With most student films, the cast is centered on people around the age of the filmmaker and crew. But Thomas Bangert, an MFA student, is breaking the trend with his thesis project.
For his short film, currently titled Ruth’s Great Escape, Bangert will primarily use older actors from Athens.
“In the past, the School of Film has worked closely with the School of Theater and its wealth of excellent young actors,” Bangert said. “For Ruth, of course, that wasn’t an option. None of the characters in the script are college-aged. In fact, my two main characters are past 70.”
Focused on a story about life in prison, Bangert was able to come up with the idea for this project through his experiences while working at a nursing home as part of his civil service when he was living in Germany.
“For the first time, I really had to face what growing old might entail, and the thought of spending the last years of one’s life in such an environment was, and still is, scary to me,” he said. “The worst part about it was when I realized that I got to leave at the end of my shift, while the ‘inmates’ were trapped there with no chance of ever getting out. The prison idea was born.”
Beyond the life behind prison gates, the film also focuses on other matters.
“When I started working on Ruth, I knew I didn’t want to write straight drama,” Bangert said. “So, additionally to the nursing home, I created Ruth’s fantasy world: a prison that she’s trying to break out of. … Now I could move my focus slightly to a lighter tone, while always keeping the gravity of Ruth’s situation fresh in the audience’s mind.”
Rowena Pedrena, an MFA student and the first assistant director on Ruth, said she believes Bangert’s vision with the older actors adds a lot to the film.
“I think that, ultimately, the story and content drove the initiative to work with geriatric actors as the leads,” Pedrena said. “I think that in a college town where the majority of the student body are undergrads, 18-22, it shapes a director’s and writer’s vision into thinking of stories that work within that context.”
Pedrena added that by writing a story centered on an older crowd, Bangert had the opportunity to create a film that resonated beyond a college audience — something graduate students rarely achieve.
The project recently moved into post-production and Bangert is optimistic that it will be finished by mid-October.
“Stylistically and logistically, Ruth has been an ambitious project,” he said. “Only because the whole crew (gave) 100 percent were we able to bring my vision to life.”
Bangert isn’t the only student who is using older people in the community for his film project. Sam Mink, a senior in the Bachelor of Specialized Studies program under filmmaking and history, is working on a project with the working title Coyotes, which is set to start filming in the next few weeks.
The plot is centered on multiple characters — including one maintenance man, two criminals, and a neighborhood watch ground connected together — and Mink decided to use older actors from the community to add to his story.
“I need the people (of that age) because that is what the scene needs,” Mink said.
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