"My aim is to help students talk about the thought processes behind their work," said business of beauty and fragrance professor Daniel Von Nydeggen. "That includes being better critical thinkers and defending their ideas effectively. I want my students to be able to stand up for themselves as designers deserving of respect."
 
On a recent Thursday morning in Morris Hall, Von Nydeggen prepared for a full day teaching Product Design for Customer Experience (BEAU 220), a major curriculum requirement. "I bring as much of a business sense into the classes as I can, because I love the business side as much as I love the design side," he said.
 
Von Nydeggen's stature as an educator is informed by more than 20 years as a designer with expertise in creative brand development and visual communication. Prior to joining SCAD this year, he was Senior Manager Production Artist at Kendo for Fenty Beauty, where he spearheaded packaging design and production initiatives. His impressive background also includes roles as Senior Production Designer at TATCHA and art director at La Prairie.
 
"Daniel brings the ideal balance of industry background and teaching experience to SCAD, making him perfectly suited to preparing our students for their creative careers," said De Sole School of Business associate dean Meloney Moore. "His innovative conceptual thinking transforms ideas into compelling visual experiences. We are excited to have him on board to enrich our SCAD community with his vast knowledge and experience!"
 
This quarter, Von Nydeggen is also teaching Visual Communication for Luxury Marketing (LXMT 504) and Visual Narrative for Consumer Engagements (LXMT 740). "My luxury and brand management students are more business-oriented, and I'm pushing them to understand the design side of things," he said.
 
"Most people associate being creative in this space as visual, with graphics and designs and patterns," continued Von Nydeggen. "My interests are also technical — I enjoy the creativity of typesetting, fitting copy, and meeting brand standards. It's like putting together a puzzle." (Von Nydeggen knows what it's like to do color matching on 40 shade variations, matching packaging to product, as he did at Fenty Beauty.) "In BEAU 220, we dig into the psychology of packaging too, examining the messaging a brand sends with their choice of colors and the quality of their photography."
 
In the industry, Von Nydegeen was often in a position of selecting interns and overseeing a staff, and placed emphasis on teamwork and compatibility. His message: "Whether you are a designer, a production artist, or a project manager, don't bring an ego that gets in the way." The new generation of SCAD BEAU and LXMT students heeds his cachet.
 
"I'm already seeing levels of attention-to-detail and motivation from SCAD students that impresses me," he said. "And I'm impressed by SCAD itself, and how it has invested its resources in making this the most creative environment I've ever seen in education. I'm excited to be here."

On a muggy Wednesday evening at the SCAD Athletics Complex in Hardeeville, South Carolina, Mario Goic pivoted to make space. As defenders narrowed his options, the attacking midfielder nudged the ball with the outside of his left foot. Time seemed to slow. Bam! Goic uncorked a sizzling shot past a leaping keeper and into the twine. At the end of the first half: SCAD 2, New College of Florida 0.
 
"Tricking the opponent into thinking I don't know what I'm going to do is part of it," Goic says. "Next comes doing it."
 
A day earlier, the first-year luxury and brand management graduate student sat enjoying a chicken katsu lunch outside The Shed following strategic financial management class. Good-natured and impeccably put-together, 26-year-old Goic traced his past: born in Austria to Croatian parents, he joined European powerhouse Dinamo Zagreb at age 16, returned to Austria as a member of the national team, then arrived in the U.S. to play Division I soccer at Queens University of Charlotte, where he earned his business admin degree in marketing. "Life pushed me to understand, you have to focus on the step ahead of you," he says.
 
Now Mario is rounding out his college career playing at the NAIA level for SCAD, where "The University for Creative Careers" attracts a special type of student-athlete. "I'm living proof," agrees Mario. "The reputation of SCAD's De Sole School of Business Innovation got my attention, and when I reached out to the coach and knew I could play here, I said yes."
 
"Mario is not bombastic, but he is a big presence," says SCAD men's soccer head coach John Haworth. "We're in lockstep on our soccer philosophy. In tough moments during a game, newer players might get skittish, and Mario calms them by being balanced himself and saying, ‘Let's keep doing what we're doing, we'll be fine.' What better way to build our program than with a player and person of his high caliber? All I have to do is let Mario be himself."

Mario makes his move against New College of Florida.

