In 2019, the Immersion class released Capital in the Sixties, and in 2020, they released Dear Miss Conrad: Capital University in WWII.
This “Capital Trilogy” has now come to a close with Spaces Between Us: A University Unmasked. Totaling about 47 minutes, the film covers what life was like in 2020 for students attending Capital University, both while physically at college, and away at home.
On April 27, 2021, the film premiered on Renner Lawn to a large audience spread out over the area. Unfortunately, there was no food or chairs supplied (attendees had to bring their own), but the movie was less than an hour long.
In general the viewing experience was great, the large projection screen was clear and the sound was as good as it could be outside.
Some standout aspects of the documentary was the simple flow of it. It gracefully transitioned from one topic to the next, and then explored what numerous students thought about each. In fact, pretty much the entire film centered around interviews with several Capital students (essentially the main characters), as well as faculty members, most notably the provost, Jody Fournier.
The documentary began with a brief summary of 2020, while rather general, it set the tone for the rest of the story. Some of the more notable sections of the documentary included spending the fall semester at home, the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer, and the resulting discussion about systemic racism and how Capital might be contributing to it.
Aubri Jones, a second-year Education major and co-director of the documentary, said, “In some ways it is a call out to campus, this institution has some things that need fixed straight away.”
Jones then reminisced on the student-led BLM protest in September, specifically how two faculty members, Deanna Wagner and Jody Fournier, were sprinting ahead of the demonstration to direct traffic to help things go as smoothly as possible.
“This is a physical representation of Capital as an institution, physically running to help us,” Jones said.
Side note: There’s a portion about the rather infamous Senate Bill #4, which was a good source of laughter for me. In a nutshell, it was a piece of Student Government legislation that advocated for a Halloween party last fall in the midst of the pandemic. Former Student Government President Adam Scherman, described the intentions behind the bill. That very clip was followed by numerous students describing the reasons why it was a terrible idea.
The next topic of discussion was a conversation about the 2020 election and what that looked like for Generation Z, specifically. This heavy assortment of topics is bookended by a “work to be done” chapter.
Jones, on what she was most proud of about the documentary, said, “How quickly campus was able to come together, not just the crew itself but everyone being like, ‘Yeah I’ll share my 2020 experience,’…that was not easy for a lot of people…it got intense sometimes.”
To read about the making of this documentary, check out the Chimes article here.
