Newsletter 2013

2013 Film Studies Program Annual Update

By Edwin Weihe, Director of Film Studies

Inaugurated in fall 2009, the B.A. in Film Studies has grown rapidly in film courses (30+), course enrollments, and majors/minors (93). While the degree requirements and curriculum are well-balanced between critical studies courses in film art and history, genre studies, international cinemas, great directors and special topics courses, and screenwriting and production courses, most students majoring in Film Studies aspire to careers in “the industry.” The B.A. program’s first tenure-track hire, Georg Koszulinski, is an accomplished and gifted filmmaker and he will assume leadership of our production team of part-time professional filmmakers.

Film students are strongly encouraged to undertake internships in Seattle’s vibrant film community and to present their films in public forums. This year students interned at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and Northwest Film Forum, AYNI Education (a non-profit promoting girls’ education in Afghanistan), Children’s Hospital, Terry Hines and Associates (who market for Warner Brothers), Clatter & Din recording studios, Shadow Catcher Entertainment, and NY talent agency Buchwald and Associates, as well as on many local film productions, including Lynn Shelton’s Laggies and our own Mike Attie’s documentary, In Country. Film students are also winning awards at MOHAI “History is …”, Humanity-Without-Borders, Westport Youth Festival, Rocky Mountain Regional Festival, and SUFF. Several majors have studied film abroad—in Rome, Edinburgh, and Prague—and at NYU-Tisch. Film major Evan Morgan was one of recipients of the English Department’s prestigious McDonald Award. In the fall, two Film Studies majors will begin graduate studies in film at San Francisco State University and Western Washington University.

Georg Kozsulinski
Professor Georg Koszulinski joined the department this fall. He will teach courses in Film Studies with a concentration in film and video production. Professor Koszulinski comes to SU with an M.A. in Film Studies from the University of Florida and an M.F.A. in Film and Video Production from the University of Iowa.

Professor Koszulinski is an award-winning filmmaker who has directed over 25 films, ranging from documentary and narrative features to avant-garde films and videos. His documentary, Cracker Crazy (2007), explores the history of slavery and exploitation in Florida from first European contact to the present day. Cracker Crazy earned numerous festival awards and was nominated for a Notable Video of the Year by the American Library Association. Immokalee U.S.A. (2008) documents the experiences of migrant farm laborers working in the U.S.A. and was widely programmed at universities and film festivals worldwide. The Documentary Channel acquired both films in 2009.

Most recently, his work about early European cartographies of North America, The Search for Norumbega (2012) screened at the Alchemy Festival of the Moving Image (UK), Camden Film Festival, Indie Grits Festival, Maine International Film Festival, Haverhill Experimental Film Festival, and the Milwaukee Underground Film Festival. Currently, Professor Koszulinski is doing documentary work in Haiti, focusing on forms of creative cultural expression in rural Haitian communities.

Edwin Weihe, director of Film Studies, also serves on the Seattle International Film Festival board. This year he visited with program directors at AFI and Chapman University’s Dodge film school. He attended SXSW, Tribeca, and SIFF festivals and forums. In November, he got out the vote in rural North Carolina. In spring 2013, Dr. Weihe received the College of Arts and Science’s annual Outstanding Teaching Award.