Page 85 – NYFA

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Filmmaking Alum Damon J. Barnes Screens ‘Straight to Hell’

Straight to Hell, a period comedy written and directed by New York Film Academy (NYFA) Filmmaking alum Damon J. Barnes and produced by NYFA Filmmaking alum Furaha Bayibsa, screened last month in North Hollywood. Barnes attended the 1-Year Filmmaking conservatory at NYFA’s Los Angeles campus in 2016; Bayibsa attended one year earlier.

The short film is a comedy about Christian gay conversation camps, and deals with very serious LGBTQIA+ issues in a humorous yet thoughtful way. Straight to Hell stars Bendan J. Shannon, Justin Selig, Noah Der, Gracie Lacey, and Collin Lapinsky.

Straight to Hell began as Barnes’s thesis film while at NYFA. “One of the key driving forces for the film’s style, from choices in the script to choices in music, came from cinema from the 80s—more specifically, from the world of John Hughes,” says Barnes in an artist’s statement for the film. “The way Hughes’ storytelling captures the suburban teenage American experience in a fable-like, classicist body of work that stays true to the tradition of Hollywood romance and adventure was influential on the approach to make the story a comedy rather than a rough-edged, literal presentation—not to say those stories are not needed.”

Finding the right tone was important for Barnes. “At the heart of this film is a storyline that is tragic and unjust,” he continues in his statement on the film. “Comedy was used as the vehicle to tell that story. As absurd as conversion therapy is, is how absurd the comedy in the film was designed to be.”

Damon plans to donate all the proceeds the film earns that week to nonprofit organization Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which uses litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy to fight hate and bigotry in our society.

The film screened at the Laemmel NOHO Theater in North Hollywood from September 20 – 26.

New York Film Academy congratulates NYFA Filmmaking alum Damon J. Barnes on his film and encourages everyone to check out Straight to Hell when they can!

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Congratulations to the Fall Class of 2019 at New York Film Academy Los Angeles!

September was an exciting time at New York Film Academy Los Angeles (NYFA-LA), as students and instructors witnessed the culmination of all their hard work over multiple days of final screenings, presentations, pitches, and of course, graduation ceremonies.

Students were able to invite family, friends, and industry professionals and present their work; Filmmaking, 3D Animation & VFX, Producing, Documentary Filmmaking, and Acting for Film students held their final screenings at the Warner Bros. Studios backlot; Photography students had their work displayed in art galleries; and Screenwriting and Producing students had the opportunity to pitch ideas to entertainment professionals. The excitement concluded with a full day of graduation ceremonies with proud families and friends as well as NYFA faculty cheering on their graduates.

The Fall 2019 graduation ceremony was held at the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood. Throughout our three ceremonies, family and friends from all over the world gathered to applaud and dance to “September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire as graduates tossed their caps in the air on what was in fact, the 21st of September!

Guest speaker Vince DiPersio, assured graduates that there was no better time to go into the industry than today, stating: “This is the golden age. You are are coming out at the best time I can possibly imagine.”

DiPersio continued sharing his wisdom by commenting on the changing landscape currently going on in the industry. “There are so many more opportunities now than there were then; so many new venues and so many ways to get your work out there,” DiPersio told the grads, continuing, “It’s an amazing time to be in the business. We’re starting to hear things we’ve never heard before. We’re starting to experience cultures that we weren’t privy to. These new voices that are out there changing things. These shows that break all the rules. It’s all this new energy and I look at you, and I see that energy.” DiPersio’s words garnered a positive response from the hopeful graduates, excited to share their energy with the world.

New York Film Academy would like to congratulate all of the incredible students who have dedicated so much time and hard work to complete their training here. We look forward to celebrating all the wonderful achievements to come!

