Training Houston's Next A-list Crew will Boost the Local Economy
University of Houston Looks to be the Center of Evolving Local Film Industry
Houston, Texas
Lynn Birdwell: I'd like to invite Florette Fernando to the stage. She's the founding director of the M.A. in Arts Leadership Program at the University of Houston.
Fleurette Fernando: Go Coogs! Coogs in the house! I am the director of the AMA in Arts and Leadership. This program is a graduate program. It's about seven years old now, and essentially it's an arts administration training program. So, I have students coming to me from theater backgrounds, dance backgrounds, music, creative writing. The one thing that is missing right now in our city is a film production degree program. And this is something that we're talking about at our new college of the arts at the University of Houston in conjunction with Temple Northrop, who couldn't be here tonight, but he is the Director of the Valenti School of Communications.
It's very much in its incubator stage right now. We haven't received approvals for this, but we are hoping to launch a BFA in film. As many of you know, the Austin film scene is thriving now in large part because of an excellent film program at UT, at the University of Texas. So, we really think that we have something to offer here in Houston that is unique. Everybody says Austin's the cool town. Austin is where the cool people are at. But we know as Houstonians that that's not always true because what do we have on our side that Austin doesn't, and no offense to any of the Austin folks here, but what do we have? We have Houstonians! And we have a huge level of diversity, right. We talk about that all the time, that we're a diverse community. We are the fourth largest city.
We have an opportunity to tell some unique stories from unique perspectives that are specific to our communities. Our communities look and feel different in many ways all over the greater Houston area. I just want to say something very quickly, that is actually stolen from Remy, so run with me, so I will give you all the props for this. We know this in the room, those of us who are interested in film or working in film, that film is a medium, it's a discipline that incorporates all types of artists, all disciplines, musicians, composers, choreographers, actors, writers, visual artists, designers. I think that we have a really unique opportunity to start something here that can be rooted in an academic institution like the University of Houston that is still connected to all of you who are on the front line working in the industry.
We want to make it a practical program, a program that serves as a pipeline to see our students actually working in the field. And that field hopefully will be right here in Houston. I want to say something very, very quickly, which is that I'm originally from Toronto, Canada, a child of immigrants. I got to see the film industry grow in Toronto, and similar to Houston, when growing up in Toronto, we were always told Montreal is the coolest city. Montreal is where the artists are. Montreal is where the culture is. And so Houston, Toronto always felt like, Oh, we're kind of set as second citizens in terms of arts and culture. And as you know, those of you who've been to the Toronto Film Festival, that has changed. And there was a mandate when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s in Canada and in Toronto to produce work that reflected Canadian content.
It was really big in the 80s. I don't know if there are any Canadians here who may remember that. I think that's a really important part of the conversation is that if we do build this, that we make it a mission and a vision and a priority to tell the stories of this city while we're building an industry to attract production from all over the world, I would love to talk to you all further. If any of you have thoughts or ideas or questions, please come and see me. And thank you Lynn, for putting this together.
Lynn Birdwell: It's really going to take all of us to create this Houston creative economy. It will take all of us to do what we know we can have. We're going to all have to do this together.