Northern Vermont University To Host Semester Cinema in 2022!
Kingdom County Productions’ (KCP) Semester Cinema will be staged at Northern Vermont University’s Lyndon campus during the winter/spring 2022 semester.
Students from colleges across the country will work together during the film intensive semester that includes classes, workshops and production of an ambitious feature film for national release — right in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.
Semester Cinema is an experiential learning program with a fifteen-year history. Classes and the production of KCP’s new film, LOST NATION, will be based on both Nantucket and the NVU-Lyndon campus. The film, which features a multi-racial narrative, is set during the American Revolution in Vermont, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London. It will be directed by KCP Artistic Director Jay Craven and produced by filmmaker and writer Elena Greenlee who joined the Semester Cinema project in the summer of 2020.
To learn more about Semester Cinema and to apply, visit https://www.semestercinema.org.
NVU Student’s Semester Cinema Experience Launched His Career
NVU Cinema Production alum Austin Pellegrino took part in Semester Cinema in spring 2019 — and calls it an experience “that really changed my whole outlook on my future. Semester Cinema afforded me a great opportunity. I worked so hard and I learned so much, including how to be confident on a professional film set.” From there, Austin landed a job in New York City teaching students how to make films, and then returned to the Northeast Kingdom where he started his own film production company, Midnight Industries, which creates business advertising shorts — work that supports their more creative film work which includes a short horror film THE BAR FLY (2019) and another short film currently in production. Austin also helped launch The White Mountain Cinema Camp, a filmmaking summer camp for teens, in summer 2021.
Shortly after his Semester Cinema experience, Austin shared:
“If you had asked me fifteen weeks ago if I would have a credit for editing on a feature length film, a job lined up working in New York City for the summer, or dozens of new people met and ready to network – I would have blown you off. The fact of the matter is, I didn’t even know I was coming fifteen weeks ago. My financials weren’t set, I had doubts in myself, and I was afraid to leave my family and friends behind. Now, I feel as if I have grown exponentially. This program has given me the tools to be successful in the film industry and I am eternally grateful.”
