Local Film Festival Features Two Video Institute Films

March 27, 2012



Click for trailer

Click for trailer
BUFFALO, NY - “Game Create” and “Immersion: El Salvador,” both 30-minute documentaries produced by the Canisius University Video Institute, have been competitively selected for screening at the 6th Annual Buffalo Niagara Film Festival (BNFF). “Game Create” will be shown on Wednesday, April 18 at 4 p.m. and “Immersion: El Salvador” will be shown onWednesday, April 18 at 5 p.m. at the Market Arcade Theatre on Main Street in Buffalo. 

“Game Create” is a social documentary about a new breed of gamers. Gamers represent a generation of digital natives who have matured into exceptional programmers and designers. They go “under the hood” of game consoles and collaborate with other disciplines to visualize science, make music and exhibit art. “Game Create” takes viewers on a journey to rock concerts, laboratories and conferences, which evoke the intellectual and creative inspiration of gamers. “Game Create” was produced by Garret Weinholtz ’12, a communication studies and digital media arts major at Canisius University, and Jamie O’Neil, co-director of the Canisius University Video Institute and director of the Digital Media Arts Program.

“Immersion: El Salvador” follows a group of Canisius students as they travel to El Salvador with the college’s Institute for the Global Study of Religion (IGSOR). The film documents the students’ journey of self-awareness and enlightenment as they explore faith, religion, culture and justice in the Central American country. The documentary also highlights student interactions with the Salvadoran people, struggles of the poverty-stricken, evangelical Christianity, and the inspiring story of Arch Bishop Oscar Romero. “Immersion: El Salvador” was produced by T.J. Neil ’12 and Hannah Hampton ’12, both digital media arts majors, and Barbara J. Irwin, PhD, co-director of the Canisius University Video Institute and chair of the Communication Studies Department. 

The Buffalo Niagara Film Festival will run April 12-22, 2012 and will screen films at various locations throughout Western New York. For more information about the BNFF, click here.

The Canisius University Video Institute provides students with opportunities to put their classroom lessons to work on projects that enrich their learning and benefit the community. Students produce service-oriented videos and social documentaries – all connected by the theme of social justice – to promote discourse on ethical, social and cultural issues relevant to our world today. The program is interdisciplinary, encourages global awareness and puts students in the position of doing social justice.

The Canisius University Video Institute is funded, in part, by the East Hill Foundation and the Western New York Foundation, and co-directed by Irwin, chair of the Communication Studies Department, and O’Neil, director of the Digital Media Arts Program.

For additional information about the Video Institute, contact Irwin at (716) 888-2108 or click here

Canisius University is one of 28 Catholic, Jesuit Colleges in the nation and the premier private college in Western New York. Canisius prepares leaders – intelligent, caring, faithful individuals – able to pursue and promote excellence in their professions, their communities and their service to humanity.