Posted on August 16, 2024 by Shea Conner
UTSA’s Film and Media Studies program is blazing trails in San Antonio and Hollywood while presenting students with exceptional career opportunities.
Ireland Robison (left) operates a camera alongside director Nicolas Rodriguez '23 (right) during filming of "The Compass" at City Cemetery #1 in January. The film shoot was part of the UTSA Directors Workshop.
When UTSA Film and Media Studies hosted its very first student movie premiere in May 2023 at the Santikos Palladium, it felt like a big deal. Sure, there weren’t dozens of photographers temporarily blinding the actors with their flash bulbs, but the event had a red carpet, free swag and student filmmakers dressed to the nines. Most importantly, it had the same buzz as any major Sundance or SXSW film premiere — that unmistakable, electrifying energy that you were witnessing something special before everyone else.
And like any ballyhooed film premiere, dozens of people had to be turned away. Every seat in the Palladium’s largest auditorium was occupied 10 minutes before the event: some by the Film and Media program’s students and their guests, but also by many in the public who were eager to see what this very young program was all about.
Glenn Martinez, dean of the UTSA College of Liberal and Fine Arts, provided opening remarks memorializing the importance of the night, but also the program’s role going forward. “There is an effort to make a Latino Hollywood here in San Antonio,” Martinez said, and the UTSA students staring back at him would be a key driver in the city’s effort to expand its film and entertainment scene.
Martinez wasn’t simply setting out to inspire those Roadrunners in the Santikos seats. He was conveying a widely-held hope that UTSA students would help replenish the talent pipeline in the 210. As the San Antonio Film Commissioner, Kimberly LeBlanc helps connect all sorts of media productions with filming locations, permits, funding and crew and vendor support on a daily basis. She knows about the city’s talent gap in