Fisher Students to Showcase Films during Fringe Festival

This fall, the Department of Media and Communication at St. John Fisher University will present the St. John Fisher University Film Festival during the 11th annual Rochester Fringe Festival. Free and open to the public, the film festival begins at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 19, at The Little Theatre.

The film festival includes the best in student work from the 2021-2022 academic year. “Purgatory” is a 30-minute television pilot created by undergraduates in Dr. Todd Sodano’s Television Production class. The pilot focuses on the lives of several college students dealing with personal crises while serving on a student conduct board. Students in the class each took on the various roles required by a professional production (director, editor, script supervisor, unit production manager, etc.) and the actors include students from Fisher and Nazareth College. The second film, “Path to Bliss,” by Mitch Steedman ’23, is a personal documentary about the life choices of the filmmaker’s father.

The department offers a major in media and communication and a minor in film and television studies, providing students with opportunities to study both film analysis and production in a liberal arts setting.

The film festival has been a part of the Rochester Fringe Festival for several years. The 12-day Rochester Fringe has become the largest multidisciplinary performing arts festival in New York State and one of the top three attended Fringe Festivals in the U.S. More than 500,000 people have attended nearly 4,000 performances and events at the Rochester Fringe since its inception. It is one of about 250 Fringe festivals in the world, with Edinburgh being the original Fringe. Rochester Fringe Festival’s mission is to offer a platform for artists to share their creativity and develop their skills while also providing unparalleled public access to the arts. St. John Fisher University is a Higher Education sponsor of the Rochester Fringe Festival.