Screening set for Summer Film Project "The White Bag"

The public is welcome to the premiere of “The White Bag,” the 19th annual Grand Valley State University Summer Film Project, produced in 2013. The short film was written and directed by filmmaker Marie Ullrich, assistant professor in the School of Communications at Grand Valley. Admission is $5, including a post-screening reception.

“The White Bag” screening
Friday, April 25, 8 p.m.
Celebration Cinema North, 2121 Celebration Drive NE, Grand Rapids

DVDs of the film will be on sale in the lobby for $10. All proceeds help fund future GVSU Summer Film Projects. The 16-minute comedy centers on an old woman who loses her temper with ”kids today” and becomes a local hero in her one-woman crusade for politeness. The lead role of Pearl Baskin is played by local actor Victoria Mullen. The supporting role of Sam Puck is played by Chicago actor Ashley Black.

Ullrich assembled a team of professionals to work with the students, including Producer Liz Merriman, from West Michigan; Director of Photography Tony Santiago, DP on Faster! and manager of the Media Production Center at Columbia College, Chicago; and Sound Department Head Joseph McCargar, Grand Valley affiliate professor in the School of Communications.

The Summer Film Project was established by the School of Communications in 1995 to offer Grand Valley junior and senior students in the Film & Video major an opportunity to work side-by-side with industry professionals to produce a short film. Each year, students may enroll in the six-week practicum summer course that handles the pre-production and filming. Post-production is done during fall and spring courses.

This summer, Grand Valley will undertake the 20th Summer Film Project, “Lucky Jay.” The comedy-drama will be produced as a Web series of eight short episodes about one semester in the life of a young film professor at a fictional college in the Midwest. Associate Professor John Harper Philbin will be directing. It is his 10th Summer Film Project. He wrote the script, along with collaborators John Dufresne, a novelist and creative writing professor at Florida International University, and Angelo Eidse, a Vancouver-based screenwriter.

For more information, contact the School of Communications at (616) 331-3668.