As one of the few women’s colleges with a film production program, Stephens College is helping produce the next generation of women filmmakers.
These filmmakers will showcase their work in Stephens’ annual Senior Film Showcase, premiering at 7 p.m. Friday at the Macklanburg Playhouse. The event presents the finished films that the seniors have been working on for over a year.
“It’s the culmination of more than a year’s worth of work, so I’m really excited for them,” Stephens film professor Polina Malikin said. “They’re all nervous. It’s a big deal.”
Lydia Lane — who wrote and directed “The Sexy Voice of Reason,” along with directing two other films in the showcase — said she’s nervous about the actual showing.
“(The films) are incredibly personal, so it’s kind of hard to open up and show that to people,” Lane said.
Senior Film Projects professor Chads Friedrichs has been working with the students all semester with polishing and story structure.
“It’s something that’s come full circle, especially for me,” Friedrichs explained. “I started four years ago, so these students were freshmen when I was basically a freshman teacher. I’m very proud of what they’ve accomplished this year.”
Alie McNeil — whose documentary film “Un Petit Jour” focuses on a St. Louis language immersion school — said her favorite part of the filmmaking process was seeing things unfold organically.
“The thing that I love about storytelling and especially documentary filmmaking is that everyday people have such interesting stories that just don’t get noticed,” McNeil said.
Stephens’ film production program, instead of just film theory, has been a key factor in attracting some top talent.
“We’ve got some really amazing women making some really amazing work,” McNeil said. “It’s fun and amazing to be able to see women contribute in the film industry, because we’re very under-represented and we’re changing that.”
According to Malikin, the seniors at Stephens are the next generation of filmmakers.
“It’s really exciting to see what young women are making and get to hear things from their perspective,” Malikin said. “We use their images and their bodies to sell soda and deodorant, but we don’t necessarily get to hear what young women think about their world.”
Senior Randie Cahill said that the films at the showcase are an opportunity to view someone’s life through a different lens.
“We can always get one-track minded in our day to day life and we don’t really see what else is going on and how other people’s lives are affected,” Cahill said.
The showcase will offer a fantastic selection of diverse films, Freidrichs said.
“None of these films are like the other,” Freidrichs said. “We’ve got documentaries, comedies, tragedies. There’s something for everyone. It’s a really crowd-pleasing program this year.”
Malikin said it’s exciting to see how much growth there has been for each student.
“Everyone has had a different journey to making their film, but they’ve all learned so much in the process,” Malikin said. “They’ve had to take responsibility for the entire process of creating a film from having the idea to mapping it out on paper to filming it.”