Directors Guild of America Student Film Showcase

Every year since 1991, a showcase of student films produced in the Department of Film & Electronic Arts has been presented at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. The event highlights the quality and diversity of our student productions for an audience of industry professionals, actors and crews, family and friends, and students and faculty.

DGA Showcase directors and films:

1991
Umberto Autore, Jr., Losing Johnny
Stacia Boyd, Mitt Schloffen
Michael Collins, I Get a Kick Out of You
Jan Corey, Slaves
Eduard Erslovas, Liquid Glass
Stephen T. Gladstone, Stop the Clock
Dave Kost, Road Kill
Judi Tallen Kriss, You're The One... Aren't You?
Michael Landis, Horace "Billy" Parker: The Man, The Myth, The Legend
Wesley Magruder, Parkfield, CA
Christine Moore, Bernard '83
Nils Myers, The Haircut
Jock Peterson, A Couple of Bucks and a Toaster
Kevin Rubio, Tough Break
Guy Sappington, The Last Laugh
Mark Solter, Under the Window Pane
Mark Vigil, A Family Matter
Andrew Weder, Fears-ta-sy

1992
Marcelino Alonso, Male Prostitute
Gene Barnard, Cow Credit
Judi Tallen Kriss, How It Is
Andrea Maxwell, The Gift
Mark Petulla, Free Love
Michael Rubin, The Regulators
Kevin Rubio, Re-Animator
Bryan Sierra, To Destroy Angels
Michael Stokes, Alien
Lynda S. Tarryk, Ben
Michael Torrey, Honey, I'm Going Out Tonight

1993
Umberto Autore, Jr., Bob and Arlene
Gene Barnard, Twenty-Two
Jean Fitting, Not Tonight
Devora Gomez, La Cabeza Sin Cara
Patrick Kiely, The Director
Scott Kuiper, Stillborn
David P. Johnson, Glass Ceiling
Mark Petulla, Enjoy Your Eternity
James Renn, Loser
Bryan Sierra, Black Metallic
Michael Stokes, Desire
Lynda Tarryk, Metermaid

1994
Belinda Bauer and James Renn, Clownfish
Kirsten Bulmer, Learning to Dance
Joel Elliott, Cut and Dried
Susan Everett, White Rabbits
Drew Johnson, Separation
Brian Maris, Choices
Craig Mayo, Why Not?
Joe Miyano, Full Circle
James Renn, Door to Door
Mark Rollins, Red Light, Green Light

1995
Clint Bond, Heroic Illusion
Roger Hearld, Feverish
Andrew Johnson, Best Man
Brian Maris, The Runner
Daniel Mellitz, La Femme Pickle
Alex Perez, Boxcar Willie
Greg Postma, Guffie
Mark Rollins, Darkened Theater
Christine Tasche, All About Adam

1996
Phillip Bissada, Dance For Two
Matt Claybrooks, In God We Trust
Peter Dana, Dale's Diner
Marcos Garcia, What's Going On
Devora Gomez, Espiritu
Carrie Hadaller, Still Clueless
Daniel Mellitz, The Lost Mariner
Donald Straub, Self-Portrait
Hiroshi Takimoto, Amino Acid 1800

1997
Jason Bretz, Fatherland
Mike Chappell, Untitled
Carrie Hadaller, Hits & Mrs.
Sharri Hefner, Flying Machine
Brian Jonason, Information Age
John Lucanic, At Play
Takeshi Nishiyasu, Ride Ride Ride
Sandra Pica, Circle of Love
Mark Sterling, A Short Visit Home

1998
Corey Azevedo, Three Bills
Jason Bretz, American Icons
Roger Hearld (in memorium), Passion and Appetite
Brian Jonason, Dailies From "The Wayfarer"
Darrin Plant, Megahurtz
Eric Schwartz, 11:17
Timothy Swanson, Pour L'Amour du Cinema
Sumesh Thakur, The Night Before Christmas
Takeshi Yuba, Feel

1999
Vicki Ariamal, Meow
Jean Fletcher, Scratch
Adam Golibart, Ay, Ay, Eye
Geoff Hamby, Item F:8563
Kristopher Hritz and Vicki Ariamal, Bootyshine
Daisuke Kinouchi, Cinema Verite
Paul Minor, Candyflipping
Amanda Provost, Take Five
Christopher San Paolo, Give It Up
Eric Schwartz, Saving Grace
Sumesh Thakur, Objet d'Art

2000
Rich Asprec, Waiting For Bukowski
Leslie Aurelio, Role Play
Mike Benecke, We Meet At Last
Jason Botkin, Good Luck
Andrei Cranch, Youtopia
Biance C. D'Carpio, Have You Seen Me
Joey Estella, Aiding & Abetting
Adam Goudchaux, Arbuckle
Ken Winkler, Neomortalism

2001
Mik B, Seconds Thought
Aaron Garcia, Drowning
Kristina Holland, Tableaux Vivant
Bobby D. Lux, Stuntman
Brian Marsh, The Move
Kevin O'Neil, Captivity
Nicholas Shaffer, Catch of the Day
Dawson Williams, Trade Day
Ken Winkler, Infidels

