Tri-C Student Film To Play April 5 at CIFF

Film Crew Intensive Training production, ‘Minutes to Go,’ will screen at the Allen Theatre

The Cleveland International Film Festival will screen a short film produced by Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) Film Academy students.

The film, Minutes to Go, will play on April 5 at the Allen Theatre. The film was produced by students in the Tri-C Film Academy’s Film Crew Intensive Training. Producer James Madio led the six-week course, which trains and mentors the next generation of film professionals. Olivia Villaseñor, the manager of the Tri-C Film Academy and project manager of Television and Video Services at Tri-C, also works with the course.

Madio and Villaseñor told Spectrum News 1 they teach students the ins and outs of the film industry to prepare them for entry-level positions on film and media sets.

“We try to keep it a real-world experience for them because when they get on a set, we want to make sure they know the chain of command, the lingo and everybody’s roles,” Madio said. “We want to give them the proper skill set to succeed.”

Trainees have gone on to work on productions such as Judas and the Black Messiah, White Noise, The Morning Show, Westworld and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, among others.

“That is our main goal,” Villaseñor said. “We want to support the workforce and make people understand you can work in the film industry and live in Ohio.”

Madio also produced and acted in The Featherweight, which will screen at CIFF on April 6.

Visit CIFF’s website to purchase tickets for Minutes to Go and The Featherweight.

April 05, 2024

By Dylanne Weese, 216-987-4281 or dylanne.weese@tri-c.edu