Students Network, Get Inside Look at Indie Film Scene

When Sean Hucknall ’26 submitted his short film, Corpse Pose, to the Slamdance Film Festival, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

Slamdance—the annual, LA-based, filmmaker-run festival dedicated to showcasing low-budget, independent films, and emerging talent—was a reach for the media arts production major. Plus, he had previously submitted it to 13 festivals and been rejected from 10.

Not only was his film selected and featured at Slamdance, but Hucknall even performed a few of its songs at the festival with one of his friends, reworking some of the music for a live setting.

Hucknall was one of 15 students from Emerson Los Angeles (ELA) who attended Slamdance, held February 19-March 6. It provided them an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and strengthen their creative community while immersing themselves in the independent film scene.

“The team at ELA really connects you with the community here. It’s such a good program if you’re interested in film,” said Haley Gabelsberg ’26, who quickly signed up to grab one of the 15 passes provided by Emerson’s School of Film. “They really want you to succeed and provide opportunities for you. I wouldn’t have gone otherwise.”

Gabelsberg was selected as one of the panelists to speak at the festival’s CINE\VATION Student Symposium, representing Emerson alongside other students and faculty from peer colleges. During the discussion, she shared what drew her to Emerson and outlined the steps she’s taking to break into the industry as a filmmaker after graduating. The panel was followed by an interactive community-building event and networking.

“It was so great for ELA to have a presence at Slamdance because we’re here in Hollywood and it’s excellent to see our students out in the world interacting with filmmakers,” said ELA faculty member Mason Richards, who teaches Gabelsberg in a directing class and attended her panel. “What was especially exciting for me was hearing Haley talk about how seamless her transition from Boston to LA was and how the ELA program has helped her adjust to life in LA. I was very proud.”

Gabelsberg shared that she’d never attended a festival of this scale before, while her classmate, Trinti Fong ’26, experienced it as her very first film festival—making the event a memorable one for both students.

“I got to meet some awesome people from other schools, programmers, other filmmakers in general,” said Fong, who wants to act, write and direct. “It was very inspiring and a big opportunity to be with these filmmakers and other like-minded people.”

Hucknall had an equally inspiring, if not totally different, experience attending as a filmmaker. 

His film, Corpse Pose, premiered at Slamdance in the Digital, Interactive, Gaming (DIG) category. DIG is a specialized, innovative category within the festival dedicated to emerging independent artists working in hybrid, immersive media. 

Corpse Pose is about a guy who tries to find methods of distraction over a single night after being broken up with, all the while becoming more paranoid and the world becoming more bizarre. Hucknall wrote, directed, edited, sound designed, and played all the instruments in his original musical.

“Seeing other short films made me see things a little differently,” Hucknall said. I know a lot about film history from taking classes at Emerson, but seeing how people are doing film today, contemporarily, was inspiring.”

He said one of the most valuable aspects about Slamdance was the opportunity to form meaningful connections with fellow filmmakers, from conversations between screenings to a karaoke night he attended outside the festival. He also connected with one of the festival’s programmers and hopes he can return to help program the event next year.

“It was a great time,” said Hucknall. “I have this LA film I’ve planned and being at the festival really made me want to go out and make it tomorrow.”

Hucknall joined dozens of fellow Emersonians at a mixer on February 24, celebrating and honoring Emersonians with films featured at this year’s festival. At the event, he connected with alumni filmmakers Mechi Lakatos ’16 and Lucy Sandler ’15, who attended the mixer following a screening of their film Danny Is My Boyfriend.

Fully improvised, Danny is my Boyfriend, is about two women who discover they’re dating the same man and seek revenge, but chaos ensues. Lakatos and Sandler wrote, directed, and star in the film, whose budget was just $6,000.

“It’s an example of a DIY (Do It Yourself) movie where people see it and they’re like, ‘Wow, it worked,'” said Sandler. “Now more than ever, to see people that are just making a movie on their own terms is quite rare, especially for young people.”

Lakatos says she and Sandler were inspired to make the film after previously creating a short that was a serious drama produced in a more traditional way. Following that experience, they wanted to reconnect with the sense of joy and spontaneity that first drew them to filmmaking as teenagers. Lakatos  likens that feeling to grabbing a camera with your friends on summer vacation and making a movie.

“We’ve gotten feedback from friends and people we know, but Slamdance is the first time we’re having strangers react to it and talk to us,” said Lakatos. “Most of all, what we’ve heard is people feeling like it’s really inspiring to them. I can actually go out and make a film and I don’t have to have a lot of money. I don’t have to have fancy equipment. I can still do it and it will be really fun. That was our intention. That’s why we wanted to make it.”

The duo plan to take their film to other festivals and hope to find the right path for it.

“We’re kind of having a master class in how to distribute a film, how to market a film, and all these things that we never thought about before,” said Lakatos. “This is our first feature. We’re really learning about the ins and outs of the process. I’m grateful to have this as a teaching experience.”