Community Update

Twenty-four
students and two professors from Quinnipiac
University are attending the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

“For students who want to be filmmakers or television producers, it is an
amazing experience because they are in the setting where some of the most
cutting-edge work is being presented to the public,” said Rebecca Abbott, professor of
communications. “Much of it is being presented by people who aren’t much older
than them and haven’t been working much longer than they have. They have an
opportunity to see new work, but, even more importantly, have an opportunity to
meet with producers, directors and actors and learn a lot about the industry
and some of the most creative aspects of the industry.”

Hamden’s Abbott, who serves as adviser to
the Quinnipiac Film
Society,
said most of the students who made the trip are part of the School of
Communication’s
department of film,
video and interactive media.

Abbott and Frederick Staudmyer, visiting assistant
professor of communications, are accompanying the students at the film
festival.

The trip was planned and organized by the
Quinnipiac Film Society. Senior Lorenzo DeCampos of Beacon Falls serves as
Sundance coordinator.

“I know it's going to be a bittersweet
experience since I'm a senior,” DeCampos said. “This is will be my third time
attending the festival with QFS and it's an amazing experience every time. What
I enjoy most about the festival is that you're surrounded by the people that
most of us aspire to be someday and get a glimpse of what the future may hold
for us. It's a very unique experience and I hope to be there with my own feature
length documentary, currently in production, very soon.”

The Quinnipiac group purchased tickets to
watch the movies of their choice prior to the event. The renowned film festival
also includes panel discussions and workshops.

“They have filmmakers as well as people with
different crew positions talking about aspects of filmmaking and the different
dimensions of the film industry,” Abbott said.

Senior Shane Collins of Chepachet, R.I.,
president of the Quinnipiac Film Society, said he hopes the trip “broadens the
minds of our members and gives them a venue to experience films that they would
never experience otherwise.”

“We've been doing this trip for quite a few
years now, and it's a great way to help enhance the student experience,”
Collins added. “In school, we study films and their filmmakers, and at Sundance
we get to interact with those filmmakers and immerse ourselves in the film
culture.”

Quinnipiac
is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north
of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 6,500
full-time undergraduate and 2,500 graduate students in 58 undergraduate and
more than 20 graduate programs of study in its School of Business and Engineering, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, School of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences. Quinnipiac consistently ranks among
the top regional universities in the North in U.S. News & World Report’s
America’s Best Colleges issue. The 2013 issue of U.S. News & World Report’s
America’s Best Colleges named Quinnipiac as the top up-and-coming school with
master’s programs in the Northern Region. Quinnipiac also is recognized in
Princeton Review’s “The Best 377 Colleges.” The Chronicle of Higher Education
has named Quinnipiac among the “Great Colleges to Work For.” For more
information, please visit www.quinnipiac.edu. Connect with Quinnipiac on Facebook
at www.facebook.com/quinnipiacuniversity and follow Quinnipiac on Twitter
@QuinnipiacU.