These Villanova University students are traveling the world to produce docs on societal issues
VILLANOVA, Pa. (CBS) -- Forget Hollywood movies or Oscar actors, the next generation of filmmakers are activists. At Villanova University, students have traveled all over the world showcasing pressing issues through documentaries.
Senior and film producer Joe Adams is a communications major at Villanova. He says the Social Justice Documentary Program has been life-changing.
"We went to Brazil for two weeks in October. We shot a film centered around the theme cultural preservation," Adams said.
Associate professor Hezekiah Lewis spearheads the two-semester course, where students create production companies that produce documentaries about important societal issues.
"I tell students it's an experience more than it's a course," Lewis said.
The stories have taken students from the streets of Philadelphia to Ghana and Brazil.
"I tried to not get them to look at these folks as subjects. How would you feel if I turn the camera on you and called you a subject?" Lewis said.
Eighteen students followed community leaders and several others around their communities telling their stories that will ultimately turn into two 25-minute documentaries.
"Our goal is to never go into these countries, make a film, leave, create a documentary, make money from it. That is never our goal. We want to create sustainable initiatives, create sustainable relationships," Adams said.
Adams has produced two short films, but this year fellow senior Trinity Rogers is a novice.
"I was nervous because of the language barrier and also it being my first time directing. I wasn't expecting it to be as spiritual of an experience as it was. Once I realized it was meant to be a learning process, I leaned into that and I felt a lot better," Rogers said.
Rogers also leaned on the support of editor and cinemaphotographer, Meg Martin, who is also now working on her second film.
"I hope that through our imagery we are able to show the kind of nature and your surroundings and your connection to it a little bit differently," Martin said.
As these students head into their second semester, Lewis says this year's theme, cultural preservation, is more than a passing grade, but he hopes the stories of these collaborators like in previous years will continue to touch the hearts of millions.
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