MFA Student Shorts Featured in 2 Film Festivals

Still image from "Will I Say So"

Two students from the Stony Brook University MFA in Film program have had their short films entered into two upcoming film festivals.

First-year student Jamie DiNicola's first semester Directing I project, "Will I Say So," was accepted to the Inside Out Film Festival in Toronto.

From the film's plot summary: "Two men are on a first date and each has a secret. Can they find the courage to speak the truth and accept one another?"

The film is one of seven short films on dating, parenting and spirituality that were included in the festival's Thrive program of short films, which features "trans stories that go beyond our gender markers ... asking bigger questions about the human condition."

The Thrive series of films will be shown Friday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m. The Inside Out Film Festival takes place from May 23 through June 2.

Ace Ramsey is the Girl in "Glitter." Photo by Rob Bullard

Graduating student Kathleen Harty's short thesis film, "Glitter," is being featured at the Big Apple Film Festival in New York. It will be shown in a group of nine other shorts on Friday, May 17, at 8:15 p.m. at Cinépolis Chelsea in Manhattan.

"Glitter" takes place in 1973, when, "A wonder kid meets the prettiest star. Both have magic."

Harty, a writer and director who has had an original feature script optioned by HBO, says on the film's web page that David Bowie was the first live concert she saw, and that he remained a significant influence on her work. "Glitter is my tribute to that first experience and the highs and lows of a wizard up close."

Christine Vachon of Killer Films, the Artistic Director for the MFA in Film program, gave "Glitter" a rave review: "I really liked this! Evocative and original. Really well done."