Uncertainty: Life Without Graduation, a documentary short from North America, has brought real meaning to the word 'uncertainty.' Sharing the hopes and fears of high school, college, and university 2020 graduates, the plot line was thrown into disarray as novel coronavirus shut down campuses, cancelled graduations, and events made servers inaccessible to film editors.
When complete, Uncertainty: Life Without Graduation, will be a real, honest, and moving mix of real stories in a truly uncertain world. For many university graduates, the prospect of finding employment is daunting. Now that uncertainty is even greater. The documentary short was produced by the North American Division SONscreen Film Festival in collaboration with student filmmakers. The project will be highlighted during a GAiN Europe online get-together on Saturday, May 30.
Those registered for the cancelled GAiN conference will be able to attend via a personalized zoom invitation, while a larger audience are welcome to follow along on YouTube. The live link will be shared on the adventcom.eu website.
GAiN Europe brings together communicators, media personnel, writers, broadcasters, and other communications professionals from across Europe and beyond. Over 150 participants were originally booked to attend GAiN Europe 2020 in Bucharest, Romania, but will now meet online.
Graduate details
Julio Muñoz runs the annual SONscreen and worked with Nathan DeWild, the post-production coordinator, and producer Rachel Scribner.
“Everything shut down; the film team could not access the footage on their servers or film the final interview,” Muñoz said. “As our team discussed how to conclude the film, we realized that if we proceeded to do a film about graduations, we would come across as tone-deaf.”
In the United States, graduation is a very important rite of passage for students and families. Families travel thousands of miles to attend ceremonies honoring their graduates. While many students typically just want to get graduation over with, this year, there will be none at all. Muñoz noted how different this year will be.
“There will be no celebrations this year,” he said. “The film, like many documentaries, had taken us in a new direction and we decided to follow.”
The SONscreen team is now working on an update to the film, with a plan to release in October. The trailer, however, already has the GAiN Europe leadership team on the edge of their seats.
“Very impressive,” states Corrado Cozzi, communication director for the Inter-European Division. “It is a wonderful surprise. This is reality. This is, let me say, almost providential to have chosen this topic last year!”
Forty projects for release over the summer
Uncertainty: Life Without Graduation, will be one of forty films, video clips, and a book which will make up the sum total of a GAiN network project that was decided during the 2019 GAiN Europe conference in Jordan. These will be released weekly throughout the summer and early autumn climaxing with the book and Uncertainty: Life Without Graduation, in October.
In June, GAiN Europe will release a moving production from Brazil that thoughtfully covers the issues of mental illness and anxiety. That will then be followed by a five-part documentary series with real life stories of ten people who face challenges in their lives, whether a life sentence for murder, the challenge of illness, or family or work issues. [See: GAiN Europe Uncertainty series to launch May 30.]
Keep up with GAiN Europe by visiting www.adventcom.eu
This article was originally published on the Trans-European Division’s news site