UC Faculty Member, Students and Alums Help Create Walnut Hills Film Festival Set for Aug. 15

Though he moved away from the Walnut Hills neighborhood more than a year ago, University of Cincinnati faculty member

Ryan Mulligan

still loves the area.

So much so that he recently partnered with artist/educator Sam Meador;

The Gallery Project

on Woodburn’s executive director Annie Bolling; and others – including UC alumni and students – to create seven short films of and about one of the oldest and most diverse hilltop communities in Cincinnati: Walnut Hills.

The resulting films will be shown at the inaugural Hilltop Stories Neighborhood Film Festival set for

9:15 p.m., Friday, Aug. 15

, at DeSales Corner public parking lot, 2800 Woodburn Ave., north of Madison Road between Myrtle and Clayton streets. The event is free and open to the public. The film festival followsWalk on Woodburn from 6-9 p.m.

The bring-your-own lawn chair film festival will also include live bands and food trucks.

The films showing that night were all shot this summer. They are

• A silent film co-written by OTR Improv about a young woman who is rudely interrupted in the park.

• Set in the 1950s with costumes provided by a local vintage storeowner and filmed on location in the businesses and streets of Walnut Hills, this short features teen actors recreating the first date of a couple married for 54 years.

• A community-made ‘Flash Mob’ spills out of the Walnut Hills Kroger, because the hardest working employee, a bagger with autism, shares the music with the store.

• Longtime advocates and community activists recall the legacy of individuals, who stood for positive social change and progress in the neighborhood.

• How one man finds friendship and community through chess; and second chances and a lush future for a newly hired parks employee who keeps the street growing.

• Strangers who believe it is their duty to keep the neighborhood awake, alive, and full of happy, healthy canines. This documentary style work includes dog-on-the-street interviews.

• A eulogy that was never told for a neighbor.  To honor him, the film shares the story of how this gentle man was the “magic of the street” who saved the life of a neighbor’s daughter.

Mulligan, an assistant professor of fine arts in UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) calls the film festival “a big, giant hug to the neighborhood,” one he wanted to give because “it’s all our jobs to build a better social fabric, to make opportunities for those we love. We’re using comedy and documentary films to make the social fabric in Walnut Hills stronger.”

UC students and alumni participating in the project include

• DAAP students Jessica Ly; Samantha Messer; and Suniti Nelson.

• UC alums Joseph Azevedo (DAAP); Chelsea Baker (DAAP); and Laqueena Mitchell, an alumna from UC’s College Conservatory of Music.

Read more about the

Hilltop Stories Neighborhood Film Festival

.

For more information:

Hilltop.stories.walnut.hills@gmail.com