News Release

7th Annual Ohio Wesleyan Documentary Film Festival Set for April 15
Free Screening of OWU Student Films to be Held at Delaware’s Strand Theatre

April 4, 2011

DELAWARE, OH – The Strand Theatre will open its doors to the community for a free night of student-made films from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. April 15.

The 7th Annual Ohio Wesleyan University Documentary Film Festival includes seven films ranging from 11 minutes to 29 minutes apiece. Student-filmmakers will be recognized and participate in a short discussion following each screening.

The documentaries focus on issues including poverty, religious tolerance, immigration, and natural disaster. Student-directors conducted multiple interviews and reflected on personal experiences for each documentary, said Chuck Della Lana, OWU’s director of media services.

Della Lana co-teaches “Ethnographic and Documentary Film and Filmmaking” with anthropology professor Mary T. Howard, Ph.D.

“We assist students as part of the class, and the whole class gives feedback,” Howard said. “They never look at films the same.”

In addition to helping students with their productions, Howard directed a film of her own based on the experiences of OWU students during a month-long trip to Bolivia, where they studied issues such as the economy, poverty, migration, and threats to the Amazon rainforest.

The Ohio Wesleyan University Documentary Film Festival is sponsored by the OWU Media Center and the Department of Sociology/Anthropology. Films will be shown in the balcony theater of the Strand, 28 E. Winter St.

Film Schedule

• 7 p.m. – “One or Another, One in the Same: A Look at Religious Perception,” directed by Ariel Hirsh, a sophomore from New Albany, Ohio.
• 7:30 p.m. – “Trailer Trash,” directed by Ben Andrews, a junior from Delaware, Ohio; Andrea Hatfield, a senior from Mason, Ohio; and Beth Robb, a senior from Hinckley, Ohio.
• 7:50 p.m. – “Oppatunity,” directed by Lathania Brown, a junior from Pickerington, Ohio.
• 8:15 p.m. – “Hialeah: Yesterday y Hoy,” directed by Jon West, a senior from Miami, Fla.
• 8:30 p.m. – “TUMI AMAR BONDHU: You Are My Friend,” directed by Perrie Bonner, a senior from Monrovia, Calif.
• 8:45 p.m. – “A Twist of Spring: Lake Township 2010,” directed by Matthew Swaim, a sophomore from Oregon, Ohio.
• 9:20 p.m. – “In Bolivia,” directed by OWU professor Mary Howard.

Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 45 states and 52 countries. Ohio Wesleyan earned a 2009 Presidential Award for Excellence in General Community Service, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.