One of the University of Memphis’s own participated in the Sundance Film Festival this year in Utah. Kevin Brooks is studying communication with an emphasis in film and TV production. Brooks describes how he became interested in filmmaking: “I was drawn to film at an early age because I watched the film The Matrix and it really caught my attention because it showed me how emotional and visual a movie can really be. Coincidentally that same year, my dad brought home a video camera and he taught me how to use it and from then on my interest in filmmaking just really took off.”
Brooks received a fellowship from the Sundance Film Festival through the Ignite Fellows Program. This program flew Brooks to the five-day festival this month, where he attended screenings and had exclusive access to experienced filmmakers discussing their creative processes. It is the beginning of a yearlong mentorship in which each fellow is assigned a Sundance alum to provide feedback on the fellow’s scripts and productions and guidance on their careers. A press release from Sundance says: “The Ignite Fellows Program is a competitive and intensive Sundance Institute experience designed to provide meaningful opportunities for engagement, mentorship and industry exposure for emerging filmmakers 18 to 24 years of age.”
Historically, Sundance has always been part of granting young filmmakers the chance to create their vision and get it shown to a wide audience. They chose the age range of 18-24 years old because so many classic films that came out of the Sundance program were created by people within that age range, such as Kevin Smith with Clerks and Robert Rodriguez with El Mariachi to name a few. They chose the finalists by hosting a short film competition online with the theme “What’s Next.” The film had to be between 1-8 min long and they were looking for films that were innovative, bold, and stylistically adventurous.
Brooks says that he was “drawn to film because it is such a powerful tool that can be used to better our culture and to better our way of thinking. It is a way to bring millions of people together and have them experience different emotions and reactions to the work of art that is placed on screen, and I just felt as an aspiring filmmaker, my responsibility is to create films that will better people and cause them to think in ways that will push forward our society.” Brooks’s goals for his films resonate with the University and Memphis community, so it is not surprising that he was drawn to the University of Memphis: “I felt their program was a great platform for me learn great things in my studies and they are super helpful with their students on the steps they should take after graduating from college. I learned a lot from my recent Documentary Writing class with Professor Leake, I never really considered making documentaries but after taking this class my view on documentary changed and honestly the lessons I learned in there I can also apply to film. I just really loved the honesty that has to go into documentaries and even though narrative film is fictional, I still want them to feel honest.”
This fellowship will help Brooks pursue his goals and meet many people who are already established within the industry. He is particularly excited about having a mentor: “I think that by having a mentor, I will learn many things that I didn’t know before and he will help on advising me with upcoming projects that I want to work on and getting those films shown in festivals around the world.”