Full Spectrum 2024: Documentary and Advanced Narrative Films Program

Saturday May 18th, 2024 12pm

Carpenter Performing Arts Center (CPAC)

TRT Approximately: 3 hours, 58 minutes

 

Introductory Documentary Filmmaking (FEA 381) 

Professor: Kate Trumbull-LaValle

 

The Pier Poet

PIER POET is a lyrical short documentary that captures the connection between art and healing. Following Henry Bernard, a poet who embraces the ocean alongside the pier and creates poems for strangers with his typewriter. The film seeks to explore and represent our human desire to be seen and understood.

  • Director: Germán Skinder and Lesly Mendez
  • Producer: Sarah Atallah
  • Cinematographer: Lesly Mendez
  • Editor: German Skinder, Sarah Atallah
  • Sound Recordist: Jason Nghi Truong

ChemoFree

ChemoFree explores the story of two parents' journeys through their son's cancer diagnosis and road to recovery.

  • Director: Shane Smithburger
  • Producer: Joseph Moersch
  • Cinematographer: Denzel Paz
  • Editor & Sound Recordist: Jason Castillo

GUNS DOWN

GUNS DOWN takes us on a deep dive into the world of Backyard Squabbles, an organization created by Damian Gutierrez dedicated to saving lives, creating community, brotherhood and decreasing gun violence one fight at a time. His motto: "Guns Down, Squabble Up."

  • Director: Daniel Ortega
  • Producer: Mark Nava; Marianne Nunez Rodriguez; Daniel Ortega
  • Cinematographer: Mark Nava; Daniel Ortega
  • Editor: Mark Nava; Daniel Ortega
  • Sound Recordist: Marianne Nunez Rodriguez

Mah's Story

Daniel Mah, the martial arts choreographer for the Oscar winning film, "Everything Everywhere All At Once" tells his story of his relationship with Asian identity and culture within the film industry, and how he found himself out of a dark time through the practice of martial arts and filmmaking.

  • Director: MJ Calingasan
  • Producer: Aedyn Frazer
  • Cinematographer: Gabe Pulmano
  • Editor: Cassidy Barba
  • Sound Recordist: Aedyn Frazer

Cope With A Joke

Cope With A Joke features Mathew Vong, a young, ambitious, stand-up comedian and his personal reflections and meanderings about comedy, mental health, grief and expression.

  • Director: Caitlyn Gormley
  • Producer & Sound Recordist: Marc Campos
  • Cinematographer & Editor: Tyler Hoang

Carpe Diem

After a near death experience in a car accident that almost left him paralyzed, CARPE DIEM is a short documentary about Christopher Lagunas and his road to recovery. His journey is told through his work as a mechanic, passion for rebuilding cars, and improving his physical self.

  • Director: Alam Rodriguez
  • Producer: Carson Donner
  • Cinematographer & Editor: Franklin Verdugo
  • Sound Recordist: Fiona Valli

Through Her Lens

THROUGH HER LENS is a reflexive documentary scavenging for answers about gender inequity within the film industry by interviewing three women directors at different stages of their career. Highlighting the nuanced micro-aggressions, the film explores how institutional negging keeps women from directing at equal rates while emphasizing women's voices.

  • Director: Cristal Garcia & Juliana Munoz
  • Producer & Editor: Naveah Sabillo
  • Cinematographer: Nicklas Beijer
  • Sound Recordists: Cristal Garcia & Julie Munoz 

Helpless Limbs

Só (he/they) a transgender man shares their experience facing the difficulties of body dysmorphia and against societal norms. Só explores this by sharing their love for body horror and the comfort of relatability he holds in that subgenre, while also craving for a sense of an androgynous body.

  • Director & Editor: Abigail Celine Alonzo
  • Producer: Belleny Iraheta
  • Cinematographer: Wilfredo Chavez
  • Sound Recordist: Cherise Jackson

Where Are You?

Between the material world and memory, Mrs. Yoon crafts a poem to her late husband. Through a meditation on loss and grief, Where Are You? documents the complexities of love and longing across time.

