Centre Film Festival
Hourly Schedule
The State Theatre - Tuesday, November 1st
- 6:00pm - 6:14pm
- Nuisance Bear
- Featured Documentary Short Film
- 6:15pm - 7:59pm
- Hazing
- Featured Documentary Film (Director Byron Hurt will be in attendance)
Gabriela Osio Vanden
Hazing
Director BYRON HURT and JAMES VIVENZIO (Hazing) in attendance
About The Film
Director Byron Hurt lifts the veil on a variety of underground hazing rituals that are abusive, and sometimes deadly. Byron’s introspective journey to understand hazing culture through the lens of his own fraternity pledge experience reveals a world of toxic masculinity, violence, humiliation, binge drinking, denial, and institutional coverups.
About The Director
Byron Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, lecturer, activist, Emmy-nominated TV show host, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. He is also a short video content creator for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise program. Forward Promise seeks to strengthen and build villages that raise and empower boys and young men of color to heal, grow, and thrive. Byron’s critically acclaimed documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and broadcast nationally on PBS’ Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens, drawing an audience of 1.5 million viewers. Byron’s film Soul Food Junkies, won “Best Documentary” at several film festivals including the CNN Best Documentary Award at the American Black Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the Urbanworld Film Festival. Soul Food Junkies also aired nationally on PBS’ Emmy-Award winning series Independent Lens in January 2013, drawing an audience of 2 million viewers. In 2016, the cable news station TVOne broadcast Soul Food Junkies in more than 20 million households nationwide.
Byron’s upcoming PBS film is entitled Hazing. In this film, Byron takes an introspective journey to understand hazing culture through the lens of his own fraternity pledge experience and via the stories of young people traumatized, injured or killed because of hazing. Byron has been featured in various media publications ranging from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Philadelphia Tribune, to The Final Call; from O, The Oprah Magazine to Mother Jones, Chronicle for Higher Education, Black Enterprise, and The Source and Double XL Magazines, as well as allhiphop.com. He has also appeared or been heard on MSNBC, NPR, PBS, CNN, FOX News, FOX Soul, Access Hollywood, MTV, BET, ABC News World Tonight, NBC-New York, C-Span, and The Tom Joyner Morning Show, among countless other outlets. His website is bhurt.com. Follow him on social media @byronhurt.
Gabriela Osio Vanden
Nuisance Bear
About The Film
Churchill, Manitoba is famous as an international destination for photographing polar bears. We’ve seen the majestic images and the classic wildlife TV programs – but what does the bear see of us? Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden’s unconventional and visually arresting Nuisance Bear shifts the perspective for a revealing look at a day in the life of a polar bear as it navigates an obstacle course of tourists and conservation officers. Nuisance Bear highlights the increasingly narrow and treacherous boundary between human and animal realms, asking audiences to consider the ways in which we interact with wildlife and if these relationships are sustainable.
About The Directors
Jack Weisman
Jack is an award-winning director and cinematographer whose work has screened at major film festivals including Sundance, TIFF, SXSW, IDFA, and Sheffield DocFest. The short non-fiction film ‘Nuisance Bear’ (The New Yorker) is his directorial debut. Jack is a co-founder of the US Canadian production company Documist and an Executive Producer for ‘The Territory’ (National Geographic Documentary Films) which premiered at Sundance 2022 where it received both a Special Jury Award and Audience Award.
Gabriela Osio Vanden
Gabriela is an award-winning Venezuelan Canadian cinematographer based in Toronto. She brings a background in painting and dance to her images which have premiered at major festivals including TIFF, Camerimage. SXSW, IDFA. and Sheffield DocFest. Her thesis film Rambler was awarded an internship with Phedon Papamichael ASC GSC who she shadowed on Alexander Payne’s Downsizing. Gabriela has a BFA in Film Production from York University. The short documentary Nuisance Bear (Canadian Screen Awards Nominee for Best Short Documentary 2022, Honorable Mention: Best Canadian Short Film, TIFF 2021) is her directorial debut.
From Oct. 31 – Nov. 6, 2022, The Centre Film Festival will return for a weekend of the finest offerings in contemporary cinema at the State Theatre in State College and the Rowland Theatre in Philipsburg. In addition to internationally recognized films, we will highlight the work of Pennsylvania filmmakers and Penn State alumni.
Save the date and get an early bird discount on your All Access passes which includes all films, events, and discussions throughout the entire festival as well as special perks from local businesses. Early bird pricing will be available until October 7th!
Check centrefilm.org for more information.