Students in the Spotlight

For Bahareh Khosravi, cinema is the medium of storytelling best able to transform the world into an ideal vision. “I believe for me [the best way] to communicate with the world [is] through an audiovisual medium,” says Khosravi, who moved to Eugene from Iran and who has been “in love with the Northwest ever since I saw Twin Peaks.”

Khosravi, a second-year postbaccalaureate student, previously studied architecture at the University of Tehran. Although she loved the way architecture turned an abstract idea into a tangible structure, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was meant to be involved in an audiovisual medium of storytelling: “The U of O’s Cinema Studies Program seemed like a perfect interdisciplinary program that someone from a different background would benefit from. I needed to understand deeply the different nuances and levels of filmmaking from industry practices to tech to formal structure.”

Now Khosravi is about to finish her studies at the University of Oregon as one of the top students in the Cinema Studies Program. She says her academic success can be attributed to her deep love for the subject. “I think that anything that’s conducive to your goals in life is going to cling to your mind,” Khosravi says. “You shouldn’t have to memorize what you learn; you’re supposed to live it and ponder it outside the classroom, as cliché as that sounds.”

In the future, Khosravi hopes to put her studies to work: “I revere independent productions, new media technologies, and video gaming as powerful [media] that transcend the mainstream. My goal is to get involved with these kinds of creations to offer alternative ways of experiencing and communicating through media.”

Brandon Rains is completing a dual degree in Fine Arts and Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon. He originally came to the UO for the Digital Arts program but soon added the Cinema Studies major as well to aid him in his dream of pursuing a career as an animator. “It seemed incredibly beneficial for me to be able to critically analyze [what] I will be creating,” Rains says.

Rains uses the knowledge he gains from each major to enhance the other. In his Cinema Studies classes, he learns the process of filmmaking and the theories associated with media and the industry. In his Fine Arts classes, he is able fully to immerse himself in the production of animations and the creative side of filmmaking. Rains notes that he would add even more majors to his repertoire if he could: “I do not think success can come from limiting [one’s] field of study.”

Rains’s work was recognized at the University of Oregon’s Fifth Annual Undergraduate Symposium, which each year celebrates both the remarkable contributions undergraduates make to research and their other creative work. Under the mentorship of Associate Professor Priscilla Peña Ovalle, Cinema Studies Associate Director, Rains presented his research poster “Mickey Mouse and the Creation of an Animated Star.” Rains analyzed the design, personality, and actions of Mickey Mouse in short films from the 1930s and deconstructed the animation process by redrawing the character himself, blending the critical thinking and technical animation production skills he obtained through his dual degree.