What's
Inside?

Cover Story
A tale of two Oberlins.

In View
Pie-in-the-sky possibilities or difficult life-and-death decisions? The Human Genome Project may ultimately mean both.

Obies
The Oberlin Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies placed its first intern last summer. Read this firsthand account of his experiences in Moscow.

Center Piece
A new organ takes shape in Finney Chapel. Profile 6 Economist Gregory Hess and his student research assistant ponder the relationship between war, economics, and the election cycle.

Arts
Filmmaking at Oberlin? Most definitely. A three-hour marathon of student film shorts last May was just the tip of the growing celluloid iceberg.

Yeosports
Player-turned-coach Ann Marie Gilbert inspires teamwork on and off the basketball court.

The Big Picture
The Oberlin Orchestra performed at the Getty Center, L.A. under the direction of guest conductor John Williams.


Side Lines
Little facts you might be interested in.


 


Filmmaking at Oberlin;
Coming into Focus

Growing Interest Driven by Students' Creativity, Passion
by Betty Gabrielli

A thriving student filmmaking community has been developing at Oberlin -- albeit well below the official radar -- for several years. The first major blip occurred last May during Student Film Night, a three-hour screening of 13 film shorts before an over-capacity audience.

Two of the best were E4 by Kevin McShane '00 and Life About At Allen by Peter Dybdahl '03. McShane's piece is a hilarious send-up of a student who gets his arm caught in a vending machine and has to live his whole life attached to it. Dybdahl's docu-short is an irreverent take on high-school life.

Of course making films is tedious, costly, and hellishly frustrating. Being obsessive-compulsive helps, but what carries Oberlin students is passion, said Peter Cairns '02, co-director of the Film Co-op. The College's link with New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, established two years ago by Daniel Goulding, professor of film studies and art department chair, also helps.

Cairns is one of 22 students who have studied filmmaking at Tisch since the off-campus study option was launched. "Oberlin students are much better prepared to make amazing films than their NYU counterparts," he said.

Facts back up Cairns' conviction. Of the 160 four-minute shorts completed by the Tisch "Sight and Sound" class last spring, the four chosen for the school's film show-case were by Cairns and seniors Aaron Fine, Quintin Cushner, and Domenica Ruta.

"At Tisch, I was able to work with a fantastic independent filmmaker who really took me under his wing," Cairns said. "But in terms of students working on their own work, New York has drawbacks. First and foremost, it's expensive. Second, particularly at NYU, everyone has a film project. There is limited equipment available but, more important, limited talent and passion.

"This is where Oberlin has the advantage. Since a good number of people in theater, art, creative writing, and the Conservatory are extremely eager to work on film projects, the potential for creative collaboration here is huge. While we don't have much equipment, we do have an immense amount of passion and interest."

One result is the revived Oberlin Film Co-op. Rechartered in fall 1998 by Chuck Haine '00, Peter O'Leary '02, and Cairns, it coordinates student film projects, provides access to equipment, recruits crew members, and gives technical advice.

Another result is the ExCo class in filmmaking initiated by Haine in fall 1999. "The core of the Film Co-op is the first batch of kids who took the ExCo class," said Co-op Co-director Matthew Marlin '02.

Marlin and Sarah Fask '02 teach this year's 12-member filmmaking class, which attracted 100 students at pre-registration. ExCo also offers six other film-related courses.

Video is getting its share of attention, too. The art department has state-of-the-art, computer-based recording and editing equipment available for independent work. It also appointed experimental filmmaker Rian Brown-Orso as professor of media; her sound and video art classes have a 50-person wait list.

Underpinning this creative mix is a strong base of existing film-study courses. "We offer 17 courses in film every two years," said Patrick Day, associate professor of English. "Yale offers 25 in its film program, so we offer almost as many courses as a university, even without a formal major."

Such a major may be in the offing. The College's Committee on Film Studies, which Day chairs, has developed a proposal for a film-studies major, and the proposal is working its way through the appropriate committees. "We hope to be up and running by 2003," Day said. "If the full plan is followed, Oberlin would move from no film-studies major to a leading position among liberal arts colleges."

In the meantime, Student Film Night 2001 promises to be a gala affair, with premieres of ExCo shorts; video and sound works by Rian Brown's students; and such "indies" as Marlin's Media Closet and a 30-minute feature by Domenica Ruta and David Andalman '01. Ruta described it as The Graduate, Oberlin style.