Assistant professor’s film recognized at LA festival

July 12, 2011 | Arts, UToday
By Angela Riddel



rat-storiesHolly Hey, UT assistant professor of film, is celebrating the recognition of her film titled “Rat Stories” at the 2011 LA Art House Film Festival. She received an honorable mention in the Short Documentaries category.

“Rat Stories” undermines stereotypes about the rodent to examine the importance of human connection in a variety of social contexts.

“Like the rat is scorned within many cultures around the world, the human subjects within each rat story do not fit into the mainstream; and as a result of their detachments from social norms, they create their own countercultures in order to belong,” Hey said.

The independent filmmaker is an experimental weaver of media who strives to provoke active relationships between her cinematic art and the diverse audiences that it reaches.

She employs a wide range of practice: single-channel work that is screened within film festivals, micro-cinemas and on public broadcast stations; mixed-media and installation art that is shown in galleries; and live performance and multimedia integration within performance art and the performing arts, including theatre and music.

“Each practice is a unique opportunity to intersect or to undermine conventional methods for telling stories via the moving image,” Hey said.

Hey holds a master of fine arts degree in filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a bachelor of fine arts degree in photography from Ohio University.

Her films and videos have shown at Autumn Lights in Los Angeles, the Mix Festival in New York, the Onion City Film Festival in Chicago, the Denver International Film Festival, the Athens International Film and Video festival, the Vancouver Queer Film and Video Festival, among other national and international venues.

To learn more about “Rat Stories” and see a trailer for the film, click here.

Major funding support for “Rat Stories” was provided by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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