Film Festival Celebrates Ithaca’s Best

By Grace Collins '22, May 5, 2023

Alumni, students, and faculty make FLEFF 2023 a success.

The theme of the 26th annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF), POLYPHONIES, celebrated the combination of multiple voices coming together.

Celebrating its 26th year, the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) annually engages with hot-button environmental, social, and political issues and amplifies diverse voices and perspectives, while engaging a global audience.

The 2023 festival hosted 65 plus events, including film screenings, talkbacks with directors, book launches, concerts, panel discussions, and new media art exhibitions. This year’s theme, POLYPHONIES, celebrated the combination of multiple voices coming together.

“The FLEFF team feels very strongly that there needs to be a way to work around the current polarizations in the world and America,” said Patricia Zimmermann, director of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival and Charles A. Dana professor of screen studies. “One way of approaching that is the concept of polyphonies, which is multiple different voices, practices, and perspectives joining together.”

True to its mission of linking the local with the global, FLEFF brought together filmmakers, writers, and industry experts from across the world to tell stories and tackle issues that spanned continents, with films screened in multiple languages.

But beyond its global reach, more so than any previous year, the festival also served as a showcase for the Ithaca College community. In addition to Zimmermann’s tireless work, alumni, students, and community partners played crucial roles in the running of the festival, and in producing some of the content that was shown. Their work proved that the festival is a prime example of the theory, practice, and performance educational philosophy that drives Ithaca College, and demonstrated the power of cross-section and community partnerships that are a tenet of the college’s strategic plan, Ithaca Forever.

Alumni on the Silver Screen

This year’s festival held screenings of 26 films at local partner Cinemapolis, Ithaca’s nonprofit art cinema in downtown Ithaca. One unique aspect of this year’s film programming is that three were produced by Ithaca College alumni. Matt Podolsky ’06, Ry Ferro ’14, and Queline Meadows ’22 each had their films shown at Cinemapolis, with post-screening talkbacks for attendees.

Podolsky is a documentary producer and co-founder of Wild Lens Collective, a group of artists whose work focuses on the intersection of creative storytelling and environmental conservation. FLEFF aired a series of his short films about animals and nature.

Matt Podolsky ’06 participated in a post-screening talkback of his series of films, answering questions from the audience about his work.

(Photo courtesy of Patty Zimmermann)

“It means a lot to me to screen my films at FLEFF, because this festival played such an instrumental role in my development as a filmmaker,” he said. “After I decided that I wanted to double major in environmental studies and cinema/photography, FLEFF allowed me to see for the first time how I might combine my two passions.”

Ferro shared a similar sentiment. FLEFF served as the East Coast premiere for her documentary, Move When The Spirit Says Move, which examines the legacy of civil rights activist Dorothy Foreman Cotton.

“This really felt like coming full circle. As a student, I remember daydreaming about screening my own films at FLEFF and it felt like a far-off reality. Screening my documentary meant I got to remember the person I was 15 years ago and feel proud of how far I've come.”

Ry Ferro ’14

“This really felt like coming full circle,” Ferro said. “As a student, I remember daydreaming about screening my own films at FLEFF and it felt like a far-off reality. Screening my documentary meant I got to remember the person I was 15 years ago and feel proud of how far I've come.”

She also appreciated the talkback, where she answered questions about the film and the filmmaking process.

“We had our world premiere at the Pan African International Film & Arts Festival in Los Angeles in February,” she said. “That was exciting and surreal. But having the opportunity to share this work at FLEFF with the Ithaca community and my family was a complete thrill.”

Meadows was not only one of the youngest filmmakers to have their work shown at the festival, but she also introduced a new genre of film to the festival — video essays. Known on YouTube as kikikrazed, Meadows screened a shorts program of her work.

As a student, Meadows was involved with FLEFF for two years as both a communications intern and assistant to the producers, adding extra meaning to her invitation to return.

Queline Meadows '22 (center) was one of three IC alumni to have a film shown at FLEFF.

(Photo by Greg Meadows)

“I’ve been invited to other festivals with my video essays, but because I had worked with FLEFF and knew so many people behind the scenes it was extra special,” she said. “That familiarity also took a lot of the nerves away, so I would describe the experience as fun more than anything.”

Each filmmaker spoke to the ways their IC education shaped their careers and contributed to their success.

“I was a non-traditional student, receiving my bachelor's degree in documentary studies and production when I was 34, so at times it felt difficult to find the spaces and faculty that really engaged my mind and goals,” said Ferro. “Professor Zimmermann was a huge inspiration to me. Her classes were challenging and complex. I remember always doing the reading for her class twice, so I was able discuss the kinds of intellectual ideas I hadn't encountered before.”

Meadows, who spent two years as a culture and communication major before earning a degree in screen cultures, shared how having the ability to design her own curriculum through IC’s strong liberal arts background allowed her to develop the skills and expertise to hone her craft.

