The Sundance Effect

FTMA’s encounter with Utah’s celebrated indie film festival brings career goals within reach

From the Spring 2024 issue of Sacred Heart University Magazine

By Elizabeth Koscinski

1   Ext. Park City, Utah - Day

We open on a wide shot of snow-capped mountains enveloping a town that, as the camera descends, we find bustling with people. Into the shot walk 16 members of Sacred Heart University’s master’s in film & television production program, the only graduate film program in Connecticut. ... They wear winter hats emblazoned with “FTMA.” They stop in front of the Egyptian Theatre, whose marquee reads “2024 Sundance Film Festival.”

Sundance.

Just the name fills filmmakers and film lovers alike with a sense of awe. It's the largest film festival in the United States and the dream of every independent filmmaker. This year, 82 films were selected from over 17,000 submissions from around the world.

Stepping into the middle of it was the experience of a lifetime for 12 graduate students from the FTMA program at Sacred Heart’s School of Communication, Media & the Arts. Professors Sally Ross and Cannon “Zeke” Hawkins, along with program coordinator Allie O'Brien ’20, led the group that included Steve Autore ’24, Ananyaa Bhardwaj ’24, MacKenzie Caines-Balogh ’25, Kristen Cignarella ’24, Dylan Cole ’24, John “JJ” de Graffenried ’25, Joseph Genua ’24, Mohaddeseh “Mohi” Kharazmi ’24, Mohamad Mahmoud ’25, Sean Rivera ’24, Quin Sullivan ’25 and SHU videographers Eric Torrens ’25—also an FTMA student—and Emily Gentile.

While Sundance is hugely inspirational, Ross has other motivations for bringing students.

“They see amazing film work, but they also see work that’s not beyond their grasp,” Ross says. “We want them to be awed by what they see, but we also want them to understand that they can reach this level.”

They also network with filmmakers from all over the country—and the world. “We want them to see that the real film industry isn’t unattainable,” Hawkins adds. “It’s actually in reach with what they’re capable of.”

The program’s annual trip to Park City, Utah, influenced Bhardwaj’s decision to enroll in FTMA. “It was exciting for me to see that a college was taking the initiative to take their students to such an important and influential event,” she says.

That’s not to say students were overly intimidated by the circumstances.

“You’re in this town, and everybody in this town is on the same page about movies,” says Cole of the Sundance experience. “You can start a conversation with anyone by asking, ‘What movies did you see today?’

“Being there puts things in perspective,” Cole continues. “When you think of Sundance, you think of this massive thing. When you get there, the scale of it is actually attainable.”

Behind the Scenes

Students volunteered at the festival, helping patrons find the correct theatre or ushering movie-goers to their seats. This gave them a prime opportunity to network with people in the industry. It also allowed them to attend volunteer-only special events, such as exclusive director panels.

“We met volunteers from all over the world,” says Caines-Balogh. “I talked to everybody about everything, whether they were other volunteers, directors or actors. There were so many people with the same passions you have.” She prioritized socializing with people in the venues over her movie intake. “I actually only saw one,” she admits.

We’re Here for the Movies

Of course, movies are central to the Sundance experience. Shorts, documentaries, comedies, dramas, horror, animated—enough genres to appeal to every filmgoer.

Because of volunteer schedules, some students were able to see more than others. Mahmoud’s volunteer duties as an usher allowed him to take in 11 movies, including Richard Linklater’s Hit Man. “I was lucky,” Mahmoud says. “It was very hard to get tickets to that movie, and I was able to stay and watch it.” His favorite movie was Black Box Diaries, Shiori Ito’s documentary investigation into her struggle to get justice in Japan after her own sexual assault. During the Q&A, Mahmoud asked Ito whether she was going to continue to make documentaries investigating other cases. The answer was yes.

Bhardwaj went to The Babadook, a horror film celebrating its 10th year at Sundance. She was inspired and surprised to see writer/director Jennifer Kent come on the screen during the discussion. “I didn’t know it was made by a woman,” says Bhardwaj, who is writing her own horror film. “She talked about her thought process when writing her story. She used her own grief to write that story and talked about how she intertwined the horror with it. I keep taking inspiration from that movie.”

Genua, whose late-night volunteer shifts opened up his days for viewing, saw eight movies. He stayed for the filmmaker discussion after seeing Little Death starring David Schwimmer. “The director, Jack Begert, walked out with his cinematographer, and they weren’t much older than we are,” he says. “People our age are doing this. We can do this.”

Cignarella found inspiration in the techniques directors used, particularly in A Different Man, a psychological thriller written and directed by Aaron Schimberg. “They gave me good ideas,” Cignarella says. “I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate some of the things I saw into my own works.”

Rivera highly recommends Steven Soderbergh’s new horror film, Presence, once it’s available outside of Sundance. (“I saw two movies,” he says. “One was really bad; one was really good.”)

“As an artist, it’s good to take the most interesting aspects of your life and turn them into art,” says de Graffenried, who was inspired by the filmmakers’ stories behind the stories.

For Torrens, seeing a movie at Sundance meant being among kindred spirits. “The best part was the audience experience. When you go2024to a movie at home, people are on their phones and they’re chatting,” he says. “Here, you are in a room full of movie lovers who just want to experience the film. When there’s a laugh, it erupts in the audience. If a scene gets emotional, you can hear people crying. They are very generous with their attention.”

Filming the Filmmakers

Behind the scenes of FTMA’s trip to Sundance were Torrens and Gentile, videographers from Sacred Heart’s marketing department.

“Our main role was to document their experience,” Gentile says. “We were able to tell the story of the students going to Sundance and show what a fantastic opportunity they had. It was great to capture their inspiration and their excitement.”

Sundance is about finding independent voices, Torrens explains.

“The through line of everything was to tell the story,” he says.

“And everyone was there to appreciate storytelling. The students all seemed to appreciate us capturing their time at the festival. It memorialized the trip.

“You see these films in the largest festival in the United States and realize they aren’t so different from what we’re trying to make in the classroom,” Torrens concludes. “The message is ‘you belong here.’”

Photo of the Egyptian Theatre by Eric Torrens