New School Alums Win Best Short – Viewer’s Choice at Reel Out Charlotte Film Festival
Written and Directed by Conlan Carter (MFA Playwriting 2019) and Produced by Jonathan Souza (MS Media Management 2019) and Harshal Alurkar (MA Media Studies 2020), Exchange tells the story of Javier, who has become an agoraphobe following his recent HIV diagnosis. His friend and caretaker, Ashley, begs for him to reenter the outside world, but, strangely, Javier has already arranged for the outside world to come to him, via a Grindr hookup. Exchange stars New School Acting Alumni, featuring Arnold Treviño (MFA 2019), Rachael Worthington (MFA 2019), Chris Costa (MFA 2019), and Lottie Gurvis (BFA 2019); filmed by Eliza Kamerling-Brown (BA Global Studies, 2019) and edited by Ryan Weaver (MS Media Management 2019).
Conlan, Jonathan and Harshal made this film as part of the Cinema Project Workshop class taught by William Cusick. The Cinema Project Workshop is an interdisciplinary short film production workshop involving students from Media Studies, Drama, Mannes, Jazz, Parsons and Lang. A program of Charlotte Pride, Reel Out uses the power of art and film to entertain, enlighten and build valuable bridges of understanding, support, and acceptance within and between the LGBTQ and ally communities. Due to the current global crisis, the film festival was able to produce their shorts programs online while postponing their full festival to later in the fall.