Stony Brook Filmmaker’s Documentary Wins Best Student Film

Stony Brook University alum Gareth Burghes won Audience Choice Award and Best Student Film for his documentary Filtering Futures: A Story of Long Island Livelihood and Shellfish, at the Green Lens Environmental Film Fest at Northern Illinois University. The film, a product of his participation in the Semester by the Sea program at Stony Brook Southampton, dealt with Long Island baymen and the status of the shellfish industry, and previewed for the first time at Earthstock 2013.

“To even be accepted into a film festival seemed phenomenal,” said the 2012 graduate, “but to go there and win not one, but two awards? That felt incredible.”

Burghes used the website www.withoutabox.com to submit the film to nearly 50 film festivals around the world.

“It means that this little film about shellfish has a chance to reach and resonate with more people in the world, creating cooperation and change. For me it means the beginning of a potential career and that majoring in theatre arts and marine science can make sense, and that a young kid from a landlocked state [Ohio] may be able to transform our murky understanding of Earth into a lucid story,” he said.

— Glenn Jochum