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Fall 2019 Graduates

Maame Abena Serwaa Dwumfour
Amr Akef
Hussain Al-Sadeq
Adalina Aladro
Shmookh Hmood Albagami
Faisal Mohammed A Aldakheel
Mai Alharthy
Saud Alshammari
Elcor Ali Aragundi
Bita Arefnia
Syuzanna Avetisyan
Valerie Baez Torres
Derek Bellard
Ivan Mico Bernal
Cory Boevers
Jaden Tyler Boland
Ekaterina Bolshakova
Trey Bond
Joshua David Boone
Prem Nitin Boricha
Cole Ryan Brewer
Troy Brown
Juliana Bueno
Daishaun Butler
Jose Cabanes
Kexin Cai
Kunzhe Cao
Noah Carmicheal
Nicco Caruso
Kevin Caton-Largent
Kushaal Chawla
Jiahao Chen
Fei Chen
Ruijing Chen
Weiyi Chen
Ziying Chen
Alex Chumley
Rafael Cintra Brandão
Marissa Collier
Jessica Sadira Coro Figueroa
Ashley Keshia Coulson
Alexandria Crouse
Yasmani Cuesta Rodriguez
Xinyi Cui
Yuhan Cui
Terrell Dean
Gabriela Debortoli de Souza
Aaron Marcus Del Rosario
Quanfang Diao
Jacquelin DiNapoli
Yiran Ding
Mingyu Du
Ya Du
Daniel Morgan Duddy
Emmet Dwyer
Jacob Chandler Elsey
Ali Esbai
Ramon (Sasha) Eskildsen
Ana Fernanda Esparza Cortés
Maria Ezobi
Blake Thomas Fabian
Anas Fairaq
Liujin Fang
Chloe Feller
Manuel Alberto Flores
Lucia Z. Florez
Nick Forbush
Zhi Fu
Adan (Adam) Fuentes
Daniel Galvin
Michael Garcia
Vatche Levon Hagop Giragossian
Renata Gonzalez
Juan Gordillo
Alina Alekseyevna Grafkina
Deante’ Gray
Cecil Green
Richard Ernest Grob
Hanru Guo
Kareem Habal
Antaneise Henderson
Paulina Sophie Hilla
Xinyi Hong
Rihua Huang
Sofia Huertas
Robert Hughes
Bjarki Ingimarsson
Yusif Jafarov
Alisha Jenkins
Monique Jernigan
Aeesha Kamara
Aditi Karwa
Marc Ketcham
Rita Krasniqi
Mikko Tauno Valtteri Kuokka
Kirk Samuel Porter Lacy
Yuchao Lai
Jordan Eugene Lane
Julia Leggette
Chik Kwan Leung
Fangyuan Li
Boyang Li
Jialei Li
Yinghao Li
Haoyu Li
Nicole Erin Lichtenstein
Kuangyu Lin
Victoria Liu
Jovan Luna
Matthew Macedo
Daniel Wesley Maffett
Hector Magaña Ruiz
Erik Maldonado
Elena Tsvetanova Manoylova
Babalwa Manyi
Joshua McNair
Precious-Jewel McNeal
Meng Meng
Maame-Ekua Acquaaba Mensah
Ryan Mercatante
Marisa Milroy
Echaka Monjok
Kaylie Moore
Rajni Mysore Chamaraj
Le Dieu Linh Nguyen
Zhixing Niu
Emma Nobbs
Alexander Jon Nooren
Ana Isabel Octavio
Min Kyung Oh
Steven Jose Ortega Vazquez
Dicle Ozcer
Phitchaphorn Phikulyaem
Anastasiia Polishchuk
Aurelie Poncin
Svitlana Pyshna
SanNeh Neejay Raikundalia
Ivan Michel Ramirez Cuevas
Ezra Ramos
Natasha Tianna Rodriguez
Luis Romero
Juan Pablo Rosado
Aaron Rowe
Jeiran Royanian
Matthew Ruf
Jasmine Runnels
Kristofer Mikal Salaah
Hattie Sallie
Jonathan Samukange
Benjamin Sandoval
Assemgul Sarsembayeva
Rajarshi Sen
Dilan Sen
Liana Shan
Tanxuan Shi
Sudeen Shrestha
Rebekah Shuniak
Ilan Siegal Berner
Berta Sigridardottir
Jason Sonido
Brock Spady
Lauren Isabella Stafford
Xingyu Su
Weiyu Sun
Daria Suvorova
Brandon Jeridyah Swanson
Justin Talley
Jinxia Tan
Muyin Tang
Sierra Tevebaugh
Soponwit Thienpradit
DaShawn Toney
Jessica Torres
Taylor Trimble
Jade Truglio
Juan Sebastian Valencia
Lindi van der Merwe
Nicolas Varela
Nicholas M. Venuti
Aastha Verma
Gabriel Vieira Lustosa de Alencar
Zeyu Wang
Jiayu Wang
Mengnan Wang
Tianyi Wang
Ruijia Wang
Ziyu Wang
Joshua Weyers
Brahmma Wijaya
Joseph Aaron Wilson
Xian Wu
Banghao Xiao
Jingrui Xin
Kaibo Xu
Shiyue Xu
Chuanzhuang Xue
Pauline Yang
Tiffany Tikia Young
Bide Yuan
So Ry Yun
Adam Zagri
Tiecheng Zhang
Tong Zhou
Yue Zhou
Keyao Zhu
Yunting Zhu
Haojun Zhuang

