New York film festival shows IU alumnus’ film work

The 2014 Tribeca Film Festival will screen a film by IU doctoral student Russell Sheaffer.
“Acetate Diary” is one of eight experimental films to be shown at the festival.

“I can remember being in a state of shock after a particular visit to the doctor and not knowing what to do or feel,” Sheaffer said in a press release. “I grabbed this roll of film and everything else I could find — pushpins, highlighters, Sharpies, razor blades — and just started.”

Sheaffer, a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Communication and Culture, created the film without a camera.

Instead, he painted and wrote on a 16mm strip of film, according to the press release.

“Some days I’d only work on it for a tiny bit, but other days, I’d sit over it for hours at a
time,” he said.

His film will be shown with “All Vows,” a film commissioned by IU Cinema and the University’s Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Program in Jewish Studies.

Sarah Zinn