Lux Mea festival shines a light on student filmmakers

The inaugural Lux Mea Film Festival will showcase the work of Grove City College student auteurs with a big-screen event later this month at the Guthrie Theatre.

Sponsored by the Department of Communication and Visual Arts, the festival will present a series of short student films on April 30 and May 1 at the Olde Town Grove City movie theater, a downtown landmark known as “The Queen of Broad Street.”

Within a runtime of about two hours, viewers will see students’ cinematic entries in a number of categories: narrative, documentary, experimental and “super short” clips less than-3-minutes long. 

Festival passes are on sale this week at Breen Student Union and will be available online at the Lux Mea website luxmeafilmfestival.com after April 25.

Students in the Special Events and Promotions class planned and organized the festival. Student teams developed skill sets in marketing, management, social media, video production, graphic design, and branding photography to put together “not just an event, but an experience,” junior Lizzy Schinkel, festival social media manager, said.

“We wanted to host a film festival at Grove City because I believe there’s a lot of diversity among the student body in experience and talent,” event videographer junior Barnabas Chen said. “Like sports and music, visual storytelling has to be encouraged, and a film festival is one of the best ways to present their work and increase their confidence.”

Lux Mea, which means “my light,” is the motto of Grove City College and the guiding ideal of the festival. “Our whole mission is to tell stories rooted in the values of truth-telling and exploring what it means to be a human being made in the image of God,” website manager senior Alyssa Ward said. 

Associate Professor of Communications and Visual Art Gregory Bandy teaches the class. “I believe there’s an enormous amount of untapped storytelling talent here,” he said. Bandy is hoping to create a foundation this year for future Lux Mea Film Festivals and Grove City College’s emergence as a creative storytelling center, particularly through film.

“Something very magical takes place when the lights go down in a theater with hundreds of people in the room,” Bandy said. “You’ve poured yourself into creatively crafting imagery, music and light into a story that hopefully makes people think, laugh, and maybe helps us see ourselves in a new, honest, even a funny way. It’s important that we tell stories that matter.”

For more about the Department of Communication and Visual Arts, visit gcc.edu/comm.

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