Support ComAcad artists Maya Meissner & Andre Filipek at the reception for thier up-coming photo art show at Revolution 9. The reception will be held on Friday, May 1st at 7pm.
Congratulations to Raphael Leonard for getting some work with BeaterReview.com. Raph will be writing articles/reviews for the website that claims “Because buying new is for suckers.” Raph is starting out by writing without compensation but this is not unusual for beginning writers. Well done Raph!
Congratulations to Nick Wright for being accepted into the 2009 SPOTLIGHT! film series sponsored by KCSM TV in San Mateo, California. The 4 minute 25 second “untitled” piece about racism experienced on New York City’s Staten Island Ferry was shot while Nick was attending the 4 week Tisch Summer Filmmakers workshop. Not only will Nick’s film compete for best student film, but Nick will also be interviewed by American actor, author, director, screenwriter and narrator of films Peter Coyote, which will air on KCSM in the fall.
Denali Gillaspie, class of 2008
ComAcad alumni Denali Gillaspie has been traveling the world with her brother Yoshi for seven months and plans to keep living out of her backpack until mid-August (Denali was suppose to be back in Marin mid-June but she is having too much fun so she is extending her travels). Her adventures started with a family trip to Hawaii. Denali and Yoshi then went to Japan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. They are currently in India with their friend Gina. Next on the itinerary is Nepal, Indonesia and then where ever the wind blows them.
While in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, they met a woman in a park who wanted them to teach her 5-year old son English. After meeting the mother and son each day at 5 o’clock, they invited Denali and Yoshi and others to their home for dinner. The 12 of them sat on the floor to eat shrimp and hot soup filled with vegetables Denali had never seen before. Denali said, “the kindness of strangers on this trip has been memorable.”
click on photos to enlarge
Congratulations to Wayland Bell, Michael Beuttler, Nash Holcomb, Zachary Hoylman, Dylan Redford & Lela Updegrave for winning 4th place in the 24 hour Fairfax Documentary Film Challenge. Their four minute video spotlighted the Artist in Residence program in Fairfax.
The Drake fund has awarded ComAcad (and second period Indy Filmmaking) a new Panasonic AG-HMC150 AVCCAM Camcorder! We now have two Pani HMC150 and two Canon A1. Thank you so, so, so much Drake Fund. We are able to do what we do because of you 
click on image of letter to read
Issue 6, Volume 58
Mika Weinstein writes about teachers who bike. Mika wrote about Morgan’s commute to Drake, his dislike of cars and about getting chased by monkeys in India. The photo shows Morgan riding a bike in Vietnam.
click on the photo to enlarge
Congratulations to Noah Brown who will be attending the Gaming Academy for two weeks this summer. Noah is looking forward to learning about the creation of video games for eight hours a day, for fourteen days straight. Good one Noah! We want a full report in September. For more information on the Gaming Academy, click here.
