In 2018, film and media students at Southern Oregon University set out to craft intimate, evocative stories about life in the Rogue Valley. Two of their documentary films will now find a larger audience with the debut of the latest episode of Southern Oregon Public Television’s The Jeffersonian, a showcase for student television in the region.
Please join us at SOU’s Meese Auditorium (Art Building 101) on January 14 at 7pm for the debut public screening of this edition of The Jeffersonian, including a Q&A with the filmmakers. Doors open at 6:30pm. SOPTV will give free t-shirts to the first fifty students to arrive.
The upcoming episode, Life on the Margins, presents a soulful and realistic picture of community members who typically receive far less attention in the media than they deserve: veterans and the elderly.
SOU instructor Christopher Lucas guided students through the production of their documentaries. Students advanced their skills in conceiving, filming, editing, and producing short documentary films.
“I asked the students to go find people in the community and get to know them, and create windows into their lives,” said Lucas. “Which is not easy. It requires building rapport and winning some trust. So that is the foundation on which projects like this rise or fall.”
Nathan Comer, himself a military veteran, led production of Remembrance, a story of veterans of the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan living in the Rogue Valley. These veterans include Brian Stanley, who served in Afghanistan, and Kevin Labarbara, who served in Vietnam. Both earned Purple Hearts while fighting for our country.
Samae Chlebowski and Nicole Gullixson co-produced Here, We Are about a creative couple’s confrontation with the march of life as they struggle to sustain their artistic practice in Southern Oregon. Marty Goldman and Harriet Greene moved to the Rogue Valley over 10 years ago with their artistic resumes right behind them. Goldman had a vibrant career in television and film; he directed the Dark August (1976) and more recently The Reading (2016). Deeply moved by speeches of the great American Indian tribes, Greene has created a collection of stone-cut prints titled Oratory of Eight Great Chiefs, which took her 15 years to finish.
Can’t make it to the public screening? Watch the episode live on SOPTV, Monday, January 14 at 9pm, or Monday, January 21 at 11:30pm, and streaming via SOPTV’s website.