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Students & Alumni Featured in VoyageLA Magazine

VoyageLA, the flagship publication for Voyage Group of Magazines, is a media and city guide for Los Angeles that aims to authentically represent a wide variety of artists and communities, looking for outside-the-box ways to bring together the many different small businesses, independent artists and entrepreneurs, local institutions of LA.

It’s no surprise that many of New York Film Academy’s incredibly talented students and alumni have been featured on their pages, usually with personal and informative interviews. Here are the most recent NYFA artists who have been showcased by VoyageLA:

Dayana Espinoza

Recent 1-Year Acting for Film grad Dayana Espinoza has a knack for landing roles in quality films–she’s appeared in award winners Outlandish (Winner – CKF International Film Festival) and The Rosy Summer Day (Best Fantasy Film – Los Angeles Film Awards; Best Short – Top Short Film Festival; Best Women Short – Indie Short Fest; Best Director – Independent Shorts Awards; Best Director – Festigious International Film Festival) as well as Invisible Murderer, which was nominated in the Indie Short Fest for both Best Original Story and Best Film Noir Short. Espinoza, who was born and raised in Peru and has been recently interviewed by both VoyageLA and Film Daily, is currently represented by two agencies and recently worked on her first SAG-AFTRA project.

Joseph Ford

Current BFA Photography Joseph Ford has been hired to shoot Instagram influencers including Blac Chyna and Brittany Renner, and has recently shot photo coverage of the Amazon float for the 2019 SF Gay Pride parade. The Marines veteran talks about his fashion photography company and the path that led him to NYFA-LA and beyond.

Saana Laigren

In her interview with VoyageLA, 1-Year Acting for Film alum Saana Laigren talks about how she first got into acting during her childhood, and about the internal struggles she’s faced while trying to create a career in the arts. In the end, though, her path ultimately led to her following her dream, and she’s recently won Best Foreign Actress at Chandra Khamini International Film Festival.

Alice Rehemutula

VoyageLA calls MFA Producing alum Alice Rehemutula a “trailblazer” in an interview that charts her unconventional path from a Muslim province of China to Shanghai to Hollywood. Rehemutula found great success overseas as a performer, including appearing on China’s Got Talent, but she also has a passion for working behind the camera, earning her Master of Fine Arts in Producing from NYFA’s Los Angeles campus.

New York Film Academy Australia Alumni Release Action Short ‘Round Trip’

Round Trip, a six-minute action film written and directed by New York Film Academy Australia alum Ren Thackham and starring NYFA Australia alum Danny Bolt, recently went online after a spectacular festival run.

