NWA Film Cycle Short Film 'Carving' Cuts New Paths

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Poster for Carving, a short film

The film, Carving, will premiere regionally in two Arkansas Film Festivals this August after screening at festivals around the country.

The short film — written by John Walch, associate professor of theatre, co-directed by Russell Sharman, a former faculty member of the Department of Communication, and Laura Shatkus, M.F.A. alum of the Department of Theatre, with cinematography by Adam Hogan, associate professor of art — is the culminating endeavor of the NWA Film Cycle project, an innovative program granted seed funding by the Chancellor's Fund for the Humanities and Performing Arts.

Following on the heels of the Greenpoint Film Festival in NYC, Carving will have its Arkansas festival premiere at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, in Little Rock as a part of Filmland, the Arkansas Cinema Society's festival featuring films made in Arkansas or by Arkansans. The film will screen the following weekend at the Fort Smith International Film Festival at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24. Tickets for Filmland and Fort Smith International Film Festival are available to the public.

A film dramatizing a difficult conversation between a daughter and her father, Carving was shot in a single unbroken take while the father teaches his daughter how to carve the Thanksgiving turkey. The simple lesson turns more complicated by degrees as the daughter reveals the real reason she so desperately needs to learn how to carve. 

The film was produced by the NWA Film Cycle in partnership with local producers Dan Robinson and Kris Katrosh of New Harvest Creative and was shot in May of 2023. The NWA Film Cycle launched in 2022 to offer students the opportunity to work with accomplished film professors and professionals in key positions with a long-term goal of laying the foundation for both credit and non-credit programs in film production and writing at the university.

The film's crew and design team were comprised of multiple U of A students and alumni, including Theatre alums Brandon Roye, Mercy Embree, and Madelyn Marks, and School of Art students Arden Carlson, Lily Elbaum, Jordan Eldridge, Adam A. Hart, Vita Long, Ian Serio, and Morgan Strother.

The festival success of Carving builds on the 2023 release of the NWA Film Cycle's first short film, Angle of Attack, which continues to show in festivals nationally. The creative team hopes these successes and laurels will help them further make the case for future funding: "The goal of the NWA Film Cycle was to meet the demand for well-trained crew in the region with the supply of eager and committed students of the cinematic arts," Sharman said.

Walch adds, "Our team set out to seed a filmmaking community at the University of Arkansas through a project-based learning model involving students in every aspect of production and design, we hope we can secure further support to build on these successes."

The impact of the NWA Film Cycle initiative is not limited to training cast and crew, but also providing a model for students to make their own work. Joining Carving at the Filmland festival is the short film The Miracle of Life, written and directed by Honor's College graduate Vita Long as her thesis project in the School of Art. Long worked on both NWA Film Cycle films and took multiple classes in production and writing as a student.

Long's thesis advisor, Hogan, who was cinematographer on both NWA Cycle films, says, "the vision for the project was to create an immersive learning environment to give students hands-on experience making films with professors and professionals to prepare this emerging next generation of filmmakers."

For more information about the NWA Film Cycle project, contact professors Walch or Hogan; for tickets to the upcoming festivals, go to:

• Tickets for Filmland
• Tickets for Fort Smith International Film Festival