King DMAD students applied their growing production skills as volunteers for the 2017 PUSH! Film Festival. The festival screened over 40 hours of film across multiple venues in downtown Bristol. Feature films included Young Frankenstein, new documentary The Breaks: Centuries of Struggle, and others alongside hours of short films. Awards were given in recognition of the best films submitted to the festival as well as honoring the career of filmmaker Kevin Smith, who accepted the award via a remotely delivered speech.
The Believe in Bristol office acted as headquarters for volunteers. From there, King University students made their way to venues including the Paramount Center for the Arts and the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. King’s volunteers worked closely with film students from other universities, operating projection and audio to smoothly present films across all three days of the festival. In addition to direct experience with live production, students had access to filmmakers who appeared for screenings of their films and various workshops throughout the weekend.
Carrie Cannaday, founder of Starscape Media and PUSH! committee member, had this to say:
“PUSH! is really grateful to the King Digital Media faculty members and students who were a part of this year’s film festival. I’ve personally been really impressed with the level of professionalism and commitment that I’ve seen in our involvement with King and we would love to have even more King involvement with PUSH! in the future.
“PUSH! is truly a community event and very much a ‘digital media event’ and having the support and participation of those who are familiar and adept working with media and technology has been a huge asset.
“[To] King students: keep staying involved with PUSH! and tell your friends to come out and watch films next year! We really want PUSH! to grow but we need the support of the local college community to make that happen!”
