For the first time in the event’s history, the Roving Eye Film Festival was hosted virtually by Roger Williams University. The 15th annual festival began on April 27 and concluded on May 3.

The festival was curated by the 23 students in George T. Marshall’s Curation and Film Festival Production course at RWU. The students spent the beginning of the spring semester choosing the almost 100 films to be shown during the festival out of around 800 films that were submitted. In the second part of the semester, the students put the festival together by engaging in components like marketing and graphic design. 

This year’s theme promoted “the power of art and culture in affecting positive change.”

The festival was very successful, according to Marshall, with over 1,000 views on the Vimeo feed that showed the films. 

“We also had Facebook conversations with filmmakers and industry leaders that were well-received,” Marshall said. 

With the film festival being international, the move to an online platform allowed filmmakers from other countries to participate and interact with the students and viewers. 

“While nothing can replace the social components of one-on-one interactions, this year’s event online allowed us to re-invent the festival, discover new audiences and expand our reach,” Marshall said. 

This method allowed more people to have access to the festival, making it an overall success for Marshall and his class. 

“The pedagogy for the Curation and Film Festival Production class had to be redesigned due to the new realities of virtual teaching, but we were able to realize most of our goals. In the end, it was a solid learning experience,” Marshall said.