AAFF INTERN UPDATE
Interns are an essential cog in the always moving, hardworking machine of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and after all of the work that they put in during the 55th AAFF, we wanted to give a follow-up on what our interns are up to in the post-festival season:
Kyle Stefek (Assistant to the Executive Director): Kyle acted as a development intern for the 54th Ann Arbor Film Festival and stayed on for the 55th as Assistant to the Executive Director, giving him the chance to work closely with Leslie Raymond and all of the interns. He just graduated from the University of Michigan with a BA in Screen Arts & Cultures and Communication Studies. He continues in his role assisting Raymond at the Festival.
Xinyi Liu (Graphic Design Assistant): Xinyi, a University of Michigan student in the school of Art & Design, is interning with NASA this summer. (Insert rocket scientist joke here.)
Joan Wind (Education Outreach Coordinator): Joan is staying on with us through the summer to carry on her work to increase distribution of the AAFF DVD series that features award winning AAFF films, especially at different educational institutions throughout the country. She recently won a MCACA New Leaders grant for the Festival so that she can continue her hard work. To learn more about the grant, check out this article!
Emily Martin (Programming Assistant): Emily, a University of Michigan student majoring in Screen Arts and International Studies with a minor in French, is interning in France right now at the Cannes International Film Festival with XYZ Films.
Page Brady (Operations Assistant): Page, a University of Michigan student majoring in Screen Arts and Cultures, is currently interning at Indigenous Media and Escape Artists Entertainment in Los Angeles this summer.
Shudi Zheng (Video Production Assistant): Shudi has been with us for two Festival seasons now, starting as a volunteer for the 54th AAFF, then becoming an intern last summer through the 55th AAFF. She has just completed her undergraduate work at the University of Michigan in Screen Arts and Psychology. We are grateful that Shudi is staying on this summer, continuing to apply her terrific video production skills on projects such as assembling the the 55th AAFF Tour and DVD, and editing filmmaker interviews from videos shot during the 55th AAFF. She will be pursuing an MFA in film production at Loyola Marymount University in the fall.
Nick Grant (Marketing Assistant): Coming aboard with us for the 56th AAFF season, new intern Nick is a Screen Arts major at the University of Michigan and part of the class of 2020. He will be working to improve social media outreach as well as assisting in all other facets of marketing for the upcoming Festival.
Wenxin Yan (Development Assistant): Wenxin, a junior at UofM majoring in Screen Arts, is also beginning her work with us during the 56th AAFF season, currently working on transferring our blog posts to a new website and creating an archive. She plans to pursue graduate level studies in either marketing or finance, then start her own media/film company or studio.
