Elon junior and cinema major Max Cantor will have his portrait documentary, "Cinema 93," air on UNC-TV later this month.
Cantor’s documentary, an
elondocs production, airs at 11 p.m. on June 14 as part of UNC-TV’s VISIONS
series. A synopsis of “Cinema 93” from the elondocs Web site reads:
“Barry Steelman has always
been a dreamer, first as the owner of an independent movie theater in Concord,
N.H., called Cinema 93, and then as the owner of a small video store by the
same name on Pleasant Street. For the past decade his dream has been to create
a new theater in town. With construction underway, his dream looked to be
coming true, but a breach with the board of directors caused Barry to leave the
project. Now, with the opening approaching, he’s left to think hard about his
legacy.”
According to an interview
with UNC-TV, Cantor said he heard about Steelman through Concord’s rumor mill.
“Concord, New Hampshire is
a small community, and word travels fast,” Cantor said. “I’d seen Barry in his
video store and knew he was a great storyteller, so I thought he would make a
great subject for a documentary. I was also encouraged that the story seemed to
have a real narrative arc, with a logical resolution being the theater opening.”
The film’s production
lasted one summer. Cantor said he began filming in May of 2007 and wrapped in
October. The post-production process took about five months, he said.
“The best times making Cinema 93 were when the camera wasn’t
rolling, and I got to just talk with Barry and watch movies around the store,”
Cantor said in the interview with UNC-TV. “He let my camera into his life
extremely openly, and the trust he placed in me made the project successful. He
is a genuinely kind person, and his store is a special place for Concord.”
English major and 2008 graduate Sarah Cox will also see her
documentary appear on UNC-TV. “Degrees of Change,” also an elondocs production, will
air at 11 p.m. on June 21 as part of the VISIONS series.
A synopsis of “Degrees of Change” from the UNC-TV Web site
reads:
“Most American colleges say they produce engaged citizens, but many students
seem uninterested in today’s pivotal issues and in acting to create change in
their communities. This film explores the role that universities play in
encouraging activism, and questions the possible causes of student apathy at a
time with such possibility for change.
“Follow
one group of students making dramatic demands for environmental policy change
on their North Carolina campus. As the pressure mounts, they face doubtful
administrators and indifferent students, and the group’s passionate leader
struggles to convince her peers of the power they have in an age when student
activism is often invisible.”
In
an interview with UNC-TV, Cox said she became enamored with the idea of student
engagement after noticing that few students on Elon’s campus seem to be interested
in activist work, even though the university promotes its emphasis on engaged
learning.
“I began thinking more about the implications of an ‘activist
culture’ on any given campus, and about what I see as the responsibility of any
university to graduate students with both an understanding of the great crises
of our time and knowledge of how change occurs on local and global levels,” she
said.
Production for “Degrees” lasted seven months. The first four
were used for shooting, and the last three were used to finish interviews and to
edit.
“I hope that people will walk away from my film with an interest in supporting
and encouraging young people to make change in their communities,” Cox said in
the interview with UNC-TV. “I hope that everyone, including students, will
consider how they can be more engaged in today’s pertinent questions and that
anyone in a position of power within a educational institution will think about
what a ‘good education’ really entails at a time when we are faced with massive
environmental collapse, among other things.”