North By Northeastern - Video/Media Festival

NEIU Department of Communication, Media and Theater presented, "North by Northeastern – Video/ Media Festival," in the Stage Centre Theater, organized by CMT Department's Professor Cynthia Moran, with assistance by Anna Antaramian, Katrina Bell-Jordan, and Anna Cannova. The technical assistance was provided by Jim Henning, Steve Searle, John Miller, and Tim Davis.

This year's festival featured audio pieces made by the students of Professor Craig Kois' classes. The notable audio pieces include; "A Painful Lesson" by Anne Kim. This was a tale of Korean mothers, generation gaps, and self-doubt. Other notables included, "Time Zones", visual music to a layered audio track of telephone time announcement recordings by David Ropinsky, "In Search of an Environmentalist", which attempted to determine who is (not) an environmentalist and illustrated how an environmentalist can take many forms by Dr. Tony Adams, and "The Wandering Spirit of Flamenco" which follows Anna Tsatsko's wanderings through the passionate dance and music with a wandering spirit itself, where every beat cries ‘fire.'

Original short films includes; "Running the Table" by Patrick Graves, "Devil's Food" by Edgar Sanchez, "A Walk in New York" by Tamara Susa, "Somebody's Watching Me", a tale of justified paranoia by Jacqueline Santiago, and "The Present" by Britanny Aceto.

The comic short films included, "Dolls Have Feelings 2" in which Nanami Hunter's doll took revenge on her boyfriend who poisoned Hunter's food, "Cosmo's Party" where Cosmo had a hilarious party with the cut-outs of various celebrities including Barack and Michelle Obama and Megan Fox, a "Hungry Student" who couldn't get anything to eat on campus by Patrick Graves, and "Chaine Perfume", a parody of Calvin Klein's Obsession perfume commercial by Nanami Hunter.

The documentary segments includes; "Garik Khayidakh" by Anna Mkrtchian, which revolves around the October, 31 2010 attack on Our Lady of Salvation Christian Church in Bahgdad, Iraq. In the short eight Assyrian Singers from across the US and Canada came together to raise awareness of the Massacre of Christians in Iraq, "The Ethnic Market Grows Up" about three Chicagoland ethnic grocery stores that have adapted the American supermarket model by Fariha Abdi, Anna Cannova, Dale Rivera, and Holly Smith, and "Payscale: Surviving an Underground Economy", which explored low range occupations in Albany Park by Matt Halterman, Carrie Robinson, Edgar Sanchez, and Daniel Cruz.

The festival also showcased the documentary shorts about food from the diverse community of Albany Park, named "Flavors of Albany Park", created by Cynthia Moran's Video Production Workshop. Students of the workshop included: Mark Deason, Carrie Robinson, Ed Dorociak, Javier Chavez, Edgar Sanchez, Ella Harris, Patricia Dalinis, Evelia Moreno, David Kozin, Tamara Susa, and Nanami Hunter.

The event is a great way to get the talent of NEIU recognized. The diverse nature of the filmmakers and producers made the event more memorable.