  • Director: Sungbin Moon
  • Producer & Sound Recordist: Alana Loinaz
  • Cinematographer: Gregory Senegal & Adonis Williams
  • Editor: Adonis Williams & Sungbin Moon

 

Advanced Documentary Filmmaking (FEA 383) 

Professor: Helen Hood Scheer 

 

Detached City

A kaleidoscopic city symphony exploring the over-consumption of technology and human disconnection.

  • Director, Cinematographer, & Editor: Mia O’Neal
  • Producer: Devanae Zuniga
  • Editor: & Sound Designer: Brayden Rios 
  • Sound Recordist: Andromeda Viramontes

Our Refinery

Nine years after a near-catastrophic explosion at the Torrance oil refinery, filmmaker Reid Sauter explores lingering controversies and the voices of community activists who are fighting to spread awareness of an imminent threat... toxic hydrofluoric acid.

  • Director, Producer & Writer: Reid Sauter
  • Cinematographer: Elvis De La Rosa
  • Sound Recordist & Editor: Emily Murphy

Words to Live By

A sign language interpreter tries to heal from childhood trauma through expanding idiomatic expression and minority representation in the deaf community.

  • Director & Producer: Richard E. Haywood
  • Co-Director, Producer, and Editor: Jennifer Gonzalez
  • Cinematographer: Sokneng Puth
  • Associate Editor & Sound Recordist: Heather Eaves

A Place In This World

After over a decade of criticism and misogyny regarding Taylor Swift’s dating life instead of her talent, fans have now found a way to shed their shame, and champion their favorite artist while reconnecting with their femininity and finding comfort in embracing all that comes with girlhood.

  • Directors, Producers & Cinematographers: Bri Chappelear & Hannah Levin
  • Editors: Arlene Ramos & Hannah Levin
  • Sound Recordist & Assistant Editor: Madison Constantine

From the Library of Riley Hodgson

Filmmaker Riley Hodgson explores her childhood and how her parents, now divorced, impacted her perception of love. Being raised Catholic, Hodgson reflects on her identity as a Queer woman and how she escaped the rigidity of her childhood and was able to explore her sexuality by reading books.

  • Director, Writer & Editor: Riley Hodgson
  • Producer & Associate Editor: Alyson Frias
  • Cinematographer & Co-Editor: Aiswarya Devi
  • Sound Recordist & Associate Editor: Arcilla Edwards

The Bridge Between

Fueled by a yearning to reconnect with her Cambodian roots, a filmmaker immerses herself in the culture the best way that she can: through the arts and conversation.

  • Director & Writer: Tia Brieger
  • Producer & Editor: Abigail Keesaw
  • Cinematographer, Editor & Animation: Sean Freitas
  • Sound Recordist: Tiffany Rhoden & Oliver Svensson

Sunchong

An 89-years-old Korean immigrant volunteers at a Senior Center and reflects on his beloved wife.

  • Producer, Director, Cinematographer, & Editor: Yoontaek Hong
  • Producer: Sungbin Moon
  • Cinematographer: Philip Pleming
  • Sound Recordist: Zeinab Gregorio

 

Intermission (approximately 30 minutes)

 

Senior Narrative (FEA 340, 341, 342, 343) 

Professors: Kent Hayward & David Waldman

 

Cutting the Edge

A non-binary children’s show host, Rori, is forced to change the progressive rhetoric of their show after a conservative media company bought out the channel on which the program airs.

  • Director & Screenwriter: Chloe Larson
  • Producer: Christian Soldano
  • Cinematographer: Amanda Nigro
  • Editor: Connor Sweeney
  • Production Designer: Carolina Sabate

Dad's Car Keys

When grieving 18 year-old Taylor is forbidden by her overprotective father from taking his car to a party, she must convince him to let her go and escape the isolation and grief they're stuck in.

