Three years ago Sridhar Ranganath followed his older brothers from Bangalore, in Southeastern India, to New York City. Then he followed his dreams to the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) to pursue a career in film and television.
"In India it is sometimes hard to do what you want to do," says Sridhar, who goes by the Anglicized version of his name, Sam. He wanted to make films that were outside of the commercial interests of the large cinema institutions, but also admits his admiration of another Indian-born director, M. Night Shyamalan.
Now Sam's movie idea has been realized. His 20-minute short film produced on Digital Video, "A Glimpse of Dawn" is a drama about a young man contemplating suicide. It will be premiering at the Denver International Fall Film Festival on September 7th, alongside that of another international NYIT student's production--Ikheui Lee's "1.2.5."
Lee has directed over a hundred television dramas for KBS, the Korean Broadcasting System, but he particularly desired to come to New York to make independent movies. The title of his just-completed film, "1.2.5" correlates to the numerical digit assignments of "I love you" in sign language (thumb, index finger, pinkie) and tells the tragic love story of a painter becoming blind and a marketing analyst slowly losing her ability to hear.
The 16mm film was shot with a backdrop of the events surrounding New York City in September of last year.
"September 11th was very hard. My first reaction was to think of my wife and son, so I left my NYIT class near Central Park and drove home to New Jersey to see them. Then I began to think of how this tragedy affected people in love," says Lee.
In addition, NYIT professors of Film and Television Crista Giuliani and Robert Sherwin will be traveling to Colorado as invited guest speakers. Giuliani, who is also serving as the host of this year's festival, has co-produced the film "Colour Blind." Sherwin's film "Soundproof" will also be debuting at the festival.
"For independent filmmakers, festivals are crucial," says Giuliani, "and New York is the center for independent filmmakers." She is returning for the second time as featured host of the festival.
"I tell all my filmmakers that they have to get out on the festival circuit -- it's the stepping stone to the big leagues," says Sherwin. "Sam brought an abundance of talent and a passion for filmmaking to my Film 1 class and it's great to see him get this kind of recognition."
"We (NYIT) provide production insurance for student films and have recently remodeled our TV/Film studio, adding new radio labs, non-linear editing machines and eight new professional DV cameras," explains Giuliani. "Hopefully we'll have even more student film success in the future."
NYIT (New York Institute of Technology) is an independent, comprehensive college that offers, through eight schools, more than 100 courses of study leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. NYIT currently educates more than 10,000 students on three physical campuses-in Old Westbury and Central Islip, Long Island, and Manhattan, near Lincoln Center-and one virtual campus via the Internet. More than 59,000 alumni have received degrees from NYIT.
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