With cosmetic tape around his wrists, bright white socks above his knees, and bleached locks showing dark roots, Goic exudes fashion on the pitch. He names Brazilian superstar Neymar as the player who inspired his belief that looking his best means playing his best. "We're here to win, but if I can add a touch of my style to everything that I do, that's important too," Mario says.
 
SCAD's LXMT program is a route to conjoining his primary interests: "If I can combine luxury and soccer as a career, that will be ideal." He is intrigued by "the collaboration between luxury and streetwear, for example Louis Vuitton and Supreme, which speaks to a younger generation, especially Gen Z because we are very socially aware and care about things that are not so over the top. I'm interested in luxury that feels approachable."
 
Goic's current project is his own brand, Le Flair Studios. He is featuring his teammates Alessandro Morales and Michael O'Brien as brand models, while SCAD golf standouts Max Fallenius and James Fraser have helped edit visuals. Le Flair Studios drops its new collection this Saturday, Sept. 21, the same day SCAD men's soccer hosts Southeastern University in a Sun Conference showdown — proving for Mario it's all part of one passion.
 
Which connects back to Wednesday's match. In the second half, New College of Florida clawed back two goals to tie the game. Then Mario struck again in the 62nd minute to reclaim the lead for SCAD, before his teammate Kimi Husler headed in an insurance goal off a Goic corner. Final score: Bees 4, Mighty Banyans 2.
 
"I reflect on where I've been, and the opportunities I have now, and it's easy to play with a smile on my face," says Mario. "Life is sweet."

Connect with Mario Goic!

The SCAD Museum of Art is proud to announce the fall 2024 season of exhibitions, uniting works by forward-thinking creators who represent varied identities, viewpoints, and artistic movements. Reflecting upon the legacies of history while engaging directly with contemporary culture, the nine new exhibitions attune viewers to the power of the human experience, and the dynamic expressions of artists seeking connection to the world around them.
 
"The SCAD Museum of Art serves as a bold and brilliant beacon for lovers of visual ideation across the globe, said SCAD President Paula Wallace. “Our fall shows feature a charismatic lineup of contemporary artists from India, Italy, Kuwait, and beyond — and we welcome back SCAD alum Anya Molyviatis for her debut solo museum exhibition in the SCAD MOA Alumni Gallery. If you're ready to see the world with new eyes, join me at the SCAD Museum of Art this fall. The space draws you in, irresistibly. No passport required!"
 
SCAD MOA welcomes George Clinton to Savannah for the first museum exhibition of his wildly unconventional paintings and drawings that defy expectations with an imaginative Afrofuturist aesthetic centering improvisation and joy. Clinton will present this year's Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Lecture, placing his work in context with the lineages of African American storytelling. The museum is further honored to partner with Dia Art Foundation on a focused exploration of the innovative practice of Minimalist artist Dan Flavin (1933–96), whose pivotal works established a defining formal language of light and space.
 
In new and recent works, Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola critiques the commercialization of culture while uplifting the nuanced roles of everyday objects within Black life and individuality. Blending myth and purported fact in an evocative, grounding installation, multidisciplinary sculptor and filmmaker Monira Al Qadiri explores the complexities of the Persian Gulf's past and future. In her debut solo museum exhibition, SCAD alum Anya Molyviatis (B.F.A., fibers, 2021) merges technology and craft in intricate weavings that augment perception. Artist collaborators Thukral and Tagra contemplate the intersection of the digital and natural worlds in hyperrealistic paintings marked by analog pixels and glitches. Examining the connection between image-making and identity, Pop-Deco illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli transforms her graphic designs into bold portraits for a site-specific installation in the museum's public-facing Jewel Box vitrines. Beloved fashion designer Isabel Toledo is also celebrated with a posthumous exhibition of her work curated with her husband, artist, and fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo.
 
SCAD MOA chief curator Daniel S. Palmer said: "This new season of exhibitions at the SCAD Museum of Art will be unparalleled in the institution's recent history. With creators from across the globe working compellingly in nearly every medium, audiences are sure to be astonished by the art on view. Ranging from a historically significant display of American Minimalist Dan Flavin's most important series to the first solo museum exhibition of P-Funk cultural icon George Clinton's paintings and dynamic installations from Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, Monira Al Qadiri, Anya Molyviatis, Thukral and Tagra, Isabel Toledo, and Olimpia Zagnoli, these exhibitions are certain to amaze and inspire."
 