2002
Kevin Baird, Monkey Boy
Anderson Cowan, Three Sicks
Katrina DeLeon, The Rain
Erik Diener, Messy Women
Mark Doddy, Oedilyn
Erik Fetler, Half a Pact
Melissa Givens, Joe's Tavern
Mike Ocoboc, Over
Farnaz Samiinia, Butterfly

2003
Martin Aristidou, A Poem
Oliver DeFilippo, System
Tammy Eastepp, Mi Amour
Brian Fischer, L'Historie de Billy Matter
Garrett Grundman, A Question of Honor
Doug Hovey, Sweet Dreams
John Jameson, Out and About
Kristen Kim, The Thing She Left Behind
Lex Kim, The One That Got Away
Michael Martinson, Captive
Ryan Musante, The Horror

2004
Alfonso Aguilar, Servants of the Machine
Mike Baird, Just Say Love
Adam Camacho, Dog Eat Dog
Ryan Goble, This Is It
Erin Henning, Right of Revolution
Matt Koed, The Bloody Badge
Stephen Rau, Jaxson Drake
Jacob Scarpaci, Friday Night Renaissance
George Soto, Father's Waltz
Eva Valett, Sebastian's Home

2005
Cynthia Aguirre, Fragments
Jacques Bale, 2B Or Not 2B
Matthew Brown, Mall Cops
Nick Corsetti, State of Mind
Tony DeLuca, Acquaintances
John Fulton, Ouroboros
Geri Logan, Holy Ghost Fire
Jose Renteria, Closet
Gerson Sanginitto, Contend
Bryan Thompson, El Paletero
Juan Trinidad, Anti-Personnel
Meagan Woodward, Stolen Hope

2006
Adam Amberden, Augustus Wilkerson
Gregory R.R. Crosby, The Unobtrusive Plot
Michael DeLuca, The Bridge
Sonyo Estavillo, Brooklyn
Michelle Gevoian, One Sister
Dan Kinsbursky, West of Glory
Roger Melvin, Each Other
Vito Razi, The Walk
Angie Picirillo, PMS: A Period Piece
Junya Sakino, Orizuru
Gerson Sanginitto, The TV Broke
Ryan Silveira, Bee Goldin
Sam K. Yano, The Richter Effect

2007
Ryan Bergez, The Necessary Assassination of George Lucas
Dorian Connelley, Costello
Michael Delvecchio, July 17th, 1996
Joseph Dunn, Untitled Warhol Film
Rick Escamilla, Memory of Eden
Ed Estrada, Door to Door
Mary Fecteau, Who Died Here?
John Grod, Blindside
Eric Kim, Where Did The Time Go?
Jessica McCarty, My Leisure World
Gabe Michael, Smooch
Ramona Popa, Loss
Travis Sims, A Movie About a Guy Who Loses a Specific Body Part
Gabe Yeh, Eviction Notice

2008
Ryan Bates, Seven Years
Nicolas Bordage, The Interview
Margaret Boulware / Zach Marchinsky, Under The Gun
Ken Cooper, Judy Horowitz's Bat Mitzvah
Fil Garrison, Viaticus
Kris Hildago, Give Me Life
Pablo Leda, Mother Ship
Jody Lemmon, The Journey of the Cola Kayak
Jan-Michael Losada, S.I.N.
Drew Metz, Half
Oscar Reyes, The Dance Lesson
Derek Wiley, The Champ

Department of Film & Electronic Arts Critical Essay Contest

The Critical Essay Contest awards the best student scholarship produced in the FEA department's critical studies courses. A faculty committee judges the essays on the basis of their quality and accuracy of research, incisiveness of critical thought, and clarity and effectiveness of presentation. Awards are announced at the Student Film Showcase at the end of Spring semester.


Award Winners:

2005

1st place:
Michael Rossetti, "The Illusion of Art in Blowup"

2nd place:
Alison Black, "Smells Like Sensationalism: Did Nick Broomfield's Kurt and Courtney Kill Itself... or Was It Murdered?"

3rd place:
Megan Welch, "Alleviating Fears: The Method and Magic of Science Fiction"


2006

1st place:
Michael Rossetti, "Come and See the Lessons of War"

2nd place:
Mary Fecteau, "Jung, Italian Style: The Psychology of Jung in Fellini's 8 1/2"

3rd place:
Kenneth Sato, "Don't Look Back: Another Side of Documentary Film"


2007

1st place:
William Giacchi, "Ecstatic Truth in Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man"

Runners-Up:
Mary Fecteau, "Let's All Have a Good Laugh: Lina Wertmuller's Seven Beauties"
Eric Kim, "He Came, He Saw, He Restructured: Elem Klimov's Revision of Soviet World War II Mythmaking"
David Miller, "House Rules: Louis Malle's Atlantic City"


