Two alumni filmmakers are featured in a lengthy New York Times article that points out several interesting coincidences, starting with a strong Colgate connection.
Sandy Cioffi ’84 and Joe Berlinger ’83 took the same filmmaking course taught by John Knecht, the Russell Colgate Distinguished University Professor of Art & Art History and Film & Media Studies.
Now, their separate documentaries are attracting wide attention, and the Times article points out that while the films are on the same subject with nearly identical titles, they employ very different approaches.
Crude, by Berlinger, and Sweet Crude, by Cioffi, are about the despoiling of the third world by multinational oil companies.
Cioffi takes a more activist approach in her film, becoming involved in the political struggle in Nigeria. In the process, she was arrested by the Nigerian military, a harrowing experience she writes about in an article for The Colgate Scene.
Berlinger, in contrast, has made a film, based in Ecuador, that aims at journalistic objectivity, a return to the approach he used in his well-known 1992 documentary Brother’s Keeper.
Both filmmakers discuss the goals of their films and their storytelling style in the article.
Cioffi, 46, a tenured professor of film and video at Seattle Central Community College, hopes to come to Colgate this spring to show Sweet Crude and meet with students and Knecht.
In October 2005, Berlinger spent a week on campus as a distinguished filmmaker in residence, meeting with students and showing films such as his 2004 rock documentary Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.
Knecht came to Colgate in 1981 as the first full-time professor dedicated to teaching film, and Cioffi and Berlinger were some of his first students. Film and video courses have expanded greatly since then, and the university offers a robust Film and Media Studies minor through the Department of Art and Art History.
To read about more Colgate alumni in the news, please click here.