Athena-Film-Festival

Columbia School of the Arts promotes its film master’s degree program with a skillfully produced trailer that offers a seductive sales pitch to prospective applicants. The school boasts that students’ films play at “every major film festival you can think of: Telluride, Berlin, South by Southwest and Tribeca, Cannes.” Deans and professors tout the program’s focus on practical training and portfolio development set students up for industry success: The school proudly announces that students are “making things from the first day they come here and they’re making things as they walk out the door.”

As a child, writer and director Channing Godfrey Peoples attended the Miss Juneteenth pageant held each year in Fort Worth, Texas. Seeing beautiful black women celebrated on stage, on the holiday that commemorates when slaves in Texas learned that they had been freed in 1865, left a lasting impression on her.

Director, writer, editor, photographer, first-generation college student, music lover, Instagrammer, daughter, storyteller. Just like her, the films Mariah Barrera, CC ’24, creates cannot be pigeonholed. They explore everything from the devastation of incarceration to the lighthearted simplicity of teenage joy.

“What’s up? Want to dance?” At a house party in Queens, Ulises' construction worker friends convince him to dance for them. He agrees, but instead of bopping to the American music that is playing, he chooses to dance cumbia, a Colombian style. When they laugh at him and call him a loser, Ulises walks away, unwilling to give up a dance that represents who he is just to fit in.

Computers buzz, Wi-Fi networks struggle to connect, and microphones jump between muted and live. With scripts in blue light, the members of the Columbia Screenwriters Guild, known more colloquially as CU OnScreen, strive to find a virtual writing community in uncertain times.

For the past 15 years, Maysles Documentary Center has honed its marquees to deliver films that tell untold stories by unheard people, both on a local and global scale.

Following the closure of schools across the country in mid-March, Barnard’s and Columbia’s film departments began operating entirely remotely. In the film industry, production halted, movie theaters closed, and filmmakers reckoned with the limitations and possibilities of remote movie-making. Now, more than four months later, both Columbia’s film department and the film industry are ramping up operations—with adjustments. 

The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” lyrics light up the bottom of the screen. Shadow puppets pack a suitcase. Johann Strauss takes over for Vera Lynn in a Doctor Strangelove-inspired closing montage. Sprawled across YouTube, Facebook, and Zoom, this is interdisciplinary theater at its most inventive.

Film screenings and festivals have historically required large gatherings of people in one room, all looking at the same silver screen. But due to social distancing measures taken in response to the coronavirus pandemic, that is not an option anymore. Yet the show went on for the second annual CU Film Showcase, which brought people together from all over the world on April 27 to watch students’ short films on their personal silver screens.

An online college experience has been a hassle for many, whether it be because of one’s inability to concentrate, the quality of lectures, or just general feelings of isolation. Columbia and Barnard students across the globe can—for the most part—agree that education is better when everyone is together. However, in the absence of regular events and heavy courseloads, the University has gifted its students a double-edged sword: more free time. If you, like many others, are looking for productive ways to spend your newly found hours of the day, try picking up a new language. On top of online programs to help you learn, one of the best ways to practice a language is through listening to others speak. Without further ado, here’s a list of popular foreign films to watch during quarantine season.