A film by School of Communications students Amory Parks ’16, Lauren Duncan ’17 and Jacky Shacknow ’16 captured second place in the 2016 RiverRun International Film Festival’s Documentary Pitch Fest, a student competition judged by industry experts.
Parks, Duncan and Jacky Shacknow ’16 are co-directors of a short documentary, titled “Rebuilding,” which explores the challenges formerly incarcerated women face. The project is part of Assistant Professor Nicole Triche’s “Producing the Documentary” class.
Parks presented the project to a panel of industry experts during a five-minute pitch session, where she screened a trailer created by Duncan. For their second-place finish, the trio was awarded $250 to assist in the production and completion of their film.
The Elon project took runner-up behind John Gallen and Alex Faoro of Wake Forest University for their film “Daddy,” which tells the story of a benevolent youth basketball coach who used his work with children as a front for an international drug conspiracy. Student filmmakers from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington also participated in the pitch session.
“Rebuilding” wasn’t the only Elon-related project to participate in the Winston-Salem-based festival. As part of the event’s NC Shorts Program, “Love & Respect in Bentwood Park,” directed by Brad Hinkle ’15, and “Winston’s Ghost,” directed by Brian Binder ’15, Daniel Spiller ’15 and Brian Mezerski ’15, were also screened.
Kathryn Jeffords ’15 and Kayla Hammer ’16 captured first place in the 2015 RiverRun Pitch Fest.