Thackham and Bolt met while studying at NYFA Australia, where Thackham attended the 1-Year Filmmaking program in 2014. Since then, she’s had a great deal of success on the festival circuit with her short films, collaborating often with Bolt, and winning numerous awards and nominations for her work.

Their latest short, Round Trip, packs a serious punch with an incredible automobile stunt involving a police car flipping over. “We had one police car and one shot at flipping it on camera, and if it didn’t land on it’s wheels, we wouldn’t have had a film,” says Thackham.

The film was in good hands though; the head of the stunt team was Judd Wild, who worked on Australian action epic Mad Max: Fury Road. Thackham calls Wild “one of the best in the country.”

Wild wasn’t the only top shelf talent on the production. The film stars 2013 NABBA Mr. Universe Lee Priest in his acting debut, as a criminal trying to escape Bolt’s police officer protagonist. Additionally, the score for Round Trip was composed by Rafael May with didgeridoo by Darren Narul, recorded at Skinny Fish Music in Darwin.

Thackham and Bolt next plan to make their first feature film, Ridgy Didge, in 2020 as a directing/producing team.

New York Film Academy congratulates NYFA Australia alumni Ren Thackham and Danny Bolt on the online release of Round Trip and encourages everyone to check out the death-defying short!

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Photography Camp Alum Sydney Ciardi Wins Griffin Foundation Scholarship

Sydney Ciardi, an alum of the New York Film Academy (NYFA) Photography Camp for Teens, has won a Griffin Foundation scholarship for her incredible work.

The Arthur Griffin Foundation for Winchester provides scholarships for young visual artists with the mission to preserve and enhance the beauty of the Winchester, MA community. The Student Scholarship Award is an annual grant of $5000 that is presented to current Winchester students committed to and interested in the visual arts.

Sydney Ciardi attended NYFA’s Photography Camp for Teens in June 2018, after having attended NYFA’s 3-Week Filmmaking Camp for Teens a year prior. She attended both camps at NYFA’s summer location on the Harvard University campus. Ciardi won the scholarship over other entrants who, like her, had to submit a portfolio of work that represents both their creativity and experience.

Ciardi’s artist statement is available on the Griffin Scholarship webpage, and reads: “Throughout my life I have expressed myself through art, whether it be media or motion. I have always found it an effective way to share stories and interpret the world in which I live. Photography, film, and dance are important creative outlets for me: they let me articulate the sometimes elusive ideas in my mind and better understand those of others. Art has influenced the way I see life, the world, and the person I have become by allowing me to understand the way others interpret the world and giving me the opportunity to share my own interpretation of the world.”

New York Film Academy congratulates NYFA Photography Camp alum Sydney Ciardi on her well-deserved Griffin Foundation scholarship and looks forward to her future work as a visual artist!

‘Don’t Look Now’ Gets 4K Digital Restoration from Studio Canal

Forty-six years after its release, Don’t Look Now, the drama/thriller/horror directed by Nicolas Roeg and shot by New York Film Academy (NYFA) Los Angeles Chair of Cinematography Anthony B. Richmond, BSC, ASC, is still held up as a cinematic classic, so it’s no surprise that Studio Canal has released a 4K digital restoration of the film.

With the new restoration, many in the film world are taking another look at the beloved 1973 film, which stars Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland as a couple who’ve recently lost their daughter and come across a pair of elderly sisters—one of which claims to be a psychic in touch with the spirit of their child.

Cinephilia & Beyond recently published an in-depth look at the film, including quotes from Roeg and Richmond. Cinephilia & Beyond started out as a small blog centered on independent film and has evolved into a community of passionate lovers of film, including A-list names like Guillermo del Toro, Ava DuVernay, and William Friedkin.

