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So exciting!  Escapism screened at the Sugar Loaf Film Festival on September 23rd, and has upcoming screenings at the Wicked Realm Festival in Horseheads, NY on October 20th.  Also has a screening at the Nightmare on Broadstreet Film Festival on the same day at the historic Eagle Theater in Sugar Hill, GA.  Glad so many people are enjoying our little film that could.  Photos from Sugar Loaf, the poster for Escapism at Wicked Realm, and a photo of the  Eagle Theater in Sugar Hill, GA where Escapism will screen.

 

 

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A hearty congratulations to Megan Sperry, Associate Professor of Digital Media and Journalism.  She lead the Woodstock Film Festival class this year.  The class creates video coverage of the festival for the WFFs YouTube page, a task New Paltz students have happily taken on since 2008.  The festival, which just wrapped up its 24th year, is an industry festival touted as ‘One of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” by Movie Maker Magazine.  Professor Sperry also runs the summer youth filmlab for WFF.  The films created by the young filmmakers premiered at the festival this past Sunday.  I’m happily an instructor in the lab, and my daughter, Nora, edited her team’s documentary.

Congratulations to Professor Sperry, the SUNY New Paltz students, and the young filmmakers from the lab!  Woodstock Film Festival Youtube link

 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Escapism, an original short suspense film directed by SUNY New Paltz Digital Media and Journalism Department Chair and SUNY New Paltz Alumnus (Comm/Media ’00) Gregory Bray (Dir. Liner Notes, A Horse Connection) and written by UGA Department of Theatre and Film Studies Associate Professor, and SUNY New Paltz Theatre Arts alumnus (’00), John Patrick Bray based on his play, Friendly’s Fire, has earned a prestigious Broadcast Education Association Award of Excellence for Faculty Short Film.

This thrilling new film follows honorably discharged veteran Guy Friendly as he anticipates the arrival of his friend Todd, so they can enjoy a nostalgic Man-Man and the Sorcerers of Destiny cartoon. But as he’s waiting for Todd, his prized Man-Man toy collection seems to move of their own accord–with deadly intentions. Can Guy navigate memories of past horrors and truly become victorious?

Established in 1955, the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) is the premier international academic media organization, driving insights, excellence in media production, and career advancement for educators, students, and professionals. The association’s publications, annual convention, web-based programs, and regional district activities provide opportunities for juried production competition and presentation of current scholarly research related to aspects of the electronic media.  “The award is a terrific honor,” says the film’s director.  “The BEA is an incredibly important organization for creating opportunities for research, inquiry, criticism, and networking in an expanding and shifting media landscape.  My thanks to the tremendous cast and dedicated crew, which was comprised of SUNY New Paltz faculty, alumni, and students.”  The film was Executive Produced by Joshua Kreitzman, SUNY New Paltz Theatre Arts alumnus (’00).

About the film, Gregg Bray has said, “We’ve always been interested in the popularity of nostalgic escapist media, and how it can bring comfort to us in darker times.  It seems we are seeing more and more nostalgic television and film across mediated platforms.  And it’s worth asking, ‘what’s driving this?’  For Guy Friendly, escapism is just that—a way to escape from a traumatic set of circumstances.”

The Bray Brothers have previously worked together on the feature film Liner Notes, which won a First Place Faculty Feature Award with the BEA in 2016, and had its premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival that year, as well as the stage play Foul Feast, which was published by Next Stage Press in February of 2023.

“We work well together,” says John Patrick Bray. “Either he washes, and I dry, or I wash, and he dries.”

Escapism previously appeared in several festivals and competitions, including the Milan Shorts Film Festival; Talking It Out: A virtual arts festival promoting mental health awareness—where it was nominated in several categories (including Script and Best Picture) and earned a Best Actor Award for Joseph Davis, and Best sound mix; and will appear in the upcoming Wicked Realms Festival.

