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Thursday, August 10, 2017

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

University students screen films 
at Traverse City Film Festival

University-wide 
collaboration on 

films impress 

festival audience 

By AMARA SHAIKH

Daily Staff Reporter

At the 13th annual Traverse 

City Film Festival, two short 
films created by University 
of Michigan undergraduates 
were showcased on the big 
screen. The five-day event fea-
tured a variety of films, work-
shops and discussions about 
filmmaking.

The two student produc-

tions, 
“Malignant 
Humor” 

and “Chasing the GOAT,” were 
developed 
throughout 
the 

semester by students in screen-
writing program director Jim 
Burnstein’s and lecturer Rob-
ert Rayher’s Screenwriting 423 
class and carried out with the 
help of fellow undergraduate 
writers, actors and producers.

Though his students provid-

ed the plot and stage direction, 
Burnstein said the productions 
required 
participation 
from 

across the University.

“Two teams are assembled 

out of (Screen Arts and Cul-
tures), with our top filmmaking 
students,” he said. “Then we 
bring in from Stamps School of 
Design art designers, costume 
designers, 
sound 
designers, 

composers from the School of 
Music and even producers from 
Ross School of Business. So it’s 
the University-wide kind of 
collaboration.”

Burnstein worked with the 

LSA Department of Screen 
Arts and Cultures to establish 
a partnership with the Tra-
verse City Film Festival that 
allows two University films to 
be showcased each year. Now 
in their ninth year of collabo-
ration, Burstein said attendees 
at the festival continue to be 
impressed with the talent of 
the students.

“This 
all 
started 
when 

Michael Moore, who runs the 
Traverse City Film Festival, 
and festival director Deb Lake 

contacted me asking if I would 
do something up there at the 
festival — meaning talk about 
screenwriting as a profession-
al screenwriter,” he said. “I 
agreed, but I said I would like 
to, in return, show a couple 
of the films that are made in 
the class. When we did it for 
the first time and when it was 
done, Michael Moore turned to 
me and said, ‘So we’re going to 
do this every year, right?’ And I 
replied, ‘Absolutely.’ ”

Malignant Humor, produced 

by LSA senior Matthew Bar-
nauskas, an Arts writer at the 
Daily, follows the story of an 
improv comedy troupe that, 
upon arriving at a high school 
they’re supposed to perform 
at, find out a student there has 
committed suicide.

“Malignant 
Humor” 
was 

the second film produced by 
Barnauskas. He said the most 
rewarding part of producing 
was seeing the finished prod-
uct.

“With 
producing, 
what 

you’re basically doing is you’re 
giving the supplies to others to 
do their work,” he said. “You’re 
giving locations, you’re making 
sure there is room for the crew, 
you’re making sure everything 
is locked down tight so your 
crew can go out and make the 
film they want to make.”

LSA senior Annie Cohen, the 

supervising editor for “Malig-
nant Humor,” expressed her 
excitement for the festival.

“I personally was incredibly 

excited to attend the festival 
and get to see the hard work of 
so many people projected for 
new audiences to enjoy,” she 
said. “By the time the festival 
rolled around, I had been work-
ing on the movie for about six 
months and was just so happy 
to be able to share the work 
that we did over the course of 
the winter semester with those 
involved. Many people who 
were involved with the produc-
tion, both cast and crew, hadn’t 
seen a final version of it all put 
together so it was amazing to 
hear their new thoughts on the 
movie that I had seen probably 
50 times already.”

Matthew Solomon, associate 

professor of film history and 
theory, was one of the mod-
erators invited to the festival 
to lead discussions about film 
with the audience. Solomon 
said he was also very impressed 
with the two student produc-
tions.

“I just think they’re tre-

mendously impressive high-
level 
productions 
done 
by 

undergrads,” 
he 
said. 
“It’s 

remarkable, 
the 
production 

values and the quality of those 
films always wows the audi-
ence at Traverse City, and it’s a 
great tradition that our depart-
ment has built.”

Solomon has been attending 

the festival for nearly six years 
now, and he recommends it to 
anyone who has an interest in 
film.

“It’s a really great festival,” 

he said. “It’s really nice to meet 
the filmmakers and have such 
a vibrant audience that loves 
movies around you, so it’s a 
great experience. I highly rec-
ommend it to anyone in the 
area who has any interest in 
films. It’s one of the best festi-
vals I’ve been to.”

Both Cohen and Barnauskas 

said they are excited to contin-
ue working in filmmaking, and 
said they were grateful to have 
their experience with the Tra-
verse City Film Festival help 
them with their goals.

