With NIU’s annual film festival close in our sights, many creative minds will be presenting their works to the public.

These filmmakers utilize different film styles, but their goal is the same: to tell a story for the audience to connect and feel with. 

One of these creative minds is Haitian filmmaker who graduated from the University of Greenwich, Alexandrine Benjamin who is behind the narrative short “Through the Barricades.”

The film follows a couple in Haiti who attempt to reach a hospital to deliver a child while protests run rampant through the streets. The couple must fight their way through barricades, gangs and even doctors in the hospital to bring a child into the violent world around them. 

Benjamin discussed in detail why she felt that her story needed to be told. She explained that there’s always more to someone’s story than what you hear in the news or online.

“I know a lot of people from around the world who have heard about Haiti in the news. We are known for being the poorest country in the world, and there’s a lot of violence there. But I felt like they didn’t know the full story,” Benjamin said. “Most of the time, they just hear ‘Oh, that person has been killed,’ It’s not just somebody that was killed. That person had a name, a story and you need to know about it.”

It was more than just a difficult story to tell; it was a difficult story to make. Benjamin created the film as a final project in 2020 while she was at University of Greenwich. She went back to her home country to shoot her project and faced numerous struggles while making the film.

“It wasn’t easy because we didn’t have the materials or equipment and my team was from Haiti It wasn’t easy to find students from the university to come back to Haiti to shoot with me. So I had to reach out to some old colleagues to give me a hand,” Benjamin said. “We had to stop for two days because our former President, Jovenel Moїse, was killed in the middle of the shoot, so the country was crazy. The team was also a bit down because we were talking about the President. We were afraid. We required the President to protect us and that same person got killed in his house.”

“Through The Barricades” is bound to be a film that isn’t for the faint of heart. Benjamin will also appear over Zoom at the end of the night to discuss the film with attendees. 

Another filmmaker is Tuscarora High School student Eva Ulreich, who will be kicking off the first night of the festival with her animated short “Reaper.” 

The film tells a tale of a girl who has recently died and is tasked with escaping her fate as the Grim Reaper attempts to steal and collect her soul.

Ulreich said her two main goals with “Reaper” were to test different animation techniques and tell a more straightforward story instead of one that was left up for interpretation.

“An issue I ran into was a limited color palette. I was working with mostly reds and some browns and pinks. So it was kind of difficult to make several scenes with different atmospheres with such a limited color palette, and also just making things visible for the viewer,” Ulreich said. “I didn’t really storyboard anything. I kind of just had this idea in my head and went on with it.”

Ulreich has also expressed how excited she is for many people to see her film and how much it means to not just her but to her viewers as well.

“I always get very happy when I learn that one of my films is going to be in a film festival and people are gonna watch it and be like ‘Wow, somebody made that!’ Even if they just watch it and they go on with their day. It’s really nice to think that people are out there watching your stuff that you put all this hard work into,” Ulreich said.

“Reaper” will definitely be a short animation to look out for with its simple but unique story and animation. Both films discussed will be showcased on the first night of the event. 

As for the event itself, doors open at 7 p.m. on both April 11 and April 12 in the Sandburg Auditorium, located in the Holmes Student Center. The event is free and open to the public. 

For more information on this upcoming event, check out the Reality Bytes website for the list of films for each night or contact [email protected].

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