"What are the sensations I can have that aren't being offered to me?" asks author Ryan Knighton in director Eric Heimbold's "Blind Sushi." Knighton, rendered completely sightless by retinitis pigmentosa, heads to the Connecticut seashore with chef Bun Lai, where the pair go crabbing and fishing for invasive marine species that Lai will serve to diners at his wildly acclaimed New Haven restaurant, Miya's Sushi. Lai's mission – "To find a culinary solution to an environmental problem" – combines with Knighton's emerging talent at diving for clams. The film's final feast celebrates consciousness raising on multiple fronts.

"Blind Sushi" was one of eight short films screened during "Overcoming the Odds," a thematically linked afternoon under the "Global Shorts" banner at this year's SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The presence of many of the filmmakers at the screening was indicative of a festival focused on providing students and festivalgoers with direct access to the makers of the work.

Directed by Ben Holman and Neirin Jones, "The Good Fight" celebrated hope and hyperkinetic energy in the face of grim reality. "I've never seen a man in my family die of natural causes," Alan Duarte says, walking through the crumbling concrete corridors of Complexo do Alemão on a restless Rio night pocked by gunfire. As Duarte builds up his own training center for young people learning to box, he also builds community and joy and belief in the future. As the lovable organizer concludes: "I hope I live to be an old man."

Having lived to be old, his body withered by cerebral palsy and confined to a wheelchair, Hale Zukas appears in need of round-the-clock-care. But as "Hale" gets rolling, director Brad Bailey's 22-minute documentary upends that presumption, telling the story of the disability rights pioneer and co-founder of Berkeley's Center for Independent Living, a key to the successful Human Rights for All movement of 1977. Archival images of a younger Zukas and his fellow activists blend with footage of Zukas today, navigating the Bay Area alone, signifying true social progress.

Emphasizing that courage comes in all shapes and sizes, "Overcoming the Odds" and the Global Shorts Forum were free and open to the public. Under the guidance of programming director Sheila Bolda and artistic director Christina Routhier, the 20th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival featured a total of 133 screenings on topics including refugees, climate change and female empowerment. "Overcoming the Odds" was but one brilliant afternoon in a week to remember.

"The gap that used to exist between Hollywood and film students has become smaller," said Rick Benattar, producer, Benattar/Thomas Productions, to a Gutstein Gallery full of SCAD film and television students. "We're making films with the same equipment you are."

Alongside his production partner Nigel Thomas, Benattar was a featured panelist at "New Models of Distribution," one of sixteen wide-ranging panels that took place during SCAD Savannah Film Festival. Panels ran the gamut from "The Rewards and Challenges of Filming in Cuba" to "Women of Sci-Fi and Horror," including a "Foley: Live!" experience with Emmy-winning sound effects artist Marko Costanzo. Discussions on costume design, casting, production design all featured top industry talent, affording students and festivalgoers direct access to insider perspectives.

The lively, hour-long "New Models of Distribution," moderated by SCAD dramatic writing professor Chris Auer, also featured Michael Moran, Senior VP of Marketing and Development, Mar Vista Entertainment, and new media executive Olivia Mascheroni of Blumhouse Productions. The panelists all emphasized the benefits of making micro-budget genre pictures.

"At Blumhouse we make small budget movies in the genre space because you can make a horror movie look good for under five million dollars," Mascheroni said. "You can't make 'The Avengers' for under five million dollars." ("Get Out" – a $4.5 million Blumhouse production that has earned over $200 million worldwide – proved her point.)

The evanescent DVD market and the proliferation of streaming services have upended the way films are made as well as how they are consumed. Perhaps surprisingly, the theater is not always the desirable destination for a finished film.

"If you make an independent film, you don't have to have a theatrical release," Moran said. "Festivals are a great way to get your film seen, especially if you're doing shorts."

A question from a dramatic writing student about how to attract attention to a screenplay prompted Benatarr's advice: "Take your favorite scene from the script, get your friends together and shoot the scene. I've found writers that way, and directors."

Thomas recommended posting the scene or short on YouTube or Vimeo: "Put something out there so we can see what you can do."