The museum's fall exhibitions season reflects the prestige and relevance of SCAD's top-ranked degree programs, from painting, photography, and sculpture to fashion, fibers, industrial design, illustration, and film and television. Students, alumni, and visitors can engage with the artists and curators at complementary programming, including an opening celebration, artist talks and conversations throughout the week, and an electrifying performance by George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic.

George Clinton, Alice in My Fantasies, c. 1999, acrylic and markers on canvas, 30 x 24 in. Private collection. 

Join the opening celebration Thursday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m., at SCAD MOA, 601 Turner Blvd. in Savannah.
 
For more information, visit scadmoa.org.

Banner image: Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, Party in the USA (HELL YEAH!!!), 2023, durags on aluminum and wood frame, 72 x 144 ½ in. Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography by Nik Massey.

The always anticipated, eagerly awaited SCAD AnimationFest returns to Atlanta this Sept. 26-28, 2024. The three-day festival, one of SCAD's scintillating signature events, is proud to honor living legend of the animation industry Genndy Tartakovsky.
 
"This year, SCAD AnimationFest proudly honors a titan of animation and a hero to Bees across the world – Cartoon Network and Adult Swim legend Genndy Tartakovsky, the genius behind Hotel Transylvania, Samurai Jack, and Dexter's Laboratory," said SCAD President Paula Wallace. "SCAD students grew up on Genndy's classics, and now, in true SCAD fashion, they will experience this 2D icon in 8K reality!" 
 
SCADFILM will present this year's SCAD AnimationFest Award of Excellence to Tartakovsky for his impressive creative contributions to the animation and entertainment industries. Tartakovsky will receive his award on Friday, Sept. 27 during a special presentation featuring the award-winning animation visionary, director, writer, and producer in person.
 
SCADFILM's signature festival for digital media will feature sessions with top executives and creatives from Adult Swim, Bad Robot, Crafty Apes, DC Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Animation. The festival will also showcase SCAD students and alumni whose creative work is at the forefront of animation, motion media design, and visual effects.
 
"AnimationFest presents our students with the exclusive opportunity to be mentored by the best in the industry at this signature event," said SCADFILM director Mollie Brock. "At SCAD, animation is our top ranked degree program, and for good reason: Our students and alumni are creating incredible stories that pair passion with state-of-the-art technology, redefining what is possible in animation."
 
Thursday kicks off with a behind-the-scenes presentation of Creature Commandos, the upcoming Max Original series from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation from executive producer and writer James Gunn. Warner Bros. Animation executive vice-president of alternative programming Peter Girardi and supervising producer Rick Morales will be on hand to provide an in-depth look into the artistry and creative processes behind this highly anticipated series set in the DC Universe. On opening night, attendees will be some of the first to preview IFC Films charming stop-motion adult drama Memoir of a Snail, directed by Academy Award-winner Adam Elliot.
 
On Friday, Blue Eye Samurai production designer Toby Wilson will take fans "behind the blade" with an exclusive snapshot into the creative inspirations of the Emmy Award-winning Netflix show and a glimpse at the development process, as explained through visual development images. Friday night, attendees will be one of the first to preview an episode of Common Side Effects, a new original series coming to Adult Swim in 2025, co-created by Joe Bennett and Steve Hely and executive produced by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels.
 
More than 600 current students and recent alumni from SCAD's top-ranked degree programs have contributed to this year's slate of creative shorts. SCAD Animation Studios will premiere two new original student films, Time Flies and Chelita, as well as host the annual student showcase featuring the best of SCAD student work.

As President Wallace said: "See you at SCADshow....I'll bring the popcorn!"

For more information, visit scad.edu/animationfest.
 

On the auspicious morning of July 1, the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus rolled into Reno. Six musically inclined youth from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Nevada would soon climb aboard "the coolest mobile recording studio on wheels" to compose and record an original song and accompanying music video, set to debut at the downtown culture festival Artown. There were intimations, too, that Avengers actor Jeremy Renner would drop by to elevate "Imagine: A Musical Collaboration" with his sonic superpowers.
 
Mixing engineer and music producer Caleb Green (B.F.A., sound design, 2023) was ready. The 23-year-old Green was spending the summer working on the Lennon Bus, including a visit to Centennial High School in Compton, California, engaging students with free, hands-on learning opportunities in audio, video, and digital media. The work had been intense — and intensely rewarding. "Shout-out to SCAD for preparing me for such an incredible experience," says the genuinely upbeat Green.

