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For several Eastern New Mexico University students, tonight will be devoted to a love of film — making, watching and critiquing it.
ENMU’s department of theater and digital filmmaking is hosting a free screening of student film projects Wednesday night.
The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the University Theatre Center Mainstage.
The event will include an introduction from Dirk Norris, the executive director of the New Mexico Film Foundation, and will be followed by a reception.
As a film student, Kyree Mackey, a junior, has had plenty of experience working on projects — tonight, however, feels more impactful; her film, ‘Confronting One’s Self,’ is what set her on the path to practicing the craft.
“I didn’t originally plan to be a film major in high school. I had this thing of being either an English teacher or a theater teacher, and then at the end of that year, we had to write our own scripts, and the script that I made was ‘Confronting One’s Self,’” she said.
Originally intended as a play, “Confronting One’s Self” grew to the point that Mackey believed it would translate better to film, so she registered for film classes at ENMU.
Junior Lane Castro entered the film program because he had “never really liked anything before,” and will soon be seeing his own work, ‘Jordy’s Way,’ on the big screen for the first time.
Castro said he is looking forward to hearing an audience’s thoughts on his film.
“As filmmakers, the thing we want to do is please the audience, and the only way to learn how to do that is to show it to audiences, so film school is a good way to learn what works and what doesn’t,” he said.
For Michael Poynor, a senior who worked on the films “Keep Talking” and “Masks,” the audience’s reaction will determine whether the ideas he’s trying to convey are coming across successfully.
“Whenever you watch the movie over and over again on your own, you get your own thoughts and opinions, and whenever you’re making the movie, you want to try to push across this idea, and you don’t really know if you’re accomplishing that goal until you show it to an audience,” he said.
However, whether a person loves the films or hates them, a reaction is a reaction, according to junior Daniella Gauna.
“It’s gonna resonate no matter what. People are either going to hate it or love it. It still resonates with them,” she said.