You can’t spell Sundance without SU.

But until this past week, Syracuse University had never been to the film festival. A select group of faculty members got together to take a trip to Park City, Utah for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival from Jan. 16-21, in preparation for future trips with students.

Keith Giglio, an assistant television, radio and film professor; S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Dean Lorraine Branham; Ann Spurgeon, regional director of development for Southern California; and Lynn Vanderhoek, assistant dean for advancement, went to Sundance as a way to increase recognition for Newhouse.

Giglio said the trip was a way to raise awareness of the connections SU has in the entertainment industry.

“We wanted to show that we’re one of the big film schools. Syracuse has very viable connections that often go overlooked,” Giglio said.

According to Sundance Film Festival’s program guide, 200 films out of 12,000 submissions are selected annually for exhibition. There are 15 categories for submission, including premieres, shorts, Sundance kids, U.S. documentary, U.S. dramatic and world dramatic, among others.

Michael Caplan, a Newhouse alumnus, acted as the executive producer on a documentary called “Remembering the Artist, Robert De Niro, Sr.,” and Justin Begnaud, a 2002 College of Visual and Performing Arts alumnus, was a producer on the film, “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” both of which were featured in previous Sundance Film festivals.

Other movies featured at the festival previously that were works of SU alumni include “(500) Days of Summer” and “Winter’s Bone.”

“SU is not just a presence on the creative front but also behind the scenes. [It] says to the world, we’re a very good film school,” Giglio said. “It’s a way of saying ‘we’re here, we’re good, you just might not realize we’re doing it.”

Spurgeon added that this year’s trip is the beginning of a new program for Newhouse. He added that the school intends to bring students to the festival in the future for networking opportunities.

In hopes of bringing the alumni together at the festival, Branham held a luncheon in Park City, Utah. Giglio, Spurgeon and Vanderhoek were surprised by how many people attended, which was nearly 50 alumni.

“It was great. We had found out that [NYU] had 18 turnout their first year,” Spurgeon said.

Although the student selection process for future trips has not been set up yet, the student pool is expected to be as diverse as the alumni pool. Vanderhoek said it will not only be Newhouse students, but that students from the College of Visual Performing Arts and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management will likely also have a chance at attending next year.

Vanderhoek added that she wants SU to gain the prominence of other popular film schools.

“Wherever the industry gathers, there we want to be visible,” Vanderhoek said. “Many of our competitors have a presence — USC, NYC, Columbia. It was a great show to plant the flag for us.”

They are in the works of planning more trips for students, including a trip to South by Southwest, a film, interactive and music festival located in Austin, Texas, as well as trips to other film festivals such as the Tribeca Film Festival.

During the trip, Giglio said Chris McGurk, an alumnus and CEO of Cinedigm, mentioned something that resonated with him and furthers his efforts to help get Syracuse undergrads acquainted with the industry: “When I drive onto the Sony lot, I see a lot of USC and Columbia bumper stickers — the goal is to get SU bumper stickers up there too.”

Published on January 30, 2014 at 1:10 am

Contact Madysan: mgfoltz@syr.edu | @madysangabriele