UA to Screen Award-Winning Indie Film

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — When The University of Alabama screens independent film “The Spectacular Now” later this month, it will be a chance to explore how personal relationships have changed in the digital age.

Director James Ponsoldt will be on hand to discuss the movie with Dr. Rachel Raimist, assistant professor of telecommunication and film and co-director of Creative Campus, following the show.

“I saw the film as part of the “TCF AT SUNDANCE” course that I teach with Dr. Kristen Warner in the telecommunication and film department and absolutely adored it,” Raimist said. “It is a bittersweet coming of age story that twists and turns, and it is extremely relatable to college-age students.”

The film screens at the Ferguson Center at 7 p.m. Sept. 23. “The Spectacular Now” won the Special Jury Award for Acting at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. It stars Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, and it is based on the novel by the same name, written by Tim Tharp.

“Bringing independent films that don’t make it to our local movie theater helps to expose our students to the kinds of independent film work being celebrated at film festivals and in theaters across the nation,” Raimist said. “We are fortunate to be able to also bring the film’s director, James Ponsoldt, who is from a small town in Georgia, not unlike Tuscaloosa.”

James will share his work with the students and answer questions during the public Q&A following the screening. He will also host a filmmaker breakfast with a select group of TCF majors and Creative Campus interns.

“I believe that hosting a young, successful Southern-bred filmmaker on campus will be both informative and inspiring to our students,” Raimist said.

Ponsoldt, a native of Athens, Ga., shot the movie in his hometown. Making the film in Athens, a small, Southern community, was important to him.

“The script didn’t identify where it was set—the setting just wasn’t a big city. It felt vaguely suburban—or kind of like a college town,” Ponsoldt said during an interview with the magazine Creative Loafing earlier this year. “It seemed to me that the script had a sense of place in the way that “Breaking Away” did. Athens was such an obvious candidate as a setting to shoot the film in—and it was really the only place I wanted to make the film. Filming in Athens was incredibly meaningful to me. We shot in the streets and houses of my childhood.”

The film follows the budding relationship with a gregarious high school senior who has no plans for the future with a science fiction-loving “nice girl” that starts when the former wakes up on her lawn after a night of heavy drinking.

The screening of the film and the discussion that follows it is a collaborative effort between the University’s Honors College, Creative Campus and the department of telecommunication and film.

The University of Alabama Honors College provides an environment where exceptional students can thrive. It supports a culture of community and collaboration. In turn its  students achieve a world-class education based on these four pillars: innovative scholarship, advanced research, cultural interaction and civic engagement. The University of Alabama Honors College values academic achievement and service-based leadership. 

Under the auspices of UA’s Office of Academic Affairs, Creative Campus is an innovative student-centered collaborative learning environment where undergraduates advocate for the arts and community by designing and implementing inventive ideas for public arts projects, conversations and events that promote creativity and culture. In support of The University of Alabama’s dedication to excellence in teaching, research and service, Creative Campus provides student internship experiences that enhance learning through hands-on practice, leadership opportunities and creative problem-solving, allowing students to grow as individuals while enhancing the cultural fabric of UA and the greater Tuscaloosa community. For more information: http://creativecampus.ua.edu.