Purchase's Film Program Prepares Students for Careers in Movie-Making

While the Oscars conjure images of the red carpet and celebrities in expensive garb, Harrison residents might be surprised to know that Purchase College has connections to tonight's ceremony.

The college boasts four connections to the Oscars this year, including alum Melissa Leo's nomination for best supporting actress in "The Fighter." Professor Alex Orlovsky was a co-producer of "Blue Valentine," and alum William Sarokin is nominated for sound mixing in "Salt."

The college's film department—which has an Ivy League annual acceptance rate of about 20 students for every 500 that apply—produces graduates that quite often go on to careers in commerical film.

Film Department Chair Iris Cahn said she looks for students who "have an ability to withstand frustration, and who have shown talent in writing, photography, dance or film, something that shows that they really want to express themselves and have the discipline and talent to do it."

Ultimately, a vigorous academic program results in film graduates finding meaningful employment and "influencing the scope of cinema," Cahn said.

Cahn, a Purchase alum herself, is a film editor who is currently re-cutting a documentary called "Dean and Me: Road Show of an American Primary." She said it's "an interesting look at Americans, media and politics," centered around Howard Dean's ill-fated presidential run in 2003.

She explained that while her work focuses primarily on documentary editing, Purchase students are trained to be well-rounded and adaptive. They take courses in acting and film production, and in their junior and senior years they create their own narrative or experimental films.

"We foster very confident, independent artists who are also able to collaborate," Cahn said.

Cahn said that students have a variety of interests but that there's no set issue or genre on which they're focused.

"These young people are very interested in the world around them," she explained. "They're aware of the social issues they're putting in their narratives and documentaries, but I don't think they trend any particular way."

One student's senior project was a documentary about the murder of an Ecuadorian immigrant on Long Island, which Cahn said focused on "understanding how such a hostile environment could exist in this town and how it exists in our country with the debate on immigration, which can get very ugly."

Other students are drawn to topics like eco-terrorism and living off the grid. Some take a less political approach, with one student creating a film about a notebook she found on campus and another working on a character-driven classic suspense film.

Whether or not the film program's recent graduates will go on to be nominated for Oscars and other honors remains to be seen, but Cahn said that awards are a fringe benefit to a meaningful career in the film industry.

"You work your tail off, and the awards are very nice, but our goal is to train people to do their jobs well," she said.