Caleb's journey began as student at Cypress Creek High School in Houston, Texas, where he learned about SCAD through a visiting regional rep. He entered the pre-college Rising Star program, taking classes with foundation studies professor LaRaine Papa Montgomery. As an undergrad studying graphic design, he enrolled in Fundamentals of Audio (SNDS 110) with sound design professor Rob Miller; the elective was a revelation. As Green says: "I learned that my passion for sound is otherworldly compared to anything else on this planet."
 
He has leaned into that passion this summer. The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, founded in 1998 by Yoko Ono and artist and educator Brian Rothschild, helps young people from underserved communities develop skills in music and career awareness in allied fields. The state-of-the-art bus currently counts Apple, Gibson, Genelec, and Adobe among its partners. "As technology has evolved, we're constantly updating the facilities on the bus to have the best studio possible," executive director Rothschild says. "Recently we brought on Dolby as a strong partner for a major upgrade, and we were looking for engineers who already had Dolby Atmos experience."
 
Green got the gig by being prepared for opportunity. Sound design professor Jamie Baker explains: "In October 2023, I went to the AES [Audio Engineering Society] convention in New York, where I met Brian Rothschild. He told me, ‘We're coming to Savannah on the bus.' So, we put out a blast on our SCAD sound design Discord server, for students who might want to see the bus. Brian had mentioned to me that they were hiring, with specific requirements, and in Savannah, as they showed their new Atmos set-up, Caleb was there."
 
At SCAD, under the tutelage of sound design professor Robin Beauchamp, Green had earned his Dolby Atmos 7.1.2 certification — only the 20th person in the world to do so. "Once we got Caleb on board, I could tell he could be the creative lead on projects right away," says Rothschild. "He has a great personality, he's fun and serious, and he can work very, very quickly. I would say Caleb is in the top percentage of crew members the bus has ever had." In Professor Baker's words: "I'm thrilled SCAD prepared Caleb to sit in any seat that opens up along his journey."

In Reno, Caleb and the kids laid down a new, original country-soul tune. When special guest Renner arrived, Green says, "He was just a real sweet guy, and a great singer and guitar player. We started going through the melody, and Jeremy laid down a couple ideas and was encouraging the kids to really belt it out."

With the song and video complete, Renner invited the kids and the crew back to his Camp RennerVation among the towering pines in Stateline, Nevada. In between sessions demoing the bus for campers, Caleb took a leap in ice cold Lake Tahoe.
 
"One great thing about the bus is that it's where young people realize that there's more to music than writing the song," Green says. "They learn about recording and mixing, and how to prepare for creative decision-making."
 
Caleb will return this fall to his job aboard the Lennon Bus, where he will be joined by fellow alum Panashe Mugadza (B.F.A., sound design, 2023) working the Dolby Atmos system.
 
"With music, you build so much mystique around it because it's such a magical thing, so when you see and hear everything that goes into it, it demystifies the process," concludes Caleb. "That, to me, makes working on the bus even more fantastic."

Connect with Caleb Green!

SCAD is pleased to announce Bob Chavez, Executive Chairman of Hermès Americas, has been named the Executive in Residence at the university. Chavez assumes this executive advisory role immediately, as SCAD begins the 2024-2025 academic year.
 
In his new role, Chavez will travel to all three SCAD locations — Savannah, Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia, and Lacoste, France — visiting classes, reviewing portfolios, critiquing student work, and offering mentorship to talented SCAD students. Chavez will also provide his unique vision and direction to the SCAD De Sole School of Business Innovation and the SCAD School of Fashion, furthering the university's recognition as the global leader for art, design, and innovation in higher education.

Chavez's presence emphasizes SCAD's curricular preeminence in disciplines including luxury and brand management, creative business leadership, design management, advertising and branding, service design, business of beauty and fragrance, fashion design, accessory design, jewelry design, and fashion marketing and management.
 
"Bob Chavez is a visionary leader in the international luxury space and a longtime champion of SCAD who will bring tremendous expertise and insights to the university's esteemed academic programs," said Chief Academic Officer Jason Fox. "We are honored to have Bob serve as Executive in Residence and engage deeply with talented SCAD students across an array of disciplines. He is committed to SCAD's mission to prepare students at an elite level for successful, creative professions."
 
Chavez is a longstanding executive at Hermes of Paris, Inc., since his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer of Hermes North America in 2000. Chavez oversees all business interests in the U.S. and Latin America and has overseen Hermes' remarkable growth and expansion in the Americas region, now with over 36 Hermes boutiques, and the hermes.com flagship website. Under Chavez's direction, the storied French house is considered the gold standard of global luxury.
 