Honorable Mention:
Amy Bartlett, "Nature vs. Nurture: Joey vs. Tom in A History of Violence"
D'Wayne Clinton, "Let It Bleed: Hybridized Direct Cinema and Gimme Shelter"
Nathan Cooke, "The Classical Gangster Film and Boyz N The Hood"
Doris Leung, "A Gangsta's Life: Taking a Look Back at A History of Violence"
Sarah Noone, "Dialectics of Liberation: Carolee Schneemann's Fuses"
Art Serna, "The Chicano Revision: Gangs, Genre, and the Prison Life in American Me"
Michael Thielvoldt, "Au revoir, l'innocence: Themes and Color Schemes in Louis Malle's Au revoir, les enfants"

2008

1st Place:
Michelle Ton, "Girl, Interrupting: A Feminist Dislocation of the Male Narrativity, Gaze and Spectator in Agnes Varda's Vagabond"

Runners-Up:
Kenneth Cooper, "More Than the Sum of Its Parts: 'Travelin' Thru' the Marketing and Critical Reception of Transamerica"
Paul T. Layland, "A Half-Formed Female: The Problem of Nikita"
Christopher J. Rock, "Come and See: The Horsemen of War"
David C. Smith, "The Docs, They Are A-Changin': Offering Intimacy Through Postured Objectivity in D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back"

Honorable Mention:
Lindsey Clemons, "Observing Grey Gardens"
Michele Geary, "Degeneration of the German Spirit: Mephisto and The Damned"
Doris Leung, "The False Romantic Promise: A Contemporary Analysis of Documentary in The Bridge"
Ursula Loscalzo, "Emotion, Tradition, and Silence: Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story"
John Matsuya, "The Way You Look Tonight: Women of Musicals as Subjects of the Gaze"
Paul Morales, "Boyz N the Hood: Continuing the Legacy of the Classical Gangster Film"
Ardrian Newell, "Born Into Brothels: A Romanticized Look"
Kristi Peterson, "A History of Violence: A Few Nods and a Nudge in the Ribs"
Benjamin Stagg, "Past and Present Collide: The Films of Bergman, Fellini, and Allen"
Michael Thielvoldt, "Cinema Enigma: A Discursive Analysis of Federico Fellini's Cinema"

2009

First Place:
Michelle Ton, "Ambiguity, Class, and the Circumstantial: Understanding the Nazi Collaborator in Louis Malle's Lacombe, Lucien"

Runners-Up:
Neil Corbin, "Michael Haneke's Cache: Re-Visioning Multiculturalism, Postmodernism, and the Algerian War"
Holly Garland, "The Excess of Sex, 1980s Style: 9 1/2 Weeks as Backlash Film"
Kelvin Ho, "A Time to Remember, A Time to Reflect: Hou Hsiao-hsien's A Time to Live, A Time to Die"
Andrew Pearson, "Wandering Amidst a Russian Purgatory: Historical Commentary and the Loss of Innocence in Elem Klimov's Come and See"

Honorable Mention:
Stacy Astenius, "Le scaphandre et le papillon: The Phenomenological Construct of Manhood in a Postmodern World"
Austin Butler, "Getting Out of South Central L.A.: School, Sports, or Death" [on Boyz N the Hood]
Kenta Ikeda, "Thinking Godard: Pierrot le fou"
James Kislingbury, "It Came in Outer Space! Rampant Horror and Human Sexuality in Alien"
Ursula Loscalzo, "Everyday Evils: Louis Malle's Cinematic Emancipation of Guilt, Stereotypes, and a Nation's History" [on Lacombe, Lucien and Au revoir, les enfants]
Kristi Peterson, "A Frightening Dystopia, A Scanner Darkly: A Phenomenological Reading of a Postmodern Text"
David Phill, "Shadow of a Gangster" [on Atlantic City]


2010

First Place:
Megan De Leon, "The Mad Man: Our Guide Through the 'Pursuit of Happiness'"

Runners-Up:
Austin Butler, "The Thought Machine: Gus Van Sant's Elephant and Its Polysemy"
Kelvin Ho, "The Suicide Bomber and Her Bananas: Deconstructing a Masculine Genre in Post-9/11 America in Julia Loktev's Day Night Day Night"
Devin Hughes, "Sex, Murder, and Martinis: The Shifting Identities of Nick and Nora Charles, Screwball's Ideal Marriage"
David Phill, "Once more unto the hood, dear friends: Identification and Distance in the Critical Reception of John Singleton's Baby Boy"
Allegra Ringo, "History as Competing Narratives in Capturing the Friedmans"

Honorable Mention:
Lesley Elizondo, "The Irony of Mephisto and Its Portrayal of Self-Deception during the Nazi Uprising"
Holly Garland, "Pain, Pleasure, and Female Desire: Queer Heterosexuality in Secretary"
Cheryl Klewicki, "Verisimilitude, Ambiguity, and Transitory Realism in Juliet of the Spirits"
Andrew Pearson, "Dylan in the Half-Light: Direct Cinema in D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back"
Alex Valencia, "A New Frontier Experience: A Postmodern and Phenomenological Analysis of Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man"


Kristin Oken - 2009-2010 winner of both College of the Arts and university-wide Internship Essay Competitions - pictured receiving $500 awards at the Anatol Center.