Thanks to the arrival of Turner Theatre, the annual festival hosted by Cinelon Productions returned to Elon’s campus on May 5.
Share:
Meagan Gitelman ’19 (left), an “ETalk” host, interviews Zach Bocian ’17, writer of the short film “Facemask,” before the start of this year's Cinelon Film Festival.After several years at a nearby Burlington theater, the Cinelon Film Festival returned to campus last week to share student-produced documentaries, music videos, commercials and other cinematic works with the Elon community.
The May 5 event, which kicked off with a red-carpet entrance, drew approximately 130 people to the School of Communications’ new Turner Theatre. The program ran for nearly two hours and included an introduction from Katie Shannon ’18 and Ian Kunsey ’19, Cinelon Production’s president and vice president, respectively.
<p>Ian Kunsey ’19 (left) and Katie Shannon ’18 address audience members prior to the start of the festival.</p>In total, the festival screened 27 student works, including three Cinelon Production projects – “One Night Only,” “Lockdown” and “Uncle Sam’s Great Mistake” – as well as the Cinema and Television Arts BFA thesis projects produced by Elon seniors Zach Bocian and Rhett Lawson. Bocian created the short film “Facemask,” while Lawson and Mitch Herndon ’17 collaborated on “From Nowhere.”
Turner Theatre, which opened in December, hosted the festival’s return to campus.Event organizers divided the student works into seven categories: documentary, experimental, Cinelon works, BFA thesis projects, music videos, narratives and commercials.
The responses to the festival and its entries have been largely positive, according to Shannon.
“I heard that the quality of the work shown was great, which goes to show we have some incredibly talented students at Elon,” she said. “People also enjoyed the variety of content shown. It was great to have so many categories within the festival to show a broader spectrum of student work.”
To see photos of the festival, visit the school’s Flickr account.
The on-campus event marks the conclusion of an eventful academic year for Cinelon Productions, which moved last fall into a new office space in the lower level of McEwen Communications Building. The organization has received tremendous interest in recent semesters and membership has expanded to nearly 50 active participants.