"I am very excited to be a part of the SCAD Executive in Residence program," said Chavez. "Working with the faculty and exceptionally talented students at SCAD is a true honor, and I thank President Paula Wallace for this wonderful opportunity of engagement."
 
Chavez has been an enduring and guiding figure at SCAD for many years as a dear friend of the university and champion of SCAD students. In 2019, SCAD recognized his outstanding service and achievements by presenting Chavez with an Honorary Degree for Humane Letters. He has been recognized by numerous institutions and organizations, including March of Dimes, God's Love We Deliver, and Battery Park Conservancy Organization.
 
The De Sole School of Business Innovation at SCAD prepares the next generation of creative leaders to navigate the rapidly changing business landscape through in-depth industry knowledge, design thinking, research, and collaboration. The school's premier degree programs empower students to become forward-thinking subject-matter experts who will thrive in their future creative careers. The De Sole School of Business Innovation also offers first-of-its- kind degree programs including luxury brand management, and the pioneering Master of Business Innovation degree – the only graduate level degree of its kind in the United States. 
 

For more information about SCAD, please visit scad.edu.

"It was the end of the disco era," said archives and special collections librarian Andra Darlington, cueing up a clip from the 1980 movie Xanadu, "and they roller-skated a lot." A dozen-plus students leaned in, ready for action.
 
On Friday afternoon, animation and illustration students, select library staff, and a few looky-loos were on an upper floor of the SCAD Jen Library for Darlington's presentation "Don Bluth Behind the Scenes: Xanadu."
 
"For Xanadu, we have materials for almost every step of the animation process, which we keep stored in a climate-controlled environment and that we've pulled today for you to examine," Darlington said. Set out on tables were drawings, hand-painted animation cels, color models, studio memos, and even the lyrics to the relevant soundtrack song, Electric Light Orchestra's "Don't Walk Away."

If Xanadu is not the best-reviewed movie of all time, it's not the fault of the animation sequence, which retains its sparkly magic as Olivia Newton-John transmogrifies into a flirty fish. That sequence is the work of a team led by Don Bluth, the animator and director best known for An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988).
 
The Don Bluth Collection of Animation — donated to SCAD in 2005 and held in the Jen Library's Archives and Special Collections — is extraordinary. "The Bluth Collection contains thousands of boxes, so we are barely scratching the surface," Darlington said.
 
After a few guidelines ("Please be gentle"), students were encouraged to handle the Xanadu materials. Yang Zhou (M.F.A., illustration) scrutizined the drawings, landing on one depicting the movie's two main characters in passionate embrace. "What I like is that the style is a little more mature than Disney," Yang said. "It's very expressive."
 
Students with sketchbooks and pencils began their own creative exercises, copying drawings as a way of understanding how Bluth's team had created their masterwork. Animation professor James Crossley circulated, making suggestions about linework.

Crossley, a former Disney animator, explained what Darlington identified among the production files as "sweat box notes." "Sweat box notes are what happens when the animators show their shot to the director and supervisor and they hit you with all these notes," Crossley said. "It can get hot." Darlington pointed to a note from producer Gary Goldman. "You can see his note was based on a rough drawing, and it says, ‘Separate the fins from the girl fish's body for split exposure.'"
 
For a full hour, students circulated, exploring the collection. The session was saturated with inspiration. The aim, Darlington explained, is for the Bluth Collection not to languish in a back room, but to be accessible. She encouraged studunts to email her directly and use the library website to request a research consultation.
 
"I'm happy to work with you to pull material related to your interests. The whole point of the collection is to support learning, and to be a special part of your SCAD experience."

Visit the Jen Library and learn more about Archives and Special Collections.

The three-peat is on. Following gold medal performances at the Paralympics Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016, the U.S.A. men's wheelchair basketball team is aiming for a third consecutive triumph at this summer's Paralympic Games in Paris. "We're focused on our goal and going for gold," says head medical support staff Jeremy Johnson (B.F.A. industrial design, 1998). Johnson, an esteemed alum and part of the SCAD industrial design program's first graduating class, knows what can happen when great design, hard work, and athletic excellence all come together.
 
