Photo courtesy of Ayu Suryawan '23. Above, a still from Suryawan's documentary titled "Loving, Moving Boy," which centers trans joy.
Melanie Duronio ’26 and Lucy Isaacs ’25
Features Editor and Staff Writer
The Five College Film Festival returned for the first time in person since 2019, featuring screenings of films made by students and recent graduates of the Five Colleges on April 1, 2023, at Amherst College. An awards ceremony was subsequently held, in which two Mount Holyoke students were awarded prizes. Ayu Suryawan ’23 won Best Documentary Prize for their film “Loving, Moving Boy” and Olive Rowell ’24 won Best in College for Mount Holyoke with their film “Photo Album.”
“The most rewarding part of the process was really getting to see the student works,” Bianca Hammer ’23, student director of the Five College Film Festival, said. “It’s just exciting to see the kinds of things that students at Mount Holyoke, but also just students across the five colleges, are able to produce [and the] creativity of the messages they’re sharing.”
For as long as Suryawan can remember, they’ve been “compelled to take videos,” which led them to major in Film, Media, Theater with a primary focus on film analysis. However, they found a new appreciation for the medium in their Intro to Production class with Elliot Montague, which gave them the freedom to branch away from “casual filmmaking” and experiment with different formats. It was in this class that Suryawan filmed “Loving, Moving Boy” as a final project.
“Loving, Moving Boy” features the story of Marty Rothberg ’23, and details their first experience presenting as a boy to strangers while attending a basketball camp as a child. The film is shot in an abstract visual style, connecting various shots of objects, people, and interactions to culminate in an overarching, non-linear story. A voice-over of a conversation between Suryawan and Rothberg plays throughout the film.
Suryawan described themself as being “someone who is extremely inspired by people I love.” As a trans person, they thought of the friendships and relationships they’ve formed with others in their community while filming.
“I wanted to center around that feeling and idea of trans joy, boyhood and play,” Suryawan said. “I think there’s a lot of sadness and fear around trans people right now. And so I wanted to display trans people as not just victims because they [also] can be lovers … and not these evil, disturbing forces in society.”
Although Suryawan considers themself to be “a pretty shy person,” they submitted “Loving, Moving Boy” to the Five College Film Festival to push themself out of their comfort zone. “It was pretty exciting [to win]. It was also really unexpected … But [I’m] obviously very grateful and happy. And I’m really proud of myself for putting myself out there,” Suryawan said.
Similarly, Rowell made her film “Photo Album” for an assignment in her Digital Media class. Although she has never taken a formal film class she has been interested in the art form since high school, specifically in stop motion and animation.
Photo courtesy of Olive Rowell '24. Above, a still from Rowel '24's film depicts its subjects, her grandmother and great-grandmother.
“The process requires a lot of patience and can be insanely frustrating, but the satisfaction that comes with watching your progress slowly add up is one of the best feelings,” Rowell said. “It’s really magical to bring life and movement to a subject that’s usually stationary.”
“Photo Album” centers around Rowell and her Grandmother Alison, Iya, looking through a family photo album created by her Great-Grandmother, Mamo. Rowell incorporated digitally hand-drawn animations to “bring life” to her family’s writings and photos. The piece was filmed on Iya’s 73rd birthday, a week after the passing of Iya’s younger brother, David.
“Because of this, the video emerged from a period of both mourning and celebration. I think the importance of storytelling and remembrance that comes in these times of grief ended up being the main takeaway [of the film], as well as just being really grateful to get the chance to share that time with Iya,” Rowell said.
Suryawan and Rowell’s films were selected from a pool of over 100 applicants by a team of faculty and students, “a record number” according to Hammer.
“I was so unbelievably honored [to win]. … It was such an honor to have my work alongside all the other [Five] College Students and I had so much fun seeing what everyone else had made. I was pretty nervous to show my video to a big group, but having Ayu [Suryawan] and Marty [Rothberg] there made it much easier,” Rowell said.
This year’s Five College Film Festival continued to serve as an opportunity for students to come together, regardless of their film experience or background, and share stories that matter to them through the medium.
“Media, films, stories, they’re such a great way to humanize people. And I think that when people see concepts of individuals that they don’t really interact with very much, but only have these societal notions of them, they don’t seem real. But I think stories like the one that I showed in my documentary are just undeniably human and real, and relatable even … [and] I just want to encourage people to diversify their viewing experiences, especially in film,” Suryawan said.
Those interested in watching “Loving, Moving Boy” or “Photo Album” can contact Suryawan through their Mount Holyoke email surya22a@mtholyoke.edu and Rowell through their Instagram account @stufffrommybrain.