Masahiro Sugano鈥檚 鈥淐ompetitive Filmmaking鈥� Class Wins Top Prize in International Film Competition
The short film 鈥溾�� created by IAS faculty member Masahiro Sugano鈥檚 鈥淐ompetitive Filmmaking鈥� Class won at the 2020 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival held in Berlin, Germany. In Spring 2020 when Washington State went into COVID-19 lockdown, IAS faculty Masahiro Sugano had the unique challenge of teaching a new advanced level media production course, MCS 472 Competitive Filmmaking, remotely with 鈥渢he sole purpose of entering film competitions and other professionally juried screening opportunities.鈥� The resulting final project, a 7-minute assemblage short film titled 鈥淒elirium鈥� created by eight 糖心vlog视频 students has won ZEBRA鈥檚 top prize in the 鈥淔estival Poem Film Adaptation鈥� category. The student film is an adaptation of the festival鈥檚 selected poem by the Botswana poet TJ Dema.
Isolation was incorporated into the production, which reflects Sugano鈥檚 philosophy of filmmaking: When you encounter adversity, make it the center of your art. If you only have two colors on your palette, make a two-color painting. If you don鈥檛 have the lead actor, build a story that鈥檚 missing the main character, said Sugano, who has been at UW Bothell since 2017.
鈥淰ery often we have attachments to a notion and complain about what we don鈥檛 have 鈥� what we think we should have. Instead, if you don鈥檛 have it, show it. Make that the center of the story,鈥� Sugano said. 鈥淲e turned our challenge into the core of our aesthetic.鈥�
The festival takes place online between November 19-22 due to the new lockdown policy the German government put in effect.
is distributed via VOD platform.
Read more about the film and the class鈥� journey in making the film.