April 14, 2015
Lewis Center for the Arts presents Senior Thesis Film Festival
Screening of five short films by Princeton seniors
Photo caption:Scene from The True Story of Fictional James, a film by Jane Pritchard, a senior in the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Visual Arts Film and Video Track
Photo credit: Jane Pritchard
What:Two screenings of five films: Labor Against Waste by Margaret Craycraft, Game Over by Matthew Floyd, Exes by NonnyOkwelogu, The True Story of Fictional James by Jane Pritchard, and Fluff by Jack Thornton
Who: Films directed by five filmmakers, seniors in the Lewis Center for the Arts’ Program in Visual Arts Film and Video Track
When/Where: Friday, April 17 at 8:00 p.m. at James M. Stewart ‘32 Theater at 185 Nassau Street
When/Where: Saturday, April 25 at 8:00 p.m. at Frist Film/Performance Theater at Frist Campus Center on Princeton University campus
Free and open to the public
(Princeton, NJ) The Lewis Center for the Arts will present a Senior Thesis Film Festival featuring five new short films by students in the Program in Visual Arts: Labor Against Waste by Margaret Craycraft, Game Over by Matthew Floyd, Exes by NonnyOkwelogu, The True Story of Fictional James by Jane Pritchard, and Fluff by Jack Thornton. All five films will be screened on Friday, April 17 at 8:00 p.m. in the James M. Stewart ‘32 Theater at 185 Nassau Street, and again on Saturday, April 25 at 8:00 p.m. at the Frist Film/Performance Theater at Frist Campus Center on the Princeton University campus. Both screenings are free and open to the public.
Margaret Craycraft’s short documentary film Labor Against Waste examines the career of songwriter Christopher Paul Selling, and how theartist built the road he travelled, one show at a time. Craycraftis majoring in visual arts through a collaborative program between Princeton’s Department of Art and Archaeology and the Lewis Center’s Program in Visual Arts, which enables students to focus on studio practice. Her work focuses on photography, which will be featured in a Lewis Center exhibition running April 27 through May 2, as well as film. Craycraft is a resident of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The other four student filmmakers are pursuing certificates in the Program in Visual Arts with a focus on film in addition to their major areas of study.
Matthew Floyd’s short film Game Over is a thriller full of rivalry and danger. When Marcus’s best friend suddenly dies, he knows that the killer will come for him next. In a world where nothing is as it seems, Marcus must find a way to defeat his old nemesis, Ray, finding help in the most unexpected of places. Floyd, from Westhampton Beach, New York, is majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering. His filmmaking-related course work has included film production, film history, screenwriting, scenic design, lighting design, and film seminars.
NonnyOkwelogu’sExes explores how break-ups function in a world saturated by social media. When Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat dominate our lives, a relationship’s end is only the beginning.Okwelogu, from Fresno, California, is an English major also pursuing a certificate in the Program in Creative Writing. She has created films through classes, as part of her independent work, and with Princeton Film Productions, as well as writing, directing and editing short videos for the student group BAC: Dance.
Jane Pritchard’s film, The True Story of Fictional James, follows a young poet who drops out of school and then goes missing. Pritchard is majoring in Englishand also pursuing a certificate in the Program in Creative Writing. She is from Albany, New York and films for a variety of student organizations and productions on campus including the very popular student-produced late night talk show All-Nighter.
Jack Thornton’s Fluff delves into the strange experiences of an actor performing in a pornographic film for the first time. When a mischievous crewmember pretending to be a fluffer - an adult entertainment employee whose job it is to stimulate male stars in order to prepare them for performance - plays a prank on the protagonist, he faces an unexpected identity crisis.Thornton is an Anthropology major who has made a range of films from an experimental drama about female objectification to the comedy to be screened as part of this event, seeking not to set limits on the kinds of stories she can tell through film.
The five films are also being shown at a late-night private screening for Princeton students and their guests on April 23 at the Garden Theatre in downtown Princeton, cosponsored by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.
To learn more about the Programs in Visual Arts and the more than 100 events offered annually by the Lewis Center visit arts.princeton.edu.
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