“I was lucky to be in a program that offered so much freedom,” she said. “I took a lot of film studies classes of course, but I also took courses on art, writing, the film industry… anything that would help with making video essays. So even though most of my videos have been personal projects, the quality of those projects improved as each semester went by because I had more areas of knowledge to pull from.”

Creating Student Opportunities

After nearly 20 years being situated within the Office of the Provost, 2023 marked an institutional move for FLEFF. Now housed in the Roy H. Park School of Communications across the department of Media Arts, Sciences, and Studies, and the program in Documentary Studies and Production, the festival is now able to be integrated into the academic curriculum in a way that was previously unavailable. This gives students access to experiential learning opportunities that let them put their classroom education into practice.

Associate professor of screen studies Andrew Utterson headed up a team-taught course called Cinematic Currents that helped to integrate the festival into the academic curriculum of courses in the Roy H. Park School of Communications. (Photo from Park School Instagram)

“We wanted to be embedded where the students are. That’s the great advantage of moving to the Park School,” said Zimmermann. “Now, students get to be part of a major international film festival as a first-year student. That doesn’t happen in many places.”

Through an internship-style, team-taught course called Cinematic Currents headed by Andrew Utterson, associate professor of screen studies and associate producer for FLEFF , nearly 80 students joined the production team as FLEFF Ambassadors. They got a behind-the-curtain look into the festival and served as social media ambassadors, promoting FLEFF to their peers.

“I’m so thrilled by this,” Zimmermann added. “The previous FLEFF internship seminar we offered was typically open to less than a dozen students. Now, we’re able to provide that experience to so many more.”

Guadalupe “Guadi” Fanelli ’24 is one of those students. A double major in cinema production and screen cultures, Fanelli participated in both the earlier iteration of the FLEFF seminar as well as the Cinematic Currents course. She lauded the course for allowing her to create connections and explore potential careers within the film industry.

“It’s an experience like no other to participate to such an extensive degree in an international film festival ... I never imagined myself getting to experience such a diverse selection of films and engage in conversations with people from all over the world at this point in my education.”

Guadalupe “Guadi” Fanelli ’24

“It’s an experience like no other to participate to such an extensive degree in an international film festival,” she said. “It has expanded my horizons not just on cinema, but on a variety of social, cultural, and political ideas. I never imagined myself getting to experience such a diverse selection of films and engage in conversations with people from all over the world at this point in my education. I'm thinking about what I want to do after I graduate, and FLEFF opened multiple doors for my future.”

A Community Affair

Hosting a festival at the size and scope of FLEFF is an enormous undertaking, and it can’t be done alone. The FLEFF team operates in collaboration with numerous other interdisciplinary partners, both on-and off campus.

One of FLEFF’s key partnerships is with the Ithaca College Library. For decades, FLEFF has collected international and independent films for a special series archived at the library. Now nearly 600 titles deep, it is one of the largest collections of environmental and human rights films housed in a collegiate library.

“These titles are all used for teaching and research, and students can check them out,” said Zimmermann. “The festival is local and global, but we also want to be centered in our educational mission at Ithaca College.”

(From left) Brett Bossard, executive director of alumni and family engagement at Ithaca College; Andrew Utterson, associate professor of screen studies; Patty Zimmermann, director of FLEFF and Charles A. Dana professor of screen studies; Tanya Saunders, FLEFF executive producer emerita; and Amy Falkner, dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications.

(Photo from Park School Instagram)

Another key community partner was Opera Ithaca, a professional opera company. The festival began with The Polyphonies Concert, a multimedia performance celebrating the opening night. Performers from Opera Ithaca, including several IC alumni, took to the stage to perform selected pieces from the Orpheus and Eurydice operas.

Madison Hoerbelt ’22, a voice performance graduate and mezzo soprano studio artist with Opera Ithaca ,was one alumna who returned to campus.

“I was excited to be asked to participate in the FLEFF opening concert again, as I had participated once before with the Treble Chorale in 2019,” she said. “As a recent graduate, I still think of Ithaca College as my home, and I regularly perform in these spaces. It was such a fun collaboration to perform alongside some of my professors and former classmates.”

Fonda Praises FLEFF

Although FLEFF emerges from Ithaca College every year, its reach is truly global. So much so that a book launch event for film historian Jon Lewis's newest book, “Road Trip to Nowhere,” opened with a surprise for the audience.

World-renowned actress and climate activist Jane Fonda recorded a message applauding the festival’s commitment to environmental justice. She also shared words of wisdom with the students in attendance.

“The world must be your why,” she said. “We must all join together to fight for a different environment. This is a collective crisis that requires collective action.”

“We're deeply honored that Ms. Fonda sees FLEFF aligning with her own ethical and political goals for social justice, environmental justice, and human rights,” said Zimmermann. “FLEFF has been around for over a quarter of a century, and as a result, we have so many allies in different sectors of media, environmental advocacy, human rights, and the art world who collaborate with us year after year. We're all fighting for the same goal of a livable planet.”