The panelists agreed that collaboration, relationship-building, and a deep love of film are essential to surmounting the challenges of an evolving business.

"All of you are here for a reason," Mascheroni said. "As young people entering the industry, it's important to remember that you are perfectly capable of being as amazing as you can be."

Documentary films are essential to the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The opening days of the 20th annual event showed diverse exemplars of the form.

Screening for the first time in front of a public audience in the U.S., "The Final Year" provided opening-night attendees at the Lucas Theatre an inside look at the Obama administration's ultimate annum. The film's emphasis is on foreign policy, with Secretary of State John Kerry, United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes all striving for progress and resolutions in countries including Cameroon, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos and Greenland. Peace negotiations in Syria and Obama's historic speech at Hiroshima are seen up close in real time. By the film's conclusion, its title refers to more than the final year of the Obama administration; it's end of U.S. diplomacy as it has functioned since the end of World War II.

A post-film Q&A with Rhodes and director Greg Barker, moderated by Access Hollywood critic Scott Mantz, revealed a further twist: Obama was to give his final foreign policy speech at the Greek Parthenon, the birthplace of democracy. After the outcome of the 2016 election, this was deemed no longer appropriate.

"Icarus" starts on two wheels. Director Bryan Fogel, a competitive cyclist, sets out to show how easy it is to circumvent doping controls in the sport. The involvement of Grigory Rodchenkov, director of Moscow's anti-doping agency, soon takes the film into another stratosphere: a full-scale expose of Russia's state-sponsored doping program and the decades-long campaign to pervert the integrity of the Olympic games.

The film reigns in floccose threads by including sequential illustrations depicting the psychological states of Rodchenkov and the Russian military athletic apparatus. For a film about doublespeak and the Olympic dream, "Icarus" has, in Rodchenkov, a quixotic human heart. A post-film Q&A with Fogel and SCAD film professor Michael Chaney revealed how the documentary was structured to resemble a "Bourne" action thriller, and that, to Fogel, a film is never finished until it hits the screen.

Then to the barre: "Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer," a cinematic portrait of Marcelo Gomes, principal dancer of the American Ballet Theater. As filmmakers David Barba and James Barberito follow Gomes' global pas de deux, breathtaking performances in ballets including "La Bayadere," "Gisele," and "Swan Lake" are heightened by Gomes' awareness of his physical fallibility. Archival video of Gomes as a young boy dancing with schoolmates in Brazil reveals his incandescent star power years before he refined his arabesque. While tackling issues of identity and Gomes' unresolved relationship with his father, the film delivers insights into this most exquisite and taxing art form.

The SCAD Savannah Film Festival continues through Saturday, November 4, with blockbuster premieres, exclusive screenings, workshops, panels and more. Visit filmfest.scad.edu.

For 20 years, the world's most beloved and respected filmmakers have come to Savannah to share their wisdom with SCAD students. They teach masterclasses in rehearsal rooms, do scene work on stages, and sit beside students in editing suites, discussing the art of the masterful cut. At the end of each visit, we ask these brilliant minds to share with us a few final thoughts for our students. These powerful interviews go beyond the usual junket fare and penetrate right to the heart of filmmaking. Here are five of the most meaningful interview moments from the last few years.

No. 5: Sir Ian McKellen

In his 2010 interview, Sir Ian McKellen exhorts students to put in the hours, to take their careers and their ambitions by the horns and do the work. "My advice would be to work whenever you can [...] You can't just sit around waiting for work to happen." This lesson is critically important in a profession where it can seem, to young people, that everyone has power but them. Can't find the film role of your dreams? Write your own screenplay. Do you wish television reflected your culture and experience more? Make your own show.

***

No. 4: Olivia Wilde and Reed Morano

"No single person can create a film on their own," says Olivia Wilde in her 2015 interview, alongside director Reed Morano, her close collaborator. "You're not looking for a collaborator who's a carbon copy of yourself artistically. You're looking for someone who completes you, in many ways." SCAD students collaborate on their own student films, often forming their own collectives that thrive long after commencement. These collaborations reflect the breadth of degree programs at SCAD: You'll find storyboard artists from sequential art, 3-D character animators from the animation department, voiceover talent from performing arts, all working together to create a single film.

