Introducing This Summer’s Camp Instructors!

We’ve gathered a fine group of people to lead our youth video-making summer camps this season. We’re very excited to bring back instructors from past years as well as add new faces to our roster.

2018 will see our greatest number of camps yet. We are so thankful to our partners at the East Baton Rouge Public Libraries, the CAC, and of course our teachers.

Meet our stars:

BATON ROUGE

CLAY ACHEE

Clay Achee grew up in Baton Rouge. After graduating from Savannah College of Art and design in film and video he moved back to work for 10 years in the film industry. First is a production assistant, then as an assistant director. He is also worked extensively in the sound apartment, and post-production sound. Clay has also had the opportunity to direct his own commercials, short films, and music videos.

DAJANAE ARNAUD

DaJanae is a student at LSU and will be starting her last year in the fall. She is a Film & Media Arts student with a concentration in Production. She is also studying two minors Theatre:Film & Television and Mass Communication. She has been interested in the entertainment business as early as 12 years old and very excited about the summer with NOVAC as she continues her education.

NEW ORLEANS

ANDREA CLAIRE MORNINGSTAR

Andrea Claire Morningstar is a filmmaker living and working in both New Orleans, LA and Detroit, MI. She is currently in production on a feature length documentary film titled about a unique school in urban Detroit where the neighborhood is the classroom. In 2015, the youth led documentary web series she produced titled “Excellent News” about education in Detroit won two Emmy awards, and in 2016 she received an Emmy nomination for the branded content piece she directed and produced titled Motorcity Horseman. The feature length story she wrote and produced for This American Life titled My Pen Pal about a American girl’s friendship with Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega has been hailed as a classic by TAL staff and listeners for over a decade. Andrea holds a BFA in New Genres from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where she was awarded a Martin Luther King Student Leadership Award and an MFA in Filmmaking from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee where she was awarded a Graduate Excellence Fellowship. In 2014 She founded Final Girls, a collective for women filmmakers in Detroit, which won a Knight Foundation grant in 2016. In her life and in her work Andrea is interested in unlikely intimacies that lead to transformative experiences; between people and other people, between people and the work they do, between people and the places they find themselves in.

QING YU

Qing Yu is a graduate student studying film production at the University of New Orleans. She graduated from Tulane University in 2016 with a bachelor degree in communication and digital media production. Her capstone film, Abigail, has been shown in international film festivals. She is also a videographer for the number one channel on YouTube for dog training: Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution.

ASLI OZYENGINER

Asli Ozyenginer is a filmmaker/writer born in 1992, Turkey. She studied English at Bogazici University and Comparative Literature & Cinema at Dartmouth College. Her first experimental film Safe Distance was exhibited in Black Family Visual Arts Center in 2016, while she was still a graduate student at Dartmouth. She started pursuing her career in filmmaking in Istanbul with the Turkish director Alphan Eseli as her mentor. She worked on his short films, screenplays and his first Internet series, which is now in production. In 2017, she was admitted to the New Orleans Film Festival’s Emerging Voices Program with her new short documentary The Taxidermist. In April 2018 she was a part of MAMUT Art Project, Turkey’s unique art event dedicated to engaging emerging artists, with her video-art installation Words on Water. Although Asli focuses primarily on directing and writing, she also produces photography, video-art and installation projects.

ADAM SEKULER

Adam Sekuler is a filmmaker, curator, educator and editor based in New Orleans whose work has screened in forums and film festivals throughout the US and internationally. In addition to his own work, which strikes a delicate balance between stylization and naturalism, creating a poetic and lyrical form of visual storytelling, he’s produced short films for Barry Jenkins, Lisandro Alonso, Josh and Benny Safdie, Valerie Massadian, Amie Siegel, and Joe Swanberg. He holds an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, is founder and programmer of Radar: Exchanges in Dance Film Frequencies, Associate Director of Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center and was Program Director for Northwest Film Forum (Seattle).

ASHLEY CLAY

Ashley Clay teaches Kindergarten in New Orleans, LA. She holds an M.A. in Art History from UNC, Chapel Hill, where she focused on contemporary American art with emphasis on themes of gender, race, and place. She has been teaching kids of all ages about art and creative expression for over a decade.

Visionmaker Summer Camp 2018

This summer, NOVAC is partnering with the UHN to host a free summer camp for young adults, ages 14-20, who are interested in creative digital media as a means to tell the stories of indigenous perspectives in Southeast Louisiana. In this three-week program, students will learn the basics of video storytelling while exploring identity and coastal community.

Who: Young adults, ages 14-20

Where: Multiple Locations (see below)

When: June 25 – July 20

Apply Here

Program Breakdown:

10am – 3pm each day

June 25-29 @ Docville Farm: Storytelling Basics, with guest artists & activists

July 9 – 13 @ Tulane/NOVAC/NOCCA: Climate Change, Land Loss and Conservation

July 16 – 20 @ Docville Farm: Final Project Week

Instructor ADAM SEKULER

Adam Sekuler is a filmmaker, curator, educator and editor based in New Orleans whose work has screened in forums and film festivals throughout the US and internationally. In addition to his own work, which strikes a delicate balance between stylization and naturalism, creating a poetic and lyrical form of visual storytelling, he’s produced short films for Barry Jenkins, Lisandro Alonso, Josh and Benny Safdie, Valerie Massadian, Amie Siegel, and Joe Swanberg. He holds an MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, is founder and programmer of Radar: Exchanges in Dance Film Frequencies, Associate Director of Zeitgeist Multi-disciplinary Arts Center and was Program Director for Northwest Film Forum (Seattle)

Instructor ANDREA CLAIRE MORNINGSTAR

Andrea Claire Morningstar is a filmmaker living and working in both New Orleans, LA and Detroit, MI. She is currently in production on a feature length documentary film titled about a unique school in urban Detroit where the neighborhood is the classroom. In 2015, the youth led documentary web series she produced titled “Excellent News” about education in Detroit won two Emmy awards, and in 2016 she received an Emmy nomination for the branded content piece she directed and produced titled Motorcity Horseman. The feature length story she wrote and produced for This American Life titled My Pen Pal about a American girl’s friendship with Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega has been hailed as a classic by TAL staff and listeners for over a decade. Andrea holds a BFA in New Genres from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where she was awarded a Martin Luther King Student Leadership Award and an MFA in Filmmaking from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee where she was awarded a Graduate Excellence Fellowship. In 2014 She founded Final Girls, a collective for women filmmakers in Detroit, which won a Knight Foundation grant in 2016. In her life and in her work Andrea is interested in unlikely intimacies that lead to transformative experiences; between people and other people, between people and the work they do, between people and the places they find themselves in.