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News Release
Contact: Tom Parisi, NIU Public Affairs
(815) 753-3635
September 9, 2004
NIU documentary makers win awards, develop niche
DeKalb, Ill. — Forget the research, camera angles and hundreds of hours of editing. One of the biggest challenges for students in the documentary video production course taught by Professor Laura Vazquez is finding an audience for their works.
Despite the limited market for independent short films—you won’t find them in Blockbuster—Northern Illinois University filmmakers are successfully screening their documentaries in venues near and far. This past summer, three short films each produced by NIU students swept the top awards at the Rock River Film Festival in Rockford.
“It’s becoming a little embarrassing,” says Vazquez, a professor in the Department of Communication. In three consecutive years, NIU communication students have brought home Rockford’s Best of the Festival award.
This year, it was Brian Rich and Joe Hodder (who graduated in May) who took top honors with “Remember the Blackhawks?” In the 15-minute Michael Moore-like piece, Rich roams the streets attempting to collect money to improve the talent on Chicago’s lackluster professional hockey team.
Brian Ekdale and Tim Mosbach won runner-up honors with their documentary, “Just a Game,” which also was named as the festival’s audience favorite. The 13-minute film looks at how the video game, “Madden Football,” transforms a mild-mannered student teacher into a nimble-fingered maniac.
Axel Hazlerig, Lynette Kleisner and John Lisowski produced the other runner-up titled, “Weatherman.” The documentary provides a glimpse into the life of a middle-aged man who commutes two hours each way to NIU to earn his degree in meteorology.
“The department has exceptional media students, and I’m thrilled that they’re screening their work in public and getting incredibly positive feedback about its quality,” Professor Vazquez says. “It’s very difficult to find venues for short films, but the students’ success in recent years is opening more and more doors.”
Aside from the Rock River Film Festival and screenings at the springtime Reality Bytes fest on campus, NIU documentary filmmakers have won top prizes at prestigious film events in Las Vegas and San Francisco. Northern students also have been invited to submit entries into an upcoming Los Angeles film competition.
NIU students are gaining less tangible rewards as well. Some are finding a niche producing pieces for non-profit organizations. Last fall students debuted, “Please Wait to be Seated,” for Easter Seals, and eventually the documentary was aired on WMAQ-Channel 5, an NBC affiliate in Chicago.
More recently, students completed video projects for affiliates of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and March of Dimes. This semester, graduate student Pam Wicks embarked on an educational piece for the local Kiwanis Club.
“When our students graduate from NIU, some will work toward setting up their own production companies and others will do independent work,” Vazquez says, adding that the students’ stock is rising. As the Internet evolves, the need for rich media such as short films and video clips is expanding exponentially.
“Students today need to be trained in making rich media available for Web delivery, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Vazquez says. “Independent filmmakers increasingly will use the Web as a venue. We can’t all be feature filmmakers, but students learn that they can do a lot in 15 minutes, two minutes or even 30 seconds.”
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