***

No. 3: Mahershala Ali

The work of the actor can seem like magic. You inhabit, through word and gesture, another self. How does this work, exactly? In his 2016 interview, Academy Award-winning actor Mahershala Ali invites students to embrace the search. Every artistic act is a question: Who am I? Who is this character? What makes him different from every other person who's ever lived? Mahershala says, "The more specific you can make the character, the more unique he or she can automatically become." In film as in literature, concrete details accrete into meaning.

***

No. 2: Gabourey Sidibe

In her 2012 interview, Academy Award-nominated Gabourey Sidibe reminded students that their creative anxieties can be bested. "There are absolutely times where I doubt myself," she said. Her solution? Don't pretend to know everything. Learn from everyone around you. She said, "I'm not just paying attention to my own character. I'm paying attention to the director of photography, the camera people. I pay attention to everything. The people who've been in the business for 20 years, they doubt themselves, as well. It's actually just a normal part of doing what you want to do."

***

No. 1: Stan Lee

Everybody loves Stan Lee, a born educator with a hero's heart. In his interview, he discusses the perennial importance of students finding their own point-of-view. He talks about how as a young comic book artist, he was told by his publisher not to worry about characterization. "Just put in a lot of fight scenes!" the man told young Stan. But Stan wanted to create more than mere fight scenes, and so he created backstories and dimensional heroes (and villains) with histories, flaws, desires. "Try to make the reader care about the characters before they have the obligatory fight scene," he says. In one sentence, he teaches SCAD students that empathy is key, and that listening to your own heart will help you find your voice.

The 20th annual SCAD Savannah Film Festival runs from Oct. 28 to Nov. 4, 2017, with screenings, masterclasses, Q&As, and award presentations at Lucas Theatre, Trustees Theater, and the SCAD Museum of Art Theater. This year's honorees and special guests include Sir Patrick Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Richard Gere, Salma Hayek, Holly Hunter, and more luminaries who will teach us, and especially our students, lessons that endure.

The SCAD performing arts department presents "The Wolves," a play written by Sarah DeLappe and directed by SCAD performing arts professor Meg Kelly, Oct. 25–28, 2017. A finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, "The Wolves"  follows the lives of nine teenage girls on an indoor soccer team over the course of a season.

Forgoing Arnold Hall's theater seating, audience members were directed to sit on risers on the stage, where AstroTurf enhanced the experience of watching the team stretch and prepare for games. In their warm-up circle, the team discusses everything from boyfriends and pimples to performance anxiety and damaging school rumors. The girls are never named, but referred to by jersey number.

Laughter rippled through the audience as they watched girls whisper during pep talks, compare bruises and make ill-informed conclusions about their new, oddball teammate.

"I heard she lives in a yogurt," one player quips.

"I think you meant 'yurt'," another team member replies.

As the play progresses, pressures from outside the tight-knit group start to affect their warm ups, games and friendships. Trivial conversations turn to more serious topics like soccer career-ending injuries and losing family members. Soon the audience is rooting for the pack to stay together beyond the outcome of the next game.

As the lights faded after the play's dramatic last scenes, the audience erupted in a roar of applause over Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)."

The remaining performances of "The Wolves" are at 8 p.m., Oct. 27-28. Tickets are $5 for SCAD Card holders; $8 for non-SCAD students, senior and military; and $10 for the public. Tickets are available online and in person at the Savannah Box Office, 216 E. Broughton St.

"History is always there to be told," said artist Hank Willis Thomas, addressing attendees of "History and Iconography: The Power of Image," part of a two-day symposium at the SCAD Museum of Art to commemorate the centennial of the birth of painter, storyteller and educator Jacob Lawrence.

Moderated by Kimberly Drew, creator of the blog Black Contemporary Art and social media manager at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the panel examined the creative processes of Thomas and fellow artist Meleko Mokgosi. Thomas and Mokgosi are both featured in "Legacy," part of the current SCAD MOA exhibition "Lines of Influence," which investigates Lawrence's impact on modern working artists.