Jeremy Johnson: I was born with what was commonly called clubfoot. I wore a brace my entire childhood. My mom and dad were told I would never be able to run. I pushed myself to where I got a cross-country scholarship in college. At 18, I was living in Savannah and studying sports medicine and lodging with a physician assistant named Mary Vacala who worked with SCAD Athletics. I told Mary that during my spare time I'd set up an athletic training room in Pepe Hall, that way SCAD athletes could come in for preventative and rehab care. I volunteered doing that for a year and then I was asked a very simple question which shocked me: "Hey Jeremy, why don't you come to SCAD on a full scholarship? There's a new major called industrial design…" I spent all my time at SCAD working on healthcare-driven designs. I graduated in 1998 and was handed my diploma by Sidney Poitier. The commencement speaker was Maya Angelou. An incredible experience.
 
After SCAD, I worked in healthcare operations, and gained knowledge and fuel by jumping on committees at the Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), which meant powering up overall performance improvement for supply chain performance, service, and product design. The sweet spot for Paralympic wheelchair basketball and supply chain performance improvement teams is tying the work we do on and off the court to what they do on and off the court, so to speak. Recently, I was on multiple projects with Vizient as a consultant, while simultaneously working with the NWBA and Team USA wheelchair basketball. My story aligns with Vizient's values: be inclusive, be purposeful, be bold, and be accountable. The same goes for Team USA wheelchair basketball, with our emphasis on building strong communication, cohesiveness, and character every single day.

Being an athletic trainer and intertwining supply chain operations for over 20 years, I have been able to be part of and help build the best teams in the world. The baton was passed to me about four years ago from head athletic trainer Mary Vacala when Coach Robb Taylor asked me to rise from assistant medical provider to head team provider for the Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Team. We did not miss a beat, traveling to Dubai for the World Championships in 2022 where we won gold. Coaches, support staff, and players — we're all part of the big picture. It's really a family, working together towards a goal. Now we're heading to Paris for the Paralympics. One of the players, Paul Schulte, is a mechanical engineer who designs wheelchairs. I hope Paul and I can visit SCAD so industrial design students can hear our story. Even if we plant a seed for one person, it's worth it. I often reflect and say, how can I impact somebody else? That's why we're here.

When I look back at my SCAD experience, I see where it's gotten me, to the pinnacle of working with Paralympic athletes. We're ready to get out there and bring the gold home for the U.S.A.

Follow Jeremy Johnson and Team USA when the Paralympic basketball tournament opens August 29 at Bercy Arena, the same court where, two weeks prior, LeBron James and Steph Curry will lead USA basketball in their drive towards Olympic gold. 

(As told to Peter Relic.)

"Try to be more like the ground," wrote the poet Rumi in the 13th century, encouraging human connection to the earth. Some eight hundred years later, director, composer, cinematographer and producer Nina Miller (M.F.A., film and television, 2022) uses that Sufi suggestion in her graduate thesis film Invasion of the Bucket Snatchers, this time as a call to action in the present.
 
"The important thing is for the film to help people feel hopeful, connected to the world, and inspired to become involved in composting, and to see that it's a fairly easy thing to do," Miller says.

The wonderfully titled Invasion of the Bucket Snatchers follows Savannah locals and Code of Return Compost proprietors Maria Vaughan and Michael Wedum as they get their hands dirty turning the city's food waste into healthy soil. The loamy labor looks hot and daunting. It is also obviously rewarding and meaningful.

Hard COR: composters Vaughan & Wedum

"There's some lift to it," Miller says of her seven-minute advocacy-based documentary. "Originally, I had planned on showing the whole historical background of the composting movement. Instead, I wound up documenting the composting process start to finish without talking head interviewees."
 
With its rich visual language, the precise, concise film is closer to narrative poetry. (Rumi would approve.) Bucket Snatchers becomes both grander and more intimate when it introduces the Parker family: parents Rodney and Rosa and little girls Rebekah and Rae. At the film's end, a glorious cookout feast features food the homesteaders have grown themselves with compost provided by Michael and Maria. The cycle of life has never looked so sweet.

Like father, like daughter: the Parkers dig in

"Through profiling our neighbors, Nina has created a film that challenges our complacency and invites our immediate community into conversation," says film professor Michael Chaney, who served on Miller's thesis committee. "While she embraces innovative methods of storytelling to target a specific local audience, her film retains the power to generate conversations in other communities facing similar issues."
 