The article, written by Jasun Horseley, takes the reader through the entire film from start to finish, with in-depth analysis on several key scenes, incorporating interviews and quotes from the filmmakers

“It is a fabulous movie,” says Richmond, the director of photography for Don’t Look Now. “Not because I shot it, but it still stands up today. It was probably the most difficult thing I have shot, because in Venice everything goes in and out on barges. We shot it in the winter with an Italian crew, which was fantastic, because Venice in the winter is dark, cold and foreboding, which was wonderful.”

Tony Richmond is the London-born, BAFTA-winning cinematographer who has shot numerous productions, including The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Sandlot, Legally Blonde, and Sympathy for the Devil. He is currently Chair of Cinematography at NYFA’s Los Angeles campus, where he works closely with talented, hard-working students.

Richmond also spoke with Antonia Quirke about Don’t Look Now on BBC’s Film Programme. Among other things discussed was the film’s infamous and oft-scrutinized sex scene between Sutherland and Christie.

The interview, which takes place during the first 11 minutes and 30 seconds of the show, can be found here.

New York Film Academy (NYFA) Acting for Film Alum Saana Laigren Wins Best Foreign Actress at Chandra Khamini International Film Festival

Saana Laigren, graduate of the 1-Year Acting for Film conservatory at New York Film Academy Los Angeles (NYFA-LA), recently won Best Foreign Actress at Chandra Khamini International Film Festival.

Laigren was born in Finland and first attended NYFA in March 2017 for the 8-Week Acting for Film workshop at our Burbank-based campus. After showing a great deal of talent and wishing to continue pursuing her passion in the craft, Laigren enrolled in and was accepted to study in NYFA-LA’s 1-Year Acting for Film conservatory.

Since then she’s performed in multiple films, including lead roles in Ghost in the Machine, Mother’s Day, Turning Tables, and The Boxer, with her talent most recently being recognized at the Chandra Khamini International Film Festival. Laigren has been steadily gaining buzz in the Los Angeles artist community, appearing as a guest on the Actors 2020 Podcast, as well as being featured in VoyageLA magazine.

In her interview with VoyageLA, Laigren talks about how she first got into acting during her childhood, and about the internal struggles she’s faced while trying to create a career in the arts. In the end, though, her path ultimately led to her following her dream.

“For me, success has meant being able to do what I love, which is acting,” Laigren tells VoyageLA. “I guess as long as I am acting I feel like I am doing something right.”

New York Film Academy congratulates Acting for Film Alum Saana Laigren on her Best Foreign Actress award and looks forward to seeing her in future roles!

NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING INSTRUCTOR CLAUDIA RASCHKE & ALUM TODD LEATHERMAN WORK ON NAT GEO’S ACTIVATE

Activate: The Global Citizen Movement, a new six-part documentary series from National Geographic, features cinematography from New York Film Academy (NYFA) Documentary Filmmaking instructor Claudia Raschke; NYFA Documentary alum Todd Leatherman also served as assistant camera on three episodes. The series will air its finale on Thursday, October 10.

Claudia Raschke teaches cinematography for the NYFA Documentary Filmmaking program at our New York campus. Her previous credits as director of photography include Mad Hot Ballroom, My Architect, and Small Wonders. Raschke recently shot the feature doc RBG, about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, which became a box office hit and has won numerous major awards and nominations.

Todd Leatherman attended the 1-Year Documentary Filmmaking conservatory at NYFA’s New York campus in January 2011. Since then, he’s worked in the camera department for numerous projects, including Obvious Child, The Freedom to Marry, and Robert Kirkman’s Secret History of Comics.

Leatherman worked as AC on three episodes of Nat Geo’s new series, Activate: The Global Citizen Movement, including its premiere, “Eradicating Extreme Poverty,” which was shot by Raschke.

