By Olivia Bednar
Engineering and media students were united at the first Ryerson Engineering Film Festival in the Student Learning Centre on March 18.
Hosted by Cranial Nerves, an engineering student-led organization, the film festival is the second event they have organized.
“I put together this competition because I watch a lot of medical dramas but I realized we don’t have any engineering dramas that show all the work that goes into the engineering process,” said Sidrah Noor, the president of Cranial Nerves. “So I just wanted to show that, but in a really fun way.”
March is National Engineering Month and the festival was also one way for the group of students to promote their area of study.
“We did it this week specifically to help give awareness about engineering and what it is all about,” said Mayuri Jain, an executive member of Cranial Nerves said.
A team of four second-year RTA students and one second-year engineering student created the film What’s Your Problem, which is a comedy about a game show. It won half of the awards throughout the evening including Best Actor, Crowd’s Favourite and second place overall.
The team said that when they heard about the competition, they were excited to find an event that incorporated both of their majors.
“We don’t know much about the others’ fields so we just wanted to make [our film] something funny,” said Emma Joseph, one of the team members. She also said she was extremely happy to have her hard work recognized.
Aamna Ahmed, one of the executive members of Cranial Nerves said she was glad to see engineers trying something new.
“We think it’s a really good idea for different faculties to collaborate, for engineers to bring out their creativity, but also for media students to work with engineers to see what other faculties are like,” she said.
“It’s like stepping out of your element,” engineering student David Baldel, who participated in the film Oxi Dreams said. “It’s tough for engineers to be artistic because you’re so used to living in this structured bubble.”
Ryerson’s RUTV also participated by helping with the nomination reel and the film selection process.
Trey Robinson, president and executive producer of RUTV said that they “are making sure that the whole Ryerson campus gets a chance to make films, make media and to be able to express themselves in a positive way.”
Overall, the Cranial Nerves team said they were proud of the success of the first Engineering Film Festival.
“I hope that students walk away having learned more about what engineers do,” Noor said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story claimed that the students who created the film What’s Your Problem were first-year students. They are actually in their second year. The Eyeopener regrets this error.
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