Florida State University’s College of Motion Picture Arts presented “Finding Your Family” at the Askew Student Life Center where the stories on screen reflected a decade of creative fire.
Part of the 2026 Festival of the Creative Arts (FCA), the event showcased eight student-produced short films. The curated selection bridged the gap between the filmmakers’ formative years in Tallahassee and their current professional careers at industry titans like DreamWorks.
The genres ranged from the puppetry of Kyra Gardner’s “Phoebe” to Farsi-English drama “Hasti Joon” by Emmy nominee Sara Karimipour. A singular theme ran throughout the evening: the search for belonging. David Barrow Wiley, filmmaker-in-residence at the College of Motion Picture Arts, noted the creative impact and formative influence that students experience through their time in the college.
“In any arts collective, you go through a process of finding out who you are and seeing how that resonates against the space you occupy,” Wiley said. “When students come here, they start to see who they are. That changes their relationship with the world and how they respond back to the family they were assigned at birth.”
The program highlighted the technical and emotional risks that define the FSU film experience. In one notable example, the entire crew of Summer Schantz’s “Pink is the Color of the Ocean” dyed their hair pink and ran into the ocean to mark the end of filming, both manifestations of the “chosen family” found on set.
For Wiley, who previously served as the college’s head of set operations, the screening was a deeply personal return to FSU. He recalled a phrase he used to tell his students while teaching them the rigors of production safety: “I need you to sow this into your soul.”
“Usually, I was talking about being safe on set and wrapping cables correctly but seeing them come back and share how those years shaped their voices — that’s the real family connection,” Wiley said. “Their trajectory in the industry is emotional for me because it’s clear that they have kept themselves safe while garnering substantive work and accolades.”
The screening was followed by a Q&A session where Wiley and lecturer Laura Lee shared reflections sent in by the alumni, many of whom are now working as staff writers, directors and cinematographers.
Iain Quinn, director of FCA, noted that the event serves as a centerpiece for the university’s commitment to interdisciplinary engagement. By opening the screening to the public, the university strengthens its ties with a community that provides the actors, locations and support necessary for student success.
“We are a film school reliant on the community,” Wiley said. “These collaborations have sewn the film school into the fabric of Tallahassee.”