Professor Scott Ballard taught Miller in graduate course Thesis I: Production (FILM 791). "Nina kept an open heart throughout the filmmaking process, and that really helped how she shaped her documentary," Ballard says. "She offers viewers the chance to experience what these people are doing and why, and to gain a feeling for the community that grows from that. You see things differently when you watch her film. She shifts the prism."
 
Nina — a French speaker, acolyte of Octavia E. Butler, and huge fan of Earth, Wind & Fire — is the daughter of SCAD sound design professor Robert Miller. (Her younger sister Lucy is currently a fashion marketing and management student.) Nina's summer plans include traveling to France and Switzerland as cinematographer and field producer on the documentary Lost Snows of the Alps, directed by film professor Kevin McCarey, who — full circle alert — taught Miller in Environmental Filmmaking (FILM 421). "Kevin's really taken me under his wing and helped me understand the wide range of possibilities in environmental filmmaking," Nina says.
 
After local screenings at Front Porch Improv, Invasion of the Bucket Snatchers has found a home online at Beyond the Short, where it can be streamed for free. Prepare to be more like the ground.

Connect with filmmaker Nina Miller!

All images courtesy Nina Miller.

Fill your most stylish tote with macarons as the film festival experience returns to Lacoste! SCAD brings movie magic back to the magnificent Luberon Valley with the third annual SCAD Lacoste Film Festival, this Thursday through Saturday, June 27–29, 2024.
 
"With an acclaimed lineup of artisans, actors, and auteurs in attendance, this year's SCAD Lacoste Film Festival promises to be our largest and most exciting edition yet," said SCAD Theaters and Festivals Executive Director Christina Routhier. "This medieval oasis, with its enchanting views of the Luberon Valley, is a fantastical backdrop for filmmakers and movie stars to share their experiences and insights with our students and the community."
 
This year's festival includes tributes to French film artisans and industry insights from honored guests directly relating to many of the university's top-ranked, preeminent degree programs, including acting, film and television, production design, and fashion.
 
Treasured films from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, spanning several decades, will find new audiences at SCAD Lacoste's uniquely intimate outdoor stage and theater during the festival.
 
This year SCAD will honor four special guests from the film industry: Miranda Richardson, Janty Yates, Sam Taylor-Johnson, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Richardson, the legendary Golden Globe Award and BAFTA-winning British actor (Tom & Viv, Harry Potter, Damage, Kansas City) will be presented with the Étoile Award.
 
Academy Award-winning British costume designer Janty Yates (The Martian, House of Gucci, Napoleon) will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement in Costume Design Award. A frequent collaborator with director Ridley Scott, Yates won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for their first project together, 2001's Gladiator. Her most recent film is the highly anticipated sequel Gladiator II, scheduled to be released in theaters this November.
 
"I am so excited to attend this festival in beautiful Lacoste and engage with the students, many of whom will be future creatives in our industry, and I am very proud and honored to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from SCAD," Yates said.
 
Celebrated director, artist, and photographer Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey, Nowhere Boy, A Million Little Pieces) will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Directing Award during a special screening of her new film Back to Black, based on the life of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, and starring Marisa Abela.

SCAD Lacoste Film Festival honoree, director Sam Taylor-Johnson.

Renowned French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Alien: Resurrection, Delicatessen), will receive the festival's Auteur Award on the closing night of the festival. Jeunet is best known for his 2001 Oscar-nominated international sensation Amélie, considered a classic across generations.
 
Other special guests include preeminent French production designer Anne Seibel (Midnight in Paris, Emily in Paris, Casanova) whose designs shine on the lauded new Apple TV+ show The New Look, chronicling the rise of fashion designer Christian Dior in post-World War II Paris. Also in attendance will be award-winning documentarian and director Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Truman & Tennessee, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, Love, Cecil, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict).
 
The SCAD Lacoste Film Festival is presented by SCADFILM, the university's leading programmer of events for students and working professionals in animation, film and television, interactive design and game development, motion media design, immersive reality, and digital media arts. More than 150 SCAD students are taking classes this summer in Lacoste. A large majority of them are pursuing degrees within the university's School of Film and Acting.

"This festival is an intimate and carefully curated experience that allows European and international filmmakers to provide professional insights to our student filmmakers through master classes and insightful conversations," said Leigh Seaman, Senior Executive Director of Programming and SCADFILM. "Each year our students make connections that can help launch their careers in an inspiring and unforgettable setting."
 
See you there, mon pote!

Visit SCAD Lacoste!