Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies Jeff Bemiss 是一位入围奥斯卡的编剧/导演，创作过短片、长片和纪录片. Most recently, Bemiss co-directed Missing in Brooks County, which will premiere on PBS’s Independent Lens on January 31 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern (check local listings). The film also will be available to stream on the PBS Video app. 这部长片纪录片由丽莎·莫洛莫特联合执导，阿比盖尔·迪斯尼/福克电影公司和恩格尔娱乐公司执行制作，它揭示了南德克萨斯州失踪移民的危机. 这是itv与公共广播公司合作制作的，由公共广播公司提供资金.
贝米斯毕业于南加州大学电影学院和洛杉矶电影学院.A. 他是康涅狄格艺术家研究员和电影独立快速通道研究员. His film The Book and the Rose (2001)入围了奥斯卡最佳真人短片的半决赛.
As part of Trinity’s Film Studies Program since 2013, Bemiss teaches an introduction to film production, in addition to courses on screenwriting, advanced filmmaking, and editing. “Documentary is having a golden period right now,” Bemiss said, 注意到最近纪录片在影院和在线流媒体服务上的主流成功. “With documentary, 学生有最好的机会创作出能引起观众共鸣的成功电影. 纪录片呈现给你的是一个故事——你只需要认识到它，并想出如何讲述它.”
下面，贝米斯讨论了他的电影制作经验，以及他如何利用这些经验来教博彩平台网址大全的学生.
How did you first become interested in filmmaking?
I was 8 years old when Star Wars came out and it set my imagination on fire. It sent a generation of students to film school and I was one of them. There’s no one route to becoming a filmmaker; generally, you either work your way up from a production assistant, or you can just direct something, which was the more independent path that I took. I made a 30-minute scripted film a few years out of college, The Book and the Rose这部电影成为了奥斯卡最佳短片的10个半决赛之一. Since then I’ve worked on various projects and I started teaching. At some point, I got tired of waiting for permission to do work, in the form of financial backing and investors, so I got interested in documentary. 脚本电影需要大量的资金来选角和取景，甚至是一开始. 对于纪录片，如果你有一个想法和一台相机，你就可以开始了. I kind of got hooked on it.
What was your motivation behind making your most recent film, Missing in Brooks County?
I had met my co-director on the film, Lisa Molomot, at Trinity—we were both teaching here and we wanted to work together. A little while after she left for Arizona, 我听过一个广播纪录片，讲的是贝勒大学一个叫洛里·贝克的法医科学家, 是谁在挖掘被埋在德州南部的无名移民. 她试图找出他们的身份，让他们的家人知道发生了什么事. I was very moved by it for some reason; I do have some family from Mexico. Lisa and I reached out to Dr. Baker, who invited us to Texas and took us to Brooks County; it’s not even a border county, but that’s where the problem is. 我们原本以为只是对这位法医科学家的简短介绍，后来却花了四年时间记录和拍摄布鲁克斯县发生的事情.
What was the process of making that film like?
The key to most documentaries is access. 在影片开始时，与参与者建立信任的过程非常缓慢. This was not the film we set out to make. When it did pivot, it became a process of finding the story. 我们一共去了15次布鲁克斯郡，每次大约花两到三周的时间. It got really complicated; we met volunteers and activists, judges, undertakers, sheriffs, and most of all we met families of the missing. We filmed for about four years. PBS came in as a co-producer on the film, which was like a rescue. When they came on board, it allowed us to finish the film properly, which we were struggling to do at the time.
What does it mean to you to have the film broadcast nationally on PBS?
我想大概有几千人在电影节上看过这部电影. 当美国公共广播公司播放它并在其网站上发布时，它将被数百万人看到. 大多数人不知道布鲁克斯县正在发生什么，当他们看到它时，他们可能会感到震惊. It’s not an overtly political film. We give everyone their say, 观众可以自己做决定——他们只需要看看发生了什么.
能够接触到观众对我们来说意义重大，我们觉得PBS是拍摄这部电影的合适平台. It’s free, so anyone can see it. Film has an incredible capacity to teach and to educate. One thing it also does very well is deliver an emotional experience. 如果你能在提供学习的同时，对我来说这就是最终的成就. 这部电影让人们看到了他们在日常生活中看不到的东西, and I think its message is urgent. People are dying; this was the worst year ever for migrant deaths on our southwest border.
你如何用你的电影制作经验来教授博彩平台网址大全的学生?
I always try to bring my work back to the classroom. This past semester, in “Introduction to Film Studies,” we watched two documentaries, one of which was Missing in Brooks County. 这是一次有趣的讨论，因为学生们和电影制作人在一个房间里. It changes the kinds of learning and discussions you can have. 它不仅给了学生一个学习电影的视角，而且给了他们一个电影人生活的视角.
还有一门特殊的课程，FILM 309，我们在一个学期里作为一个班级一起制作一部电影. On day one, we have no idea what we’re going to do. 我们提出想法，我们投票，我们出去拍电影，我们完成它，我们营销它. The short film Coaching Colburn was produced by a previous class, and it premiered at the Big Sky Film Festival, then went all around the world. It was also part of the Trinity Film Festival at Cinestudio, both gems of the college.
教学是美妙的，因为它让我每天都能分享我对电影制作的热情. It keeps me fresh and invigorated. If I have a discouraging day with my own film projects, I always have the classroom and my students to lift me up. And of course, 看着学生们进入电影行业，在这个媒介中成为讲故事的人，是教学的一大乐趣.
你希望博彩平台网址大全的学生从你的课程和你的电影制作经历中学到什么?
并不是博彩平台网址大全电影制作课上的每个学生都会成为电影制作人或媒体创作者. However, they will all go on to become media consumers. 我喜欢平衡课程与文科学习和技术学习. 在电影制作中，我们关注的是想法和想法的表达. It’s not just cameras and editing—it’s writing, collaborating, and critical thinking, 哪些都是传统的核心文科追求的一部分，这些追求将使任何学生在生活中走得更远. 文科可以教授思想的价值和思想的表达. I think that’s valuable in everything, not just in film.
Missing in Brooks County will premiere on PBS’s Independent Lens on January 31 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern (check local listings). See the trailer below. The film also will be available to stream on the PBS Video app. For more information on Bemiss and his other projects, visit www.unit-of-light.com.
To learn more about film studies at Trinity, click here.