Activate was developed by National Geographic and co-produced by Global Citizen and RadicalMedia LLC, and includes celebrity activists like Pharrell Williams, Common, Hugh Jackman, Uzo Aduba, Darren Criss, and Rachel Brosnahan. The series showcases the Global Citizen movement, which strives to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, and focuses on a different poverty-related issue with each episode.

The premiere episode, “Eradicating Extreme Poverty,” which was worked on by both Raschke and Leatherman, features Hugh Jackman, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Becky G as they join Global Citizen in campaigns to push world leaders into enacting policies that would end global extreme poverty. The second episode of the series, “Ending Cash Bail,” showcases Common and Usher as they support the fight for criminal justice reform; episode three, “Education Cannot Wait,” features actress Rachel Brosnahan as she mobilizes global citizens to fund education for displaced children.

“Keeping Girls in School,” the fourth episode, focuses on the movement to break down barriers to girls’ education, and features Priyanka Chopra Jonas. “Ending Plastic Pollution” shows Darren Criss and Pharrell Williams calling for the flow of plastic into the oceans to cease, while the finale, “Clean Water”—which airs Thursday, October 10—features Uzo Aduba and the push for clean drinking water and proper sanitation for the world’s most vulnerable people.

New York Film Academy congratulates Documentary Filmmaking instructor Claudia Raschke and alum Todd Leatherman on their work for a vitally important series, and encourages everyone to check out Nat Geo’s Activate: The Global Citizen Movement.

Please note: NYFA does not represent that these are typical or guaranteed career outcomes. The success of our graduates in any chosen professional pathway depends on multiple factors, and the achievements of NYFA alumni are the result of their hard work, perseverance, talent and circumstances.

Photo Arts Conservatory at New York Film Academy Los Angeles (PAC at NYFA-LA) Faculty Updates

Here are the latest updates from faculty members of the Photo Arts Conservatory at New York Film Academy Los Angeles (PAC at NYFA-LA):

Naomi White, Co-Char of the PAC at NYFA-LA will be appearing in the group show, XPOSED: Humans vs. Planet Earth at the Knox Contemporary gallery in Canada this month. She will be featuring her new work, “Time Capsules from the Anthropocene.”

Of the work, White says, “Laws, societal norms, and culture in the Anthropocene view nature only in relation to how it serves humanity. Today, animals and their environments have no legal rights of their own, unless the extinction of animals, forests or oceans affects humans. The effects of our species are written into the rocks. Rocks are the black boxes, databases, cameras, recording our maniacal drive towards extinction. These pictures are visual constructions of what data might look like and say about this moment on earth … This work calls for consideration of new approaches, new perceptions, new ways of talking about and meeting the challenges of our time.”

Amanda Rowan, Full Time Faculty and FAYN Editor of PAC at NYFA-LA has won the PDN (Photo District News) Fine Art Photographer of the Year award for her work in Still Life. Four of her images will be appearing as part of the PDN Awards opening at the Canoe Studios in Chelsea, NYC on October 21 to kick off the Photo + Expo.

About the project, Rowan says, Ritual is a body of work that examines womanhood at the intersection of seduction and mysticism within the realm of traditional mating rituals. Working within the genres of still life and self-portraiture, I am shifting the gaze from voyeur to muse in an amalgamation of symbolism that explores notions of performance, power, and the act of vulnerability. I have constructed the moments using inherited clothing and objects from my late maternal grandmother. By pairing these pieces with symbolic organic matter, I am examining the history of conception, domesticity, and matriarchy within my personal and family narrative.”

Kristine Tomaro, Photography Supervisor of PAC at NYFA-LA, is part of a group show and award fundraiser for the Los Angeles organization Las Foto Projects this month. The Foto Awards are presented by Las Fotos Project, a community-based nonprofit organization that inspires teenage girls through photography, mentorship, and self-expression; encouraging them to explore their identity, advocate for their community and create their future career.

New York Film Academy congratulates the PAC at NYFA-LA faculty on their success and is proud to have such talented artists instructing the next generation of professional photographers!