Famed Film Alumni to Visit SDSU
Two SDSU alumni will visit SDSU to speak about their successes in the film industry.
Writer and director Destin Cretton, '11, and producer Ron Najor, '99 and '02, will visit San Diego State University to screen and discuss their hugely successful feature film, "Short Term 12."
The screening, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19 in the Don Powell Theatre, followed by a question and answer session with the filmmakers.
"This is a golden opportunity to meet the filmmakers and to ask them questions about 'Short Term 12,' their creative process, film school, navigating Hollywood and surviving as an independent filmmaker after film school," said Greg Durbin, a professor in the School of Theatre, Television and Film.
About the film
"Short Term 12" won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2013 South by Southwest Film Festival, and went on to find national and international distribution. It became one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2013, and was one of the most frequently mentioned by individual critics on their year-end top ten lists.
The film has earned Cretton, the writer and director, a position writing and directing "Glass Castle," which will be produced by and star Oscar Award winner Jennifer Lawrence.
About Cretton
Cretton earned his master's degree from SDSU in 2011 after producing, writing and directing his thesis short, also titled “Short Term 12.” The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 2009, and Destin adapted the short to create the feature screenplay, "Short Term 12," which won the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship Grant, the most prestigious national screenplay prize awarded to first time feature screenwriters.
During his time as a student, Cretton produced several award-winning films, including “Longbranch,” “Bartholomew’s Song” and “Deacon’s Mondays.”
About Najor
Najor was both an undergraduate and graduate television and film student at SDSU. During his student days, he made several award-winning short films and music videos, notably “Killing Time.”
He is a multiple Emmy Award winner and has worked in nearly every craft area, eventually gravitating into directing behind-the-scenes shorts for major bands for which he enlisted Destin as an editor.
A gifted producer, he produced Cretton's micro-budgeted "I Am Not a Hipster," which screened at Sundance in 2012, and is emerging as a cult favorite.
