GVSU Summer Film Project celebrates 30 years at "Three Divided by Zero" premiere

For 30 years, Grand Valley students have worked alongside industry professionals to produce professional short and feature films during the Summer Film Project.

Joel Potrykus, associate professor and director of the project's most recent film “Three Divided by Zero,” said the films are often shown at festivals and stream on services like the Criterion Channel and Amazon.

During the six-week Summer Film Project course, GVSU students fill out the production crew on the film set with professional filmmakers serving as department heads.

“This is as high impact as a course gets in our program,” said Potrykus. “That’s what separates it from most other film programs. It’s the chance [for students] to learn from the professionals and also impress them with their work ethic."

Potrykus said that industry professionals have hired GVSU students because they impressed during their collaboration on the project.

Caitlyn Shaw turned a passion for films into a co-producer role

Caitlyn Shaw, a film and video production major and co-producer for “Three Divided by Zero,” said the students learn a lot while working alongside professional filmmakers.

“I think I probably learned more on those sets than any other class I had at Grand Valley,” said Shaw, who has worked on two of the program's summer films. “It's just such its own beast. The scale is so much bigger.”

Shaw grew up with movies. When she was young, her family had movie night on Fridays and she was awed by films like “Star Wars.” It was after seeing a commercial for “A Wrinkle in Time” with director Ava DuVernay that she first considered a career in film.

“I’m like, 'Wait, you can be a director as a woman?' That never really occurred to me before. That really kind of inspired me,” she said.

It was the reputation of the Summer Film Project that drew Shaw to Grand Valley, where a former high school classmate had worked on one of the projects.

Shaw said that it was a challenge going from smaller scale film projects in initial film courses to the scale of the Summer Film Project. She said the leadership from Potrykus and industry professionals invited input from the students and that they were always ready to offer help and guidance.

“We're there to be collaborators. We're not just there to keep our head down and get the job done,” Shaw said. “I really appreciated that.”

A celebration of 30 years of the Summer Film Project at Wealthy Theatre

Thirty years of filmmaking was celebrated on April 30 at Wealthy Theatre during the premiere of “Three Divided by Zero.”

The event featured a panel of current and past directors and crew from the project where the group discussed the project's history, its evolution and gave advice to young filmmakers. The celebration also included a 30-year retrospective of the Summer Film Project.

Following the premiere screening of “Three Divided by Zero,” Potrykus announced the film will make its festival premiere in Cinetopia Film Festival in May.