“I hope to work in editing in 

the future once I graduate, so 
the festival definitely helped 
with that,” she said. “This was 
the first time that I had worked 
in a setting of many editors all 
working together to create a 
mass amount of content. The 
festival turns out daily vid-
eos of recaps from the day’s 
events that had been happen-
ing throughout the week. So 
although Kat and I were only 
working on a small part of the 
festival’s editing process it was 
definitely beneficial to learn 
how a space like that can be 
run.”

Next year, both Solomon and 

Burnstein intend on heading 
back to Traverse City for what 
will be the 10th anniversary of 
showcasing University films at 
the festival.

“psychosexual disorder.” 

The University of California, Los 

Angeles report now estimates about 
15,500 members are still on active 
duty. The U.S. military is often called 
the largest employer of transgender 
individuals in the world — Daven-
port estimates about 20 to 25 percent 
of the adult transgender community 
has served.

On July 26th, President Donald 

Trump sent out a series of tweets 
proposing a possible banon trans-
gender individuals from serving the 
military on the basis of high health 
care costs. 

The move faced negative reactions 

from the Democrats and mixed reac-
tions from the Republicans. The U.S. 
joint chiefs of staff were not aware 
the tweets were about to be made. As 
of Wednesday, five active duty trans-
gender individuals are suing Trump.

In Michigan, Democrat delegates 

also called the move “discrimina-
tory,” while many Republican del-
egates have yet to comment.

In Royal Oak, Samantha Rogers, 

founder of transgender organiza-
tion TG Detroit, held a rally in sup-
port of the troops in response to 
Trump’s tweet. With 400 people in 
attendance and no counterprotest-
ers, Rogers said it was a great turnout 
as the mayor and ex-mayor of Royal 
Oak spoke to the protestors and 
transgender veterans as well.

Rogers said she was told that it 

was the largest transgender-driven 
rally in Southeast Michigan.

“Frankly I was disappointed we 

didn’t have more people because of 
the nature of the situation,” she said.

LGBT Michigan President Emily 

Kaufman, an LSA senior at the Uni-
versity of Michigan and a transgen-
der woman, said Trump’s actions 
create a culture of discrimination.

“Now the conservative people on 

Fox News are talking about trans 
people, and they’re saying the mili-
tary is not a social experiment,” she 
said. “When their ignorant viewers 
are watching and being brainwashed 
by them, they think that’s the gospel 
truth. 

Kaufman said the ban would have 

a considerable impact on employ-
ment. 

“It will increase unemployment 

for trans people — the ones that 
are serving, if they get kicked out … 
The unemployment rate is already 
extremely high, because it’s legal to 
discriminate against trans people in 
most states in employment.”

She compared the abrupt pro-

posal of the ban and its repercus-

sions to the Trump administration’s 
guidance on transgender bathroom 
choice in February — forcing trans-
gender people to use the bathroom 
of the assigned birth gender. She said 
such discrimination appears to be 
becoming a trend — something that 
is unacceptable.

“By Trump doing this, it just sort 

of adds to the stereotypes about trans 
people not being fully human and it 
creates lots of problems,” she said. 
“I think saying or doing one thing — 
like with the bathroom bill — that’s 
bad enough. It’s starting to be a trend 
— and this is just out of the blue, he 
didn’t even discuss it with anyone. 
It really is just dehumanizing trans 
people by saying that.”

Lilianna Angel Reyes, Trans Sis-

tas of Color Project founder, said 
while she stands with her trans-
gender brothers and sisters in the 
military, she wanted to emphasize 
that the publicity the issue has 
received has been largely in con-
junction with only the white trans-
gender community. 

“There technically hasn’t been 

a policy change for banning trans 
people in the military, it was Twit-
ter,” she said. “It may be coming, 
but it hasn’t been official policy. 
But when people thought it was the 
possibility of a policy, they rallied. 
When different things are going on 
in the trans community on a larger 
level, they rally — by they, I mean 
mostly white trans people.”

According to Reyes, 16 transgen-

der women of color were killed in the 
first six months this year but have 
received little rally or support. Trans-
gender women of color are also pun-
ished with heavy prison sentences, 
she said. 

“So I think that it is very difficult 

— race always plays a part,” she said. 
“Racism is always alive.”

Reyes noted many transgender 

white people transition later in life 
— after they have had careers, stable 
jobs and homes. She said their transi-
tion — though still very impactful — is 
much different than that of a trans-
gender person of color who transi-
tions at 14 or 15, who could become 
homeless or have to partake in sex 
work.

“Many of my trans brothers and sis-

ters who are of color, who transitioned 
at 15 and 16, couldn’t have even went 
into the military when they were 18 
because they were noticeably trans,” 
she said. “They had already started 
their transition, and at that point they 
could very well push you out of the mili-
tary and not let you go in...” 

MILITARY
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