FROM: DENNIS CONWAY, FOR THE F.V.S. DATE: DECEMBER 8, 2021
Pictured: A still from the Short Film, “Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?,” which won the First Place Audience Favorite Award at the F.V.S. End-of-the-Semester Student Showcase.
After a two-year hiatus, the face-to-face version of the Mass Media Film and Video Society’s End-of-the-Semester Student Showcase resumed on Sunday night. “Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?,” a surreal comedy film starring a human-sized chicken, won the First Place Audience Favorite Award. Five films tied to win the Second Place Audience Favorite Award. The event took place in the Student Union Theatre, and all the student winners will receive gift certificates to Best Buy. Online versions of the Student Showcase, created by Professor Talley Mulligan of Mass Media, ran for the last three semesters.
The First – Place winner was created by the team of Payton Pritchard, Caden Frost, De’andra Jacobs, and Isaiah Hopkins (for their Production II class). The film featured the chicken peacefully crossing a road, and entering Mass Media building hallways and classrooms, before a group of students attempt to catch and eat the chicken for dinner. The Second – Place winners included Chontele Abney’s drama, “Kiss of Life,” (Production III) about a mysterious young woman who isolates herself from her college classmates. Emily Regeski’s “Heaven Slept: Shoe Gaze in the South,” (Media Capstone) a documentary, profiled the Valdosta band, Heaven Slept, and their unique brand of music.
Savannah Hill’s documentary, “Positive,” (Production III) depicted a young woman’s challenges as she faces pregnancy and motherhood. “The Brass Quill Gallery,” (Video Workshop) a documentary by Mathew Whetsell and Davion Hasecuster, visited two local tattoo artists in Valdosta. And in “Cyber-Defamation,” by Emily LaPierre, the student explored the scary new world of Internet defamation, and how to deal with it, in a “Video Essay.”
F.V.S. Faculty Advisor Dennis Conway and President Mya Arthur hosted the event. F.V.S. Vice-President Caleb Davis and Secretary Genesis Greenlee served as Announcer, and Production Crew, respectively.
The Film and Video Society meets on the first and third Wednesdays of the month in the Mass Media Building. The organization facilitates production of narrative and documentary videos through connecting filmmakers with other enthusiasts, and offers a venue for others to view your productions at its Showcases. It also sponsors a yearly Viewing Party on Oscar night, “Reel Wars” debates about film industry topics, a 48 Hour Film Festival, editing workshops, and other film showings. Email myaarthur@valdosta.edu for more information.