Great Big Story and Genesis strengthen student fellowship program to support next-gen filmmakers
(Syndicated from the Warner Media press room)
The second edition of the Genesis Student Film Fellowship was launched earlier this year as part the sponsorship collaboration between luxury automotive brand Genesis, CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) and Great Big Story. The year-long fellowship, which was awarded to 4 talented student filmmakers was concluded with special screening exhibitions in New York and Seoul this month where the films were presented for the first time. These films were inspired by Great Big Story’s Origins channel of micro-documentary films which is committed to exploring the unexpected history of things from design, to food, to pop culture.
The fellowships were awarded to two U.S. students and two South Korean students; each was the recipient of a $15,000 production grant, which was used toward the making of an origins-inspired short documentary film.
William Martin, a 2016 graduate of NYU’s Tisch Photography and Imaging Program and current student of NYU’s News & Documentary Graduate Program and Meiying Wu, a senior at the University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, represented the two U.S.-based fellows.
Hyerin Lee and Arum Nam from Korea’s National University of the Arts represented the program’s two international fellows (to learn more about the students and their projects, visit Great Big Story’s fellowship page).
From July through October, students received mentoring from Great Big Story producers Asher May-Corsini and Andrew Lampard, with program oversight by Senior Producer Drew Beebe. Their projects reflected an array of people, cultures and interests, from a family of puppet makers in China to a traditional fishing community working alongside dolphins in Brazil. Additionally, fellows produced behind the scenes material for social media, including a series of “field notes,” which chronicled their productions from onsite.
”This fellowship has encouraged a group of talented young filmmakers to go after bigger, more challenging projects that they may not have tackled otherwise,” said Courtney Coupe, Head of Great Big Story.
“It feels rewarding to offer them an opportunity to hone their filmmaking skills under the guidance of our editorial staff. They’ve worked incredibly hard (while balancing school) from the very first cut and should be proud to make their official premieres.”
To celebrate the months of hard work students spent on their films, a series of exclusive screenings were held in New York and Seoul where the projects made their official world premieres. Attendees from the local film community gathered on Friday, December 6, 2019 at Ramscale Studio in New York’s Greenwich Village for the first of two screenings. Four days later, on Dec 10 a second screening was held at The River by Hyundai Yachts in Seoul. Programs included showings for each of the film fellows’ projects, in addition to a director’s panel where students discussed their experiences in this year’s fellowship.
Following the events in New York and Seoul, the fellows’ films were released digitally on Great Big Story. Check out their Great Big Stories here: www.greatbigstory.com/series/genesis-fellows.
As brands that value creativity and culture, the long-standing partnership between CNN International Commercial and Genesis is committed to the art of storytelling and the story tellers who inspire us every day.
