Jonesy, which traced a day in the life of two undergraduates who find love in the steam tunnels, had its own orchestral score, penned by David Gordon, JE '99, and a crew of approximately 35. It took four weeks of actual shooting, and an entire semester to plan and script. Although none of the participants had had filmmaking experience, they got help from UPix and from the Film Studies department. Mostly, current SpiderGraph head Andre Thomas, JE '99, says, "we figured it out on our own, step by step."

Laura Dunn, TC '97, also had to plot her own course as a filmmaker, a role which she sees as a natural response to the newsworthiness of last year's union battles against Yale. "I had never worked with film before," she says, "but I really wanted to record the activities on campus somehow. I thought that there were going to be things that needed to be documented." Her 1995 film, Radical?, which chronicled the proposed graduate student's union and grade strike, is the first of three movies which have become her senior project. As a record of last year's turmoil, it has served its purpose: it was recently a major source for an article on GESO published by the academic journal Lingua Franca.

Although Radical? has been widely praised, Dunn has had to fight hard for University support. She funds her films independently, through donations and tape sales, but wishes that Yale offered her and other moviemakers more in the way of equipment and assistance. "Film is such a big medium in this day and age, but Yale has seniors in its film production workshop using VHS, which is really low quality. It's a shame," Dunn said.

Ronan of SpiderGraph agrees: "Yale has terrible resources for people involved in film," he said. "It falls between the cracks in terms of funding. The UOFC considers films to be publications and won't fund them." In constrast, Thomas says, "Some plays are getting a lot of money...It's time for Yale to recognize that film is an important art and give it the support it needs."

Dunn notes, as a positive sign, that many people signed up for the Documentary Video Workshop offered as a college seminar. "There's definitely a whole lot of interest here, but there aren't too many people making films," she said.

Nonetheless, Yale's film scene, though still in a bit of a shambles, is beginning to cohere. UPix has ambitious plans for the future, SpiderGraph is setting a precedent with its collective approach to movie-making, and lone film-makers like Laura Dunn and Jon Andrews have helped to shine a national spotlight on Yale films. Filmmaking on campus is unquestionably an uphill battle. But as UPix board member Offer Egozy, ES '99, says, "If you're motivated, then there's no reason that you can't make a good film at Yale. It's not as easy as at other schools, but maybe that's a good thing. Really, this is a great time to be involved in film here."