Doc Studies Latest News

Zac Norrington, Doc Studies ’22, Receives the National Board of Review Student Grant for His Documentary Film, “Breathe”

The National Board of Review’s Student Grant Program helps emerging filmmakers finish their projects and exhibit them internationally at festivals such as Sundance, Telluride, and more. Many selected filmmakers have gone on to win Student Academy Awards in the past. This honorable grant is awarded to a small number of students across the country each year. Zac Norrington’s film, “Breathe”, represents The New School in this year’s round of winners. He filmed and completed this short documentary as a graduate student of the Doc Studies program in 2022. Learn more about his background and see a trailer of the film below.

Zac Norrington is a filmmaker and photographer who started his career in London – then moved to Athens – where he picked up his style of cinematography and an eye for developing unique doc stories. After completing his Documentary Media Studies Certificate at The New School, he hopes to continue his journey of expressing people’s mental struggles through cinematic visuals.

Synopsis: In 1983, Julie Ridge became the first person to swim two consecutive laps around the Island of Manhattan (earning her a guest appearance on the David Letterman Show). Now living in Manhattan and working as a clinical social worker with over 25 years of experience, she dives into her memories of struggling with bipolar. BREATHE explores her relationship with marathon swimming and how the water has aided her along her journey.

“Breathe” Trailer:

In total, four graduates of the Doc Studies program (Lillian Xuege Li, Maliyamungu Muhande, Simon Tchoukriel, and Zac Norrington) have been chosen as grant winners.

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Jessica Kingdon’s (MA Media Studies 2014) Award Winning Doc “Ascension” Nominated for 2022 Best Documentary Oscar

After winning the Best Documentary Film Award and the Albert Maysles Award for best new documentary director at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and numerous other accolades, Ascension, the documentary feature directed and produced  MA Media Studies alum Jessica Kingdon has been nominated for the 2022 Oscar for best documentary feature film.

Ascension examines the contemporary “Chinese Dream” through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth. In cinematically exploring the aspiration that drives today’s People’s Republic of China, the film plunges into universal paradoxes of economic progress.

Ascension is an impressionistic portrait of China’s industrial supply chain that reveals the country’s growing class divide through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth. The documentary portrays capitalism in China across the levels of its operation, from the crudest mine to the most rarefied forms of leisure. Accordingly, the film is structured in three parts, ascending through the levels of the capitalist structure: workers running factory production, the middle class training for and selling to aspirational consumers, and the elites reveling in a new level of hedonistic enjoyment. In traveling up the rungs of China’s social ladder, we see how each level supports and makes possible the next while recognizing the contemporary “Chinese Dream” remains an elusive fantasy for most.

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Maliyamungu Muhande, Doc Studies ’20 Selected as a Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow

Maliyamungu Muhande, Doc Studies ’20 was selected as a Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow, where she will engage with a year of mentorship and support from the Sundance Institute and Sundance Ignite founding partner Adobe.

Fellows were selected from a one- to 15-minute short film submitted to the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Short Film Challenge, hosted on the Institute’s digital community platform, Sundance Collab. The 10 fellows were selected for their deeply original voices, creativity in storytelling, and rigor of their craft.

The Fellowship centers artists in its curriculum, with a goal of supporting each fellow as they continue their respective artistic and professional development as filmmakers and storytellers. The fellows will kick off their fellowship year with the digital Sundance Ignite x Adobe Filmmakers Lab, which runs from July 26 to July 30 on Sundance Collab with a particular focus on project advancement and deepening the fellows’ character development skill sets.

Maliyamungu Gift Muhande is a Congolese Documentary filmmaker and Artist based in New York City. In 2020 she Directed a 6-week, film program for under-represented teens in Monticello, NY. From that program came her documentary-in-progress Near Broadway, co-created with her students, about their lives in the economically depressed town and in the U.S. as it exists today. Muhande’s short documentary on the 80-year-old African American New York City street photographer, Louis Mendes, was screened in the fall of 2020 as part of the Doc NYC film festival and was selected by the National Board of Review. She is currently working on expanding this short into a feature film.

Watch the trailer below!

Please share widely, and congratulations again to our exceptional New School alumna ! 

Doc Studies

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Doc Studies at DOC NYC, America’s Largest Documentary Festival!

Dear all, 

It is with great pleasure that I write to share some good news: 
Our beloved Documentary Studies program will be featured at this year’s (Online) DOC NYC, with four films by the last year’s graduate filmmakers in the ‘University Showcase‘. Kudos to our outstanding students Valerie Neck, Taylor-Alexis Gillard, Samantha Schulte and Simon Tchoukriel whose films are in the showcase, and who managed to complete their work under very difficult circumstances. 

“All That Is” by Valerie Neck
“The Silent Willow” by Taylor-Alexis Gillard
“That Change I Have Seen” by Samantha Schulte
“Empire State of Chess” by Simon Tchoukriel

Please share widely, and tune in to enjoy the work of our exceptional New School filmmakers and alumni! 

Doc Studies

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Doc Studies Alumnus, Simon Tchoukriel, Receives National Board of Review Student Grant

Our Doc Studies alumnus, Simon Tchoukriel, class of 2021, won the National Board of Review Student Grant for his film Empire State of Chess.

Simon Tchoukriel is a filmmaker from France who originally moved to New York to play college soccer. In his work, Simon focuses on collectives and subcultures with a passion for games, whatever they may be, and what these activities tell us about our society at large.

Empire State of Chess is Simon Tchoukriel’s Doc Studies end of year film.

The game of chess has been bringing New Yorkers together for years in parks, squares, cozy clubs and tournament halls. But how can this beloved pastime survive amid a pandemic? Meet New York City’s most interesting pawn pushers, grandmasters, club owners and street players who keep the hope, and the game, alive.

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Doc Studies graduates receive the National Board of Review’s 2020 Student Grant

We have fantastic news!!! Doc Studies graduates Maliyamungu Muhande @congolesetraveler, and Lillian Xuege Li @lillian_xuege_li received the National Board of Review’s 2020 Student Grant for their individual films “Nine Days a Week” and “Parklife.”

“Nine Days a Week” Teaser

Nine Days a Week

“Parklife”

Parklife

Congratulations, Maliyamungu, and Lillian!!! #docstudiesproud

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“OK Boomer” featured in Teen Vogue

Congratulations to Amrit Cheng (Doc Studies 2020), whose graduating film OK Boomer is premiering today at Teen Vogue, along with an op-ed from two young activists whom the film features.

This remarkable film chronicles the student-led campaign to integrate the New York City public school system, which is among the most segregated in the country.

LINK TO THE OP-ED AND THE FILM HERE