Final Thoughts

Drew—

I know that email is not the best way to share these thoughts; however, for two reasons, I am writing these thoughts to you. One is the simple timing of it (it will be 1 am, I’m sure, before it is complete). The other is that I articulate best with the written word. I hope to write this in a way that you can share these ideas verbatim with others so that there is little fear of misquoting or misrepresenting my views to the rest of the campus. In fact, I would seek your permission to respond to the handful of students who have taken your advice to write me with this very letter of explanation.

As I have said to you before, I truly appreciate the quality of the film that you have submitted and your consistent support of YAC’s 5-year-long tradition. Any comments I make about your film are filtered through the lens of context; I am not speaking against the quality of your film and the effort that went into it. Under the category of context, I would want to address three areas: the make-up of our audience, the timing at our university, and the traditions of film fests.

Regarding the audience, when it comes to student activities for the campus community, among other abstract ideas of educating, edifying, and encouraging—I also feel a strong responsibility to protect the audience—especially an audience that has no idea what’s coming. For most movie-goers, the audience has a sense of what it’s getting into. If I want to go see The Ring II, I have the option of reviewing its content, I typically know the genre of the film, and I have a general idea of its content. With the film fest, because of the way it has been set up, the wide variety of people coming to this event (traditional students, married students, faculty, staff, and children) have absolutely no idea what’s ahead, and for that reason, I feel an even greater responsibility to protect them—or at least be sensitive to their experience. While your film may educate, edify, and challenge our students in positive ways, there is a distinct possibility that it may do the exact opposite. Not only might students be struggling with depression and suicidal tendencies themselves, but they may have had a father or mother or brother or sister or best friend take the path your main character did not, and that is an issue that they deserve NOT to have to face at a film festival full of otherwise mundane and humorous topics. Might the audience have the ability to leave in the middle if they don’t like it? Yes, but that is not the type of show that we want to produce.

Another thing I mentioned before was the specific timing of this event. Our campus has suffered great sorrows in the past few months, and we can’t ignore that. It would be naïve to say that your fictional film could be shown in a vacuum not affected by these events. For some, this film might provide healing and even education about the struggles of someone constantly facing the darkness of depression and suicidal tendencies. For others, it might cause significant pain. I’m more inclined to err on the side of avoiding pain for such an event as this.

Traditionally, the YJ Film Festival has been a place of reprieve, a light-hearted respite for student talent in the area of film-making. The audience has come to know the Film Fest as a largely festive event that is fun for the whole family. Your films have tended to be pearls that have raised the caliber and quality of the general film repertoire—raising the bar for other students who considered participating. This one is no different in that respect. It is certainly a quality film that is well-written and artistically produced. But it does not fit the general flow of the rest of the films that we are showing this year or have shown in the past, and it would definitely stand out. In the future, I’m very open to discussions of the nature of the YJ Film Festival and would entertain ideas to change up the type of films shown, the ways we publicize and announce content to the audience in advance, etc.

So, to round out the context discussion, these context concerns are avoided if we do what I originally suggested and show the film at a different time and place—something other than the film fest. I believe a great option is to show this film next semester, with proper warning or publicity beforehand, with an opportunity for you to share with the audience in a Q & A format, and with counselors and peers standing by to discuss it afterward.

Next, as we state in the guidelines, we reserve the right to show or not show any film for any reason. We have this statement in there because no list of examples could be exhaustive enough to cover concerns that we might have with submissions. We don’t exercise that right capriciously, thus I originally didn’t address your mature and thoughtful requests in that manner, either. Realistically, we reserve the right to reject a film for any reason from poor sound quality to something we don’t think is funny, or we simply don’t have time for it. Your film is one of eight films that will not be shown at this event. Sometimes the choice is easy, and sometimes—as in your case—it’s quite painful.

Along those lines, I hope you know that our review has been tedious and thorough. Students in general may never see the extent to which the Student Affairs staff labors over decisions related to students, and that’s unfortunate. I’m blessed to work with colleagues who love students, who are called to college ministry and education, and who care that students’ needs are met holistically. Even if I didn’t agree personally (and that’s not the case here), I respect my colleagues’ judgment immensely. I also respect the views and opinions of students. But my job is one of discernment and judgment, and knowing that I have the potential to make some people happy and some people very angry, I have to do what I think is right as guided by the Holy Spirit.

To a little more touchy subject…I want to address the area of entitlement with you. I understand that you spent a great amount of time creating the film. As you have known from making films in the past, I have always encouraged students who are making a film that is remotely questionable or anywhere near the fringe to contact me and seek approval well before you start the process so that time is not “wasted.” I certainly take the time you spent on it into consideration, but I question your comments and feelings of entitlement for it to be shown simply because you spent a lot of time making it. It’s unfortunate, yes, and I regret that you invested a great deal of time in a film that won’t be shown this weekend.

Another thing that I think is extremely unfortunate is your decision to “go public” with your film before the show. It is not fair to those students who have films in the show to have to compete with your film which is not in the show. As I said before, you were one of several films not shown in this event. Whether you are intending to do this or not, you are placing the spotlight of this festival and placing it on yourself. This to me shows poor judgment and casts a dark shadow on an otherwise festive event. I had thought you were handling this very professionally and maturely, and it was for that reason alone that I rallied the troops for your cause. It’s interesting to me that you think you can combat “our groupthink” with some groupthink and popular opinion of your own. As much as possible, I try to defer to students’ judgments and opinions in many areas of student activities—after all, part of student activities is meant to provide you with activities you think are fun. However, there are times when even a majority opinion must come second to the legitimate concerns of a few.

So, as I have experienced a few times in the past, I recognize that my decisions may not be popular since in my job I am consistently balancing things: grace and justice; need vs. want; the concerns of many vs. the needs of a few; benefits vs. risks…the lists go on. But in all things, I have to trust that God is at work in this and is teaching us all more about life. I hope you have felt heard and that you feel that we have taken your situation and experiences seriously. I also hope that through this you come to appreciate what it is we’re about and how much there is to consider in situations like this.

I don’t want to be abrupt in this, but this is as far as I can go with you. I hope that this is enough information, but if you need to move forward with this or seek the counsel of others, I would encourage you to talk with my supervisor, ------- in Student Affairs (ext ----).

Thanks,
Corey