  • Director & Screenwriter: Esme Farro
  • Producer: Neel Bakshi
  • Cinematographer: Eric J. Kim
  • Editor: Diana Rincon-Zepeda
  • Production Designer: Emery Ricks

Cozy Dinner

In modern Long Beach, a 22-year-old Vietnamese American man, TAI, tries to host a perfect family dinner for his single mother on her birthday, but his father, SHAN, suddenly shows up at the house after abandoned the family for 10 years.

  • Director & Screenwriter: Hien Hoang
  • Producer: Eddy Sandoval
  • Cinematographer: Yasmin Hurtado
  • Editor: Celine Bermejo
  • Production Designer: Sara Lam

Torn Up

Sarah, an artist in love with her best friend, Maddie, who has a toxic boyfriend, must break Maddie and her boyfriend up or lose Maddie forever.

  • Director & Screenwriter: Nix ZimLaw
  • Producer: Aline Kasbarjikian and Nani Morales Kalaw
  • Cinematographer: Yolotzin Martinez
  • Editor: Hannah Reed-Elliott and Elizabeth Francisco
  • Production Designer: Imara Williams

Rubenesque

"Rubenesque" explores the journey of Reese, an 18-year-old high school senior, as she grapples with self-acceptance as a plus size teenager in a society defined by unrealistic beauty standards. Alongside her battle against these expectations, Reese must also navigate the challenges of a toxic friendship.

  • Director & Screenwriter: Shanaya Coloma
  • Producer: Lawrence Marquez, Akhila Bordag, and Christian George
  • Cinematographer: Millie Belveal
  • Editor: Bianca Barajas
  • Production Designer: Ellie Creighton

PRESS

A star player and his veteran coach grapple for control of their struggling basketball team without regard for anyone in their way.

  • Director, Screenwriter & Producer: Mason Layag
  • Producer: Lexi Hermes & Christian Soldano
  • Cinematographer: Lynus Rivera
  • Editor: Evan Shicks
  • Production Designer: Ava Contreras

Rolling Both Ways

After joining a Dungeons and Dragons game, a catholic girl struggles to understand her sexuality.

  • Director & Screenwriter: Garrett Noone
  • Producer: Eddy Sandoval
  • Cinematographer: Lewis Sison
  • Editor: Micheal James
  • Production Designer: Hannah Reed-Elliot

Brett Wong's Ex-Girlfriends

A revenge-driven high school senior gathers a group of four other women, including a permanently limped former athlete, to plot the murder of their mutual ex-boyfriend, Brett Wong.

  • Director & Screenwriter: Gianna Labinpuno
  • Producer: Fatima Iniguez Canela, Aline Kasbarjikian, and Christian George
  • Cinematographer: Lois Danielle Ces
  • Editor: Kristie Chivacharoen
  • Production Designer: Sandra Aguilar

Diaspora

A group of first-generation college students go around their campus to take photos for their photography class during the 2021 pull-out of Afghanistan.

  • Director & Screenwriter: Takoune H. Norasingh
  • Producer: Isaak Nsuangani
  • Cinematographer: Ellie Creighton
  • Editor: Matt Carver
  • Production Designer: Angela Barbero

た だ い ま [ta·die·ma]

Trigger warning: References to suicide, and rape

Nina has returned to her hometown to see Mother, but being back triggers memories of her childhood, memories of Mother, and Nina struggles to cope as the puzzle pieces about their relationship fall into place.​

  • Director: Gordon Buck
  • Producer: Edgar Isenmann
  • Screenwriter: Gordon Buck
  • Cinematographer: Kai Vargas
  • Editor: Diana Rincon-Zepeda
  • Production Designer: Ava Contreras

 

Surfside (Independent Media FEA 360) 

Professor: Quinn Winchell

 

Narrative Disruption

Trailer for feature-length documentary about the making of the 2024 Narrative Production senior films.

  • Director: Eddy Ray Sandoval
  • Producer: Cesar Sanchez
  • Screenwriter: Connor Eaton & Ozzie Gonzalez
  • Cinematographer: Matt Carver & Stuart Davis
  • Editor: The Narrative Disruption Team
  • Production Designer: Arlette Rosas & Orlando Izazaga