Richmond film festival to feature recent VCU graduates

By Sian Wilkerson

They’re barely out of college, but it’s reunion time for 15 recent Virginia Commonwealth University graduates: They will come together this month at the Richmond International Film Festival for a screening of their senior capstone projects.

In the spring, the students spent their final semester collaborating on a collection of short documentary films as part of a media production class taught by Robert Milazzo, an assistant professor in the Richard T. Robertson School of Communication, part of the College of Humanities and Sciences.

On Sept. 24, several of those films will be screened at RIFF as part of a new program called (CAP)SULE, created by Milazzo and Heather Waters, the festival’s founder and artistic director.

“Being able to finally show off something that we all put a lot of hard work into means a lot,” said graduate Luke Reeder, who in May earned his degree in mass communications with a concentration in media production. “It’s really nice we were able to get recognized, and … to share that stage with every one of our classmates is going to be a really great feeling, for sure.”

Together, the films explore a common theme: “Made by Humans.” Over the course of the class, students worked together to bring nine projects to life, with each student taking on several roles at once. The projects cover a range of ideas, from the realities of horse racing and the bond between a rescued dog and its owners to a behind-the-scenes look at an incipient music career and social-emotional learning in post-COVID education.

“This experience was truly like a team,” said graduate Gabriel Aref, who served as project producer, director and camera operator during the spring semester. “Everyone had one goal: ‘We’re going to get this done.’”

Aref compared the experience to his video production job at VPM, a public media organization based in Richmond, which he began while still enrolled in the capstone class.

“In the real world, I’ve worked in dozens of different crews, and none of it is doing stuff by yourself,” he said. “You have to work with other people all the time. And that’s what the class really prepared [us] for. That’s the best part: that it really prepared people for the real world.”

Sydney Quashie, who was a camera operator and editor for separate projects as well as producing her own horse-racing film, said she came to the class with her own vision. But through collaboration, what came together was something better than she had imagined.

“It was fun because I had my thing and I thought it was going to go this way, but [project editor Grace Emerson] had her ideas, and it just made it blossom into something even better,” said Quashie, who also graduated in May with her media production degree.

Though opening themselves up to feedback – and potential criticism – could be daunting, the students said it was a welcome learning experience, and one that helped to prepare them for their lives post-graduation. To enter the festival, the films were screened by a panel of judges and received a final score, which Quashie said was a nerve-wracking experience after a semester’s worth of work.

“I feel like we were all a little nervous about how the feedback would be because the judges are real professional people who have been doing this for years,” she said. “But the feedback was super nice. It was constructive criticism at times, but it was super positive, and I think made us all really confident and happy with what we made.”

It helped, too, that they received constant feedback from each other. At times, Aref said, the students would be exchanging notes at 2 a.m., all trying to make the final product the best it could be.

“The class as a whole really became like a little mini-family for a semester,” he said, citing the group’s ability to be vulnerable with each other. “Even if all of us don’t talk all the time, we’re all going to be like, ‘Yeah, that class was special.’ … It was a really great family – I’ll never forget it.”

Though the students have moved on following graduation – Aref still works at VPM, while Reeder and Quashie are both freelancing and working around Richmond – they’re all eager to get back together this month to cap off their college experience.

“By the end of the semester, you get to know [people] so well because you worked through this mammoth of a project with all of them,” Reeder said. “To see them all again and to reunite after all of that hard work and to recognize it, it’s going to be great fun.”

The Sept. 24 (CAP)SULE event begins at 7:45 p.m. at the Byrd Theatre, featuring screenings and a Q&A with the student filmmakers. Tickets, including student options, are available online at riff.eventive.org. An additional 20 percent off is available with the code RIFFVCU.