Though their practices diverge, Mokgosi and Thomas steep their works in research, spending as much time mining archives for untold stories as in the tactile practice of creating. Both artists combat narrative clichés and shed light on overlooked issues — much like Lawrence, who pioneered new ways of portraying the African-American experience.

Thomas, working with themes relating to identity, history and popular culture, spoke about his piece "Untitled," a sculpture of powder-coated steel. The sculpture is based on runaway slave advertisements he uncovered, and points to the story of William and Ellen Craft, an enslaved African-American couple who, en route to freedom, passed through the Central of Georgia Railway depot — the very place where the SCAD Museum of Art stands today.

Thomas said that he owes his love of archives as well as his early encounters with the work of Jacob Lawrence to his mother, Deborah Willis, a renowned artist, curator and historian who celebrates and preserves the work of black photographers in books, exhibitions and documentaries.

Botswana-born Mokgosi identifies with Lawrence's research-based practice because it echoes his own. Moksogi's large-scale, project-based installations grapple with subjects including psychoanalysis, post-colonial theory and nation-building. He spends months reading, researching, taking pictures, traveling and sketching until his ideas solidify. A frequent theme is his native country's path to democracy after achieving independence 50 years ago.

"I don't paint until I have everything figured out," Mokgosi said.

His paintings typically take just a week or two to complete, he said. The diptych "Letter from Home (Letter from Africa)" features one 144" x 96" x 2" panel with lettering in permanent marker done in one session.

"That's amazing," Thomas said with a hint of jealousy, as the audience laughed.

When Drew asked what the artists want their legacies would be, Thomas said he hoped his own work will be preserved and catalogued for future generations. Mokgosi declared that, like Jacob Lawrence, he aims to "capture unspoken narratives" and make them part of the conversation.

"Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence" is on view through Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

The SCAD Museum of Art hosted a symposium Oct. 19-20, 2017, in honor of "Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence," a group exhibition celebrating the centennial of the birth of the acclaimed painter, storyteller and educator. The symposium included lectures, exhibition tours, performances and panel discussions, with leading scholars, artists, SCAD alumni and students commemorating Lawrence's life and legacy.

On Thursday, "Blocked at Five Points," a riveting performance by SCAD alumnus Masud Olufani (M.F.A., sculpture, 2013) and singer Minka Wiltz explored Southern oral traditions and the psychogeography of a former slave auction block, currently the site of a MARTA station, in Atlanta, Georgia. Attendees then learned about the themes and effects of Lawrence's expressive cubism at "The Moral Compass of Jacob Lawrence/Why Black Artists Matter," a keynote lecture by Patricia Hills Ph.D., professor emerita at Boston University.

Thursday's final event, "The Builders, 1947," was a collaborative multidisciplinary, performance by exhibiting artist Derrick Adams and a group of SCAD students in front of a large projection of Lawrence's painting "The Builders" (1947). The painting demonstrates Lawrence's preoccupation with the representation of everyday activities and elevation of labor as a noble activity. Adams and SCAD students mimed the movements of construction workers, bringing the painting to life with the sounds of popular 1940s music, commercials and important moments in African-American history, including an on-air interview with author James Baldwin.

The symposium continued Friday with a tour of the "Lines of Influence" exhibition hosted by Derrick Adams and fellow exhibiting artists Barbara Earl Thomas, Aaron Fowler and Meleko Mokgosi. Additional symposium events included a screening of "Moon Rising," a video created by multimedia concept band Moon Medicine, a lecture by art historian and curator Julie Levin-Caro on Lawrence's teaching experience at Black Mountain College in the summer of 1946, and a panel discussion exploring the importance of Lawrence's legacy as a teacher and art historical figure across multiple generations.