 

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A hearty Congratulations to Digital Media Production majors Allison McIntyre, Alex Bologna, Angelica James, and Danielle Hoffman-Caguit. Their short documentary film, Farm to Community: The Abundance Farms Story, is being honored with a Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Award of Excellence in the student documentary category.  The BEA “is the premier international academic media organization, driving insights, excellence in media production, and career advancement for educators, students, and professionals.”
The award will be presented at the BEA Festival and Conference, held in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters Conference and Expo in Las Vegas, NV, this April. Only the top 10% of submissions earn any accolades.  🙂 
The film focuses on a local farmer, Inno, and her farm (Abundance farms), which provides CSA shares to the BIPOC community in Kingston, NY.
Please join me in congratulating our students on their remarkable achievement!
See the film here:

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It has been quite a busy academic year–hence the pause between posts.

 

Some good news from Fall 2022:

The SUNY New Paltz Media Society Club, along with our friends at Hawk Studios, earned two awards from the competitive BEASCfilm 48. This was a 48 hour film festival between Broadcast Education Association recognized colleges from around the world. SUNY New Paltz students projects earned the second place award, and an award of excellence. Please join me in congratulating all involved!

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For the last five summers, one of my assignments has been Instructor for the Woodstock Film Festival Summer Youth Filmmaking Lab. The three-week intensive lab introduces young teens to the world of filmmaking. It challenges them to conceptualize, produce, shoot, edit, and audio-mix original short films. This year I worked with a team of five amazing students on their documentary, ‘Paperback,’ which will premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival this fall. On Wednesday August 3rd, Woodstock Film Festival hosted a ‘Friends and Family’ screening at the Rosendale Theater. A proud papa moment–Nora Bray (in the Fiercely Independent Shirt) worked with an instructor and pees to create ‘Hunger in Kingston,’ a beautiful community oriented documentary short. Her film will also premiere at the festival! Well done, everyone!

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What an exciting academic year. We began in the fall with fully on-site classes. Through this wave of the pandemic, we have had shifting guidelines, occasional remote learning, and yet the students persevered and made it a memorable year.

In my personal life, I welcomed my new son, am relocating (locally), and am now moving into the Chair’s office. Professionally, the film is in post-production, the book is moving forward, and the classes were all very successful.

I do want to take a moment to congratulate all our students, colleagues, and staff for such an amazing academic year. We all have so much to be proud of. As Professor Sperry (pictured below/photo by Professor Megan Sperry) tells us, Teamwork makes the Dream Work. And this year enjoyed quite a bit of team work. From our successful Ottaway Seminar, to the Legislative Gazette, to the Lambda Pi Eta induction ceremony, we have seen one accomplishment after another. Among them include new opportunities through our alumni and Foundation Board members Ed Carroll and Gina Carroll, two remarkable people we are honored to welcome back to our area. Their generosity created the podcasting class (see the article below), and have created scholarship opportunities for our DMJ students.

As I enter the Chair’s office, I recognize the responsibility in helping shape and move forward our exciting programs and majors with an eye toward media’s complex future. For now, I welcome everyone to take a breath, and enjoy some professionally produced podcasts courtesy of Professor Barry.

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Excited to return to campus this week to begin the Spring semester. During my fall sabbatical, a play I wrote was published; I started a collected volume, ‘Who Was That Masked Woman,’ and made a short film, ‘Escapism’ currently in post-production. Getting these irons in the fire is invaluable for a teaching scholar, and practitioner, and it was wonderful having the space to get these projects rolling or, in the case of ‘Foul Feast,’ completed.

As we move into Spring 2022, I reflect on what a fine opportunity we have to help young people realize their dreams, take deeper dives into their interests, and explore new horizons with their work in media production and studies. This semester I’m instructing two sections of Seminar in Digital Filmmaking, and a section on film noir. That class, 90 Minutes To Die, is a personal favorite!

I look forward to seeing colleagues and students in our vibrant campus community this week, even as we navigate through the (hopefully) end of this COVID wave. See you on campus at SUNY New Paltz!

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The University was kind enough to recognize me with the Chancellor’s Award in Teaching. Thank you to my chair and colleague Lisa Phillips for the nomination, to colleagues Patricia Sullivan, Hanna Sawka, and Josh Simons for your support; and to former students Erin Brady, John Mingione, Jason Latorre, Tara Latorre, and Chelsea DeMott Wildey for your letters of support and encouragement. I will try to do you all proud. 🙂