Wright State students premiere documentary films at annual Doc Night

Doc Night featured 11 documentaries created by 12 motion picture students on topics ranging from local businesses to family to filmmaking itself.

Students from Wright State University’s Motion Pictures program in the School of Fine and Performing Arts premiered their work at the 35th annual Doc Night on Jan. 12 at the Neon in downtown Dayton.

Doc Night showcases the best short student documentaries from the Documentary Semester of their junior year. Students spend an entire semester learning the artform and producing different types of documentaries in the process. They learn important skills that help train them to become future filmmakers.

Many of the documentaries screened at previous Doc Nights have played at film festivals around the country, and past Doc Night filmmakers have gone on to win Emmy and Academy Awards.

This year’s Doc Night featured 11 documentaries by 12 students on topics ranging from local businesses to family to filmmaking itself. The films included were:

“Clifton,” directed by Mason Perry

“the neon rainbow,” directed by Nic Studer

“It’s Homemade,” directed by Jazz Jefferson

“A Game of Trust,” directed by Alex Bunsold

Directed by Morgan Johnson

“The Sweet Science,” directed by Bino Bannan

“Brick by Brick,” directed by Sam May

“Empathy’s Not Dead,” directed by Grace Loechinger

“Everything is Fine,” directed by Trevor Seech-Hrvatin

“Bagged and Boarded,” directed by Rob Bicknell and Chloe Sinkhorn

“The Artifacts Beneath Us,” directed by Cayden Whitman

Motion picture students will also present their work at Wright State’s annual Big Lens Film Festival and annual ArtsGala, which this year will be held on April 1 in the Creative Arts Center.

ArtsGala features the best Wright State has to offer in art, dance, motion pictures, music and theatre, and the students who benefit from the scholarships raised. In its 23-year history, ArtsGala has raised more than $3 million to fund hundreds of scholarships for students in the fine and performing arts at Wright State University.