"Jacob Lawrence: Lines of Influence" is on view through Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

SCAD student collaborators on "The Builders, 1947":
Madison Alford (B.F.A., dramatic writing)
Kasey Appignani (B.F.A., film and television)
Daniel Arguello (B.F.A., performing arts)
Audrey Barbe (B.F.A., fashion)
Zara Bell (M.F.A., painting)
Steven Blevins (B.F.A., sound design)
Scott Boyd (B.F.A., film and television)
Hunter Brown (B.F.A., sound design)
Jordan Denton (B.F.A., sound design (sound)
Melissa Dodge (B.F.A., performing arts)
Kali Lewis (B.F.A., performing arts)
Blaine Little (B.F.A., art history)
Enrique Lopez (B.F.A., sound design)
Celine McDuffie (B.F.A., film and television)
Joe McGregor (B.F.A., performing arts)
Madison Parisi (B.F.A. dramatic writing)
Alex Pepper (B.F.A., performing arts)
Antonina Ramon (B.F.A., film and television)
Sydney Seabron (B.F.A., film and television)
Burke Swanson (B.F.A., performing arts)

Competing against undergraduate and graduate students from more than 40 colleges and universities across the U.S., Tess Burns (B.F.A., fashion marketing and management) is the top recipient of the 2017 National Retail Federation Ray Greenly Scholarship.

Burns composed an essay on innovation and a stop-motion animation "personal brand" video, then created a unique case study for the furniture and home décor company West Elm. Digital retail executives from companies including Williams-Sonoma, Kohl's and Nordstrom selected Burns as one of 25 semi-finalists to receive a stipend to attend this year's Student Experience at Shop.org in Los Angeles, where the trophy, and $25,000 top scholarship, belonged to Tess.

SCAD: How did you approach your award-winning case study with West Elm?

TESS BURNS: The challenge was to create a prototype to enhance the West Elm customer experience.

I went into the West Elm here in Savannah and saw a couple shopping who told the salesperson: "We don't know if this bedspread will match the paint in our bedroom." That sparked my idea. I realized augmented reality was the best way to solve their problem. Then I had to make an app.

There's an augmented reality function on my West Elm app so you can pull out your phone in your bedroom and select items and have them 3-D rendered in your room. You can see how a lamp is going to look like on your nightstand, what a bedspread will look like on your bed. Or you can take a photo of your room and come in to a West Elm store and have a consultant help you. It's about increasing customer confidence, online or in store.

SCAD: What was the key to you winning the top prize?

BURNS: I'd just come off working on a SCAD CLC [Collaborative Learning Center] project with Urban Decay Cosmetics that involved creating an innovative store experience, so I applied those lessons to my West Elm project.  At SCAD I not only learn business savvy but also acquire design knowledge. With my West Elm project, I was very aware of the aesthetics of the presentation and how that would make people think and feel.

Luke Chatelain, West Elm VP of Innovation, said they appreciated my passion for the company. West Elm values sustainability and educating people on their products, supporting the environment and society as a whole. I really connected with that.

SCAD: What was it like coming back to SCAD after your trip to Los Angeles?

BURNS: After the National Retail Federation event, I left L.A. and got back to Savannah at midnight. I arrived at my 8 a.m. class the next day in Morris Hall, where they announced there was a guest speaker upstairs. I went up, walked into the room and everyone started clapping. I started to sit down for the guest speaker but they said "No, this is for you." They had a cake with my name on it. It was so nice!

Professor Monika Jonevski and Daniel Green, chair of fashion marketing and management, encouraged me throughout the process and provided feedback. I wanted to do this for myself and for SCAD as a whole. It's a huge step towards getting a job in the industry I love.

With a background in marriage and family counseling and educational leadership, A'ndrea Wilson (M.F.A., dramatic writing, 2017) often integrates her clinical background into her storytelling. The author of over 20 published works, including the award-winning "Wife 101" series, Wilson will have her inaugural play "Grace Period" presented as a Main Stage Reading on Friday, Oct. 6 at 5:30 p.m. at the 2017 Atlanta Black Theatre Festival. The reading will feature SCAD undergraduate and graduate performing arts students as both cast and the assistant director, all of whom have been working closely with the storied alumna.

SCAD: How was "Grace Period" born?

A'NDREA WILSON: I wrote it in a playwriting class at SCAD while pursing my M.F.A in dramatic writing last year. It was an assignment, everyone had to write a full-length play. At the time, I did not see myself as a playwright. I had just transferred into the dramatic writing program. I started off as a professional writing student, but after two quarters taking classes in both programs, I thought dramatic writing was more exciting!

SCAD: You've had some great experiences with "Grace Period" this year. Where does this Friday's Main Stage Reading at the 2017 Atlanta Black Theatre Festival sit among them?

WILSON: I'm planning on this being the final reading for "Grace Period." With every reading that I've done with the play, I've tweaked and refined it based off of audience reaction, audience feedback or what I see that could be made better. This is my last chance to get that feedback before I start to submit it to actual theater groups and companies. I'm really looking forward to this opportunity to see it on its feet, on a big stage in front of up to 500 people.

SCAD: What has it been like having SCAD performing arts students help you with this workshop period?

WILSON: Not only has this been my debut as a playwright but it has also been my debut as a director, which has been a great learning experience. I've been so happy to offer this opportunity to SCAD students who are seeking out these kinds of opportunities. I'm not just grabbing people who sort of want to act, these students really want opportunities, they're incredibly focused on their careers and also very appreciative. There's a certain level of excitement and energy that you get working with university students. I've felt very blessed to give them this chance to refine their art.

SCAD: What's next for "Grace Period?"

WILSON: After Atlanta, I'm going to make my final revisions. I'd really love to workshop it as a production at SCAD. At the National Black Theatre Festival in August, I met people from theaters around the country, so I'm looking forward to capitalizing on the interest "Grace Period" received there. I never saw myself as a playwright before all of this. I didn't even know if the play was good! It's been a huge compliment that people have really taken to this play. I can't wait to see what kind of stories I'll write in the future, even two or three years from now, when I've really had time to develop this skill.

Students filled the halls of the SCAD Museum of Art Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017, for WordCast, a day-long media conference connecting students with industry leaders in journalism, broadcast and multimedia storytelling through hands-on seminars, career advice workshops and one-on-one critiques.

Presented by SCAD Student Media, WordCast speakers included Adam Cole, science writer and multimedia journalist for National Public Radio, Mary Anthony Green, featured columnist for GQ magazine, Miguel Fuller, WPOI Hot 101.5 radio personality, and documentary filmmaker Gabriella Garcia-Pardo (B.F.A., film and television, 2012).
 
"Making it as a food and travel writer," a workshop led by Hannah Hayes (M.A., arts administration, 2013), associate travel editor at Southern Living, offered a meme-filled PowerPoint presentation complete with straight-talk about the business of being a freelancer. Hayes began her workshop discussing the current state of magazine industry, including recent editorial cutbacks and decreasing freelance rates.

"But there's good news!" Hayes said among a wave of relieved laughter. "There's never been a better time to be a younger person in the industry — we know how to do all the things!"

Hayes encouraged students to learn skills that complement their writing, including video production and editing, and experience with CMS, coding and analytics. On a slide titled "What do you need to show people to get a job?," Hayes spoke about the importance of holistic storytelling.

"Consider all the different ways to tell your story," she said. "If you can show an editor real reasons to spend money on a video component, they'll be impressed by the amount of research you already put into the story."

Following Hayes' class was "Editing for broadcast," a technical audio editing workshop taught by Tracie Hunte, a reporter for RadioLab/WNYC.

With the Avid Pro Tools application projected onto a monitor, Hunte reviewed the post-interview steps she took in one of her favorite RadioLab stories, "One Vote," about how a single state legislator's vote in 1920 changed the outcome of the American suffrage movement. Throughout her presentation, Hunte played clips from the both the edited and unedited versions of the interview, showing how audio was changed.

"The first thing I do with an interview is cut anything unusable and group by topic," Hunte said, cutting and pasting her favorite quotes from the interview to demonstrate. "I'm already thinking about the story arc when I do this—how should we open the story and what will make a good ending?"

Another tip Hunte shared concerned the process of finding and logging each interjection in an interview — every time a person says "and," "but," "yes," "no," and other connective words.

"Once I have a log of interjections, it is much easier for me to connect sentences and ideas when I edit an interview," Hunte said.

Hunte concluded her workshop by suggesting resources for students interested in podcasting, from books about ethical editing to the best microphones and other equipment.

"Always feel free to pitch me story ideas," Hunte said. "Maybe you're more interested in the storytelling aspect than the technical editing. We need it all!"