Editor’s Note: This is the last of three stories previewing the films that our graduate filmmaking students have made for their theses. All the films will be shown publicly Saturday night in Reynolds Performance Hall.
“Tree,” an original film written and directed by Christy Ward, is a lighthearted and funny take on the life of a single mother.
Ward is one of three students in the first female-only class of the Digital Filmmaking MFA program. “Tree” will be shown on Saturday in Reynolds Performance Hall as part of the Graduate Thesis Film Screening, which starts at 7:30 p.m.
“Tree” was filmed mostly in Little Rock and North Little Rock over a period of seven days with 12 actors and a crew of about 15.
The film is about a single mother struggling to find inspiration for a short story. Ward said that she drew from her own experience as a single mother to write it.
“I thought of the story before I even applied to grad school,” she said.
Ward submitted “tree” to the 2012 Little Rock Film Festival and plans to submit the film to the New Orleans Film Festival, South By Southwest and LUNAFEST, a traveling short film festival that specializes in movies made by and about women.
After she graduates, Ward said that she wants to move to New Orleans with her son and pursue a career in film.
UCA has the only MFA in Digital Filmmaking program in the state. The program requires graduate students to write, produce, direct and edit a 20- to 30-minute film to graduate.
“Tree” will screen along with Sarah Jones’s “John Wayne’s Bed” and Allison Hogue’s “Still Life.” The screening is free and open to everyone.
Here’s the trailer for the film.
