Write a script. Assemble a cast and crew. Scout locations. Film, edit, and presto, you have a movie. When most people think of careers in the film industry, jobs in these stages of production come to mind.
In reality, there are countless careers in cinema and media outside of making movies. At Gettysburg College, the Cinema and Media Studies major not only prepares students who wish to end up on set, but also opens doors to careers they never even could have envisioned.
From the New York Film Festival to producing a feature-length documentary in Nicaragua, Gettysburg alumni have landed careers all over the world, proving that there is no such thing as a scripted career path.
Bronwyn Cunningham ’09
Bronwyn Cunningham ’09 came to Gettysburg with dreams of a career in the film industry one day, but knew she didn’t want to work on the production side.
“Other schools focus on production because it’s the most visible career, but having a more theoretical and historical perspective enables you to talk about film that’s conducive to a lot of different career paths,” said Cunningham, who created a self-designed major by compiling film courses from outside of the Cinema and Media Studies Department, including law, environmental science, and physics.
After graduating, Cunningham got an internship at the Lincoln Center New York Film Society, and today serves as an external relations manager at Chicken and Egg Pictures, a non-profit that supports female non-fiction filmmakers with the funding and resources needed to complete their projects.
Her work came full circle from the focus of her capstone: Women in Film.
“It’s the most tangible way to see how media affects how we see reality,” said Cunningham on her studies of the trends and effects of the portrayal of women in media. “Once you see how that translates, it’s impossible not to see how this affects people, especially women.”
Justina Poskeviciute ’11
If there is one thing that Justina Poskeviciute ’11 took away from her experience as a film major, it was how to identify and take advantage of opportunities.
“In the end, it’s not just academic—it’s the interaction between you and a professor. At Gettysburg, you’re lucky to have engaging professors who have you question things, are open-minded, and challenge you,” she said.
As an international student (a native of Lithuania), Poskeviciute has had a global perspective from the start. Since graduating, she has held various positions in Thailand, Budapest, Palestine, and Brazil.
Back in 2011, the Cinema and Media Studies Department hadn’t yet been established as a formal department, so Poskeviciute, just like Cunningham, declared an individualized major focusing in Film Studies. She found courses in fields she never thought she would be interested in.
“In the end, I really appreciated the process of looking at other departments,” she said. “A liberal arts education forces you to branch out a bit, but especially with IDS – I was forced to discover really interesting courses, like Graphic Novels in Film. I’m not a comic book fan, but it ended up being fascinating.”
Poskeviciute travelled to Thailand to work as an English teacher and videographer after graduating. From there, she enrolled at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, where she earned her Master’s in Political Science. After completing her thesis, Poskeviciute worked for various NGO’s in Palestine to empower youth and communities there.
Following a brief stint in Finland, Poskeviciute moved to Brazil to work for a hostel booking firm. And through a series of connections and a bit of happenstance, she was offered a role in an HBO series set in Brazil.
Greg Purifoy ’10
Not many students can say that they have edited and produced two feature length documentaries only a few years out of college, but that’s exactly what Greg Purifoy ’10 has done.
As an IDS major, Purfioy combined his love for film and his fascination with philosophy to explore how films communicate complex ideas like no other medium can.
“I first encountered film in an academic setting the second semester of my freshman year when I took Film Studies 101 with Jim Udden,” he said. “This course was a revelation to me and I loved the structure of it as an introduction, since it broke down the elements of film style and form. Here was a discipline that rigorously investigated a craft and an art form that could serve to shine a light on philosophical questions in a very concrete way.”
Along with his extensive study of film theory, Purifoy had the opportunity to gain experience on the production side after taking Ethnographic Film: Theory and Practice taught by Anthropology Professor Matthew Amster. As part of an independent study project, Purifoy edited Amster’s full-length documentary, The Internet and the Water Buffalo.
Watch The Internet and the Water Buffalo on YouTube.
After completing his capstone (a short film called The Malleability of Truth in Film), Purifoy served in the Peace Corps as an Environmental Education Volunteer in Nicaragua.
He then produced a short film called Lost Dog, which went on to screen at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2012, Purifoy, along with a close friend, began work on a feature-length documentary, Country Kids. The film follows a small group of students and teachers in their day-to-day lives, exploring the role of primary education and the environment in Nicaragua.
Watch the trailer for Country Kids on Vimeo.
“Without my background studying film at Gettysburg College, I wouldn’t have had the knowledge, skills, or experience necessary to produce a feature-length documentary,” he said. “The courses I took at Gettysburg gave me a fundamental understanding of film style and form, history, genres, theory, and aesthetics.”
Purifoy now works for the National Parks Service, continuing his career in service and protecting the environment, conducting programs for visitors to connect with the resources of their parks, as well as producing informational videos.
“Cinema courses at Gettysburg are taught by amazing and extremely knowledgeable professors, especially chair of the department Jim Udden, who bring to the classroom not only expertise in their field, but highly effective teaching chops as well,” he said. “Even if you don’t have career goals that put you squarely in the film and television arena, studying film at Gettysburg prepares you to face a world that is inundated with images and videos and other media, and develops the sensibilities necessary to navigate that messy world.”
