Point Park Globe Fall 2019 Issue 3

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@PPUGlobe September 11, 2019

News photo editor Jared Murphy reviews horror film IT Chapter Two Justine Quach celebrates Mac Miller after event at Blue Slide Park The men’s soccer team scored seven goals to solidify their second win ppuglobe.com

Covering the world of Point Park University news since 1967

Issue 3

CMI ANNOUNCES FELLOWSHIP WINNER Title IX promotes interactive safety app Dara Collins Editor-in-Chief

New to the fall 2019 semester, students can now download uSafeUS to their smartphones to find digital resources and tools typically found on handouts and pamphlets in the university’s Title IX office. Director of Title IX and Diversity Vanessa Love described the inspiration to adopt the app. “I’ve been searching for an app since I came here because I wanted to find something where students would access Title IX on their phone or something quick, because a lot of times students don’t want to come to my office, and they don’t read the policy online,” Love said. “So, I was thinking, how can they get the information without coming to me?” uSafeUS offers information as well as interactive features for students to utilize. “When I found this app...I knew that that was something that was needed

Jared Murphy | The Globe

Erica Hensley of Mississippi Today, the inaugural winner of the $20,000 Doris O’Donnell Innovations in Investigative Journalism Fellowship, spoke via video chat to those in attendance at a news conference in the Center for Media Innovation on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Hensley was one of six finalists in the fellowship’s first year, and she will be working with the university throughout the duration of her project.

Australia to America: short filmmaker presents at the Center for Media Innovation Amanda Andrews Co-News Editor

On Sept. 3, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Center for Media Innovation (CMI) hosted a special guest: award-winning Australian filmmaker Genevieve Clay-Smith, who gave a public talk on her journey of becoming an ally for people with disabilities and how she is changing the very core of the film industry with her work. Clay-Smith’s talk was a precursor to seven of her short films being screened from Sept. 4 through Sept. 11, at the ReelAbilities Pittsburgh Film Festival, presented by local organization Film Pittsburgh. ReelAbilities is an international film festival and is presented in various cities such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Los Angeles. The festival, initially started in Manhattan in 2007, was a pioneer in screening award-winning films about people with disabilities that included the input of people with disabilities in the filmmaking process. The event at the CMI, entitled “The Power of Inclusive Filmmaking,” was intended to reach local filmmakers, but

was also open to the public. Tickets were $5 and admission was free for Point Park students. Clay-Smith previously spoke with KDKA about her films premiering at the festival. “I love any opportunity to share inclusive filmmaking overseas and beyond the shores of Australia. And I also love the ethos of the ReelAbilities Film Festival. I’ve known of the festival for a very long time, Bus Stop has had films screened at it for a very long time, so there was those two reasons,” ClaySmith said. “I wanted to help to share what we do with an audience in another country, and I wanted to get further involved in ReelAbilities because I believe in the festival and I believe in the work that it does and I think it’s a very important festival. I think any festival that is promoting cinema that expresses the stories of people with disability is cinema that people need to pay attention to.” Clay-Smith is the co-founder of two companies which work toward providing opportunities for people with disabilities. She is the

executive director and former CEO of Bus Stop Films, a non-profit which educates people with disabilities about the film industry and gives life-changing experiences and employment opportunities for its students. Clay-Smith has noted that students with intellectual disabilities have experienced transformational growth during their studies at Bus Stop Films. “We...noticed an increase in literacy and writing skills, communication, verbal communication skills, and social skills, as well as work-ready skills—skills that are transferable to other industries, not just the film industry. So we ended up finding that film studies program was not just giving people access to education, it was having this transformational impact on people’s lives,” Clay-Smith said. Clay-Smith began her talk with how she originally started making inclusive films and commercials, which now add up to 19 according to the Bus Stop Films website. When she was a 19-year-old filmmaker, Clay-Smith worked with the

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here, because a lot of the students came to me and said that they would be in uncomfortable situations, like conversations, but they wanted to be polite,” Love said. “I knew that that was a perfect way to create a distraction when you don’t have someone there to do it for you.” “You never know when you might need it in a situation where you’re not comfortable to tell the person, ‘hey, I have to go,’” senior Marissa Johnson said. Johnson has not used uSafeUS, but said she would be interested. On the left side of the home page, students have four interactive options to avoid or to get out of uncomfortable or potentially dangerous situations. “Time to Leave” triggers a fake call or text message from a contact of the user’s choice. “So far, that’s the most used portion,” Love said. “Expect Me” allows users to choose up to three people

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New cinema grant offered for seniors Jordyn Hronec Editor-Elect

Every year, Cinema Department Safety Coordinator Terry Shirk adds to and tweaks the student filmmaking handbook. This year, he was able to include information regarding a new $2,500 grant opportunity that senior film students can apply for. However, the opportunity is the result of an instance of filmmaking gone wrong. On Feb. 20, 2014, tragedy struck on the set of “Midnight Rider,” an indie film directed by Randall Miller. The set was on a CSX-owned railway bridge just outside of Doctortown, Ga. The film crew did not have permission to shoot there. When a train suddenly made its way across the bridge, Sarah Jones, 27, a camera assistant for the film, was struck and killed. Her death marked the beginning of Safety for Sarah, which started as a social media movement but has since gone on to become the Safety for Sarah Jones Film Foundation. The foundation, which was started by Sarah’s parents, Richard Jones and Elizabeth McCartha Jones, partners with higher education institutions through its Sarah Jones Safety Grant Program. This year, Point Park joined the list of partners. “We met over the sum-

mer via phone,” Shirk said. “I sent them a copy of the handbook and talked to them about how we take safety very seriously and discussed how students plan to make good decisions and how I monitor them and this handbook. And they decided that we would make a good partner.” The grant will be awarded annually to any senior film student working on their thesis, or P4 level film. Students who win the grant will put the funds towards on-set safety measures. The grant and partnership is the newest addition to the Cinema Department’s relatively recent focus on safety. And according to Shirk, his position of Safety Coordinator is not common at the university level. “It’s unique that Point Park is one of a handful of universities that has a dedicated safety coordinator for their film program,” Shirk said. “That doesn’t mean other programs don’t take it seriously, but Point Park decided to create a position focused solely on overseeing the safety of student production work.” Shirk has been in his position at Point Park for the past five years, following a program review by Emerson College, where its main suggestion was to hire staff to focus solely on student safety for the department. “Every year we have a

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Weather Forecast Today: Scattered Thunderstorms H 89, L 68

Thursday: Scattered Thunderstorms, H 83, L 66 Friday: Scattered Thunderstorms, H 84, L 68

Saturday: Scattered Showers, H 81, L 59 Sunday: Partly Cloudy, H 81, L 59 Monday: Partly Cloudy, H 82, L 63 Tuesday: Scattered Showers, H 82, L 63

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