The Department of Performing and Media Arts presents:

Student Film Screening

Fall 2025 

PMA 3570: Film and Video Production I
PMA 3571: Documentary Filmmaking
PMA 3580: Cinematography and Visual Storytelling
PMA 1410: Media Production Laboratory

The Kiplinger Theatre, Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts
430 College Avenue
Friday, December 12, 5:00 p.m.

Content Warning: For mature audiences only. Films contain material that may be triggering to some audience members.

Directed by Linda Hu

Director of Photography: Ava Hesslau

Following an exhausting interview, a busy woman whose life is consumed by the corporate world tumbles into a series of dream-like moments from her childhood.

Directed by Kate Thorpe

A very small town in the Hudson Valley of Upstate New York. Each Kerhonkson natives or current residents, the participants of this documentary, describe how the area has changed over the years and how they have been able to put down roots in Kerhonkson through farming, local business ownership and communities of faith.

Directed by Christian Stefan Amadeo

Director of Photography: Bixby Piccolo Hill

A wounded survivor and starving zombie face off by a riverbank, trapped in a deadly stalemate. As dawn turns to dusk, their fight for survival becomes a haunting conversation about life and what’s left of it.

Directed by Ava Hesslau 

This story follows Shannon Hamilton’s experience co-founding Saoirse Pastures, located in Ithaca, NY. Saoirse Pastures operates as a non-profit animal sanctuary that rescues unwanted, abandoned, and abused farm animals. In New York State, farm animals remain the most unprotected, and Saoirse Pastures actively educates the community on the cruelties of factory farming.

Directed by Sofía Kornélia Echániz

Director of Photography: Julia R Schanen

A young woman struggles to process a deep loss, stuck in the numbness of grief. After exiling feeling to survive, she finds comfort in the healing power of music and reconnects with her past to finally feel again.

Directed by Esther Grace Brenner 

Blending a painter’s sensibility with an observational documentary style, Lumière et Mémoire traces how light shapes the inner life, creating a self-portrait formed through landscapes, field sound, and the attentive act of seeing.

Directed by Soha Khan, Veronika Makoviak, Anna Marchetti, Rowan Martin, Caroline Scharf.

Directed by Dahyun (Roo) Ryu

At a school devoted to nurturing young ambitions, a 22-year-old student and her 72-year-old classmate confront the life cycle of dreams, discovering what lingers when they are forgotten, transformed, left behind, or even die.

Directed by Ella Breitenbach

Director of Photography: Nicholas York

When a recently graduated alchemist struggling to find a job accidentally stumbles upon a wild new potion, she overcomes her slump but causes chaos in her city.

Directed by Suraj Kushwaha 

Climber and director Suraj Kushwaha shares a glimpse into the journey and motivations behind making the 2nd ascent of Oppositional Defiance Disorder, a mystical rock climb on the overhanging Tsunami Wall in the northern Adirondacks that stood unrepeated for 15 years.

Directed by Jessie Jia

Director of Photography: Kristina Georges

SugarFree follows a former ballerina who, after losing someone dear, gives up dancing and moves from the city to the suburbs. Haunted by a fractured memory and struggling with an eating disorder, she tries to navigate life between performance and emptiness.

Directed by Liv Licursi 

Deep in the red state of Florida, 66-year-old Norman dedicates his life to building and maintaining a robust LGBTQ+ community, providing a life-line for queer people under legislation that pushes for their erasure.

Directed by Mia Sofia Orengo 

Set inside a prestigious university often defined by competition and image, this documentary exposes the unseen emotional labor and resilience of the women who hold each other up—challenging what community really means in a high-pressure world.

Directed by Mary Caitlin Cronin, Sofia Doblosky, Nika Lalic, Izabela Litwinowicz, Tanum Nelson, Joe Reyes, Colton Sears.

Directed by Maiia Tomskaia

Direcrtor of Photography: Gabriela Barelli

What begins as a romance between two college friends takes on new meaning when her side of the story is told. The love was never real, only a one-sided fantasy built on stalking and obsession.

Directed by Saskia Gonzalez 

From humble beginnings to cult-favorite status, follow the story of Tacos CDMX and its owner Eduardo Acevedo. Through cold winters, warm grills, and the joy of serving others, Tacos CDMX becomes more than a restaurant: it becomes a place of belonging, connection, and shared happiness.

Directed by Emma Alexander

Three students recount their experiences protesting at Cornell.

Directed by Erick Caridad 

Director of Photography: Annette Murray

Running late for an interview, a young man is thrown off course by an unexpected reunion with an old friend.

Directed by Sofia Loayza 

Retracing the road from Ithaca to her hometown on Lake Ontario, Sofia uncovers the hidden stories of undocumented immigrant communities embedded in the region. Visiting the sites of recent mass ICE raids and the border-patrol facility in her hometown, she confronts how a place that once felt like home now carries the weight of displacement — and questions what “home” means for those who stay, those forced away, and those caught in between.

Directed by Eric Han

Director of Photography: Mia Sofia Orengo

A student journalist asks a colleague for help on his transition to documentary filmmaking. A video editing lesson instigates an unsteady march toward ego death.

Directed by Emily Lee, Jean Hyun Kim, Jessica Yao, Laine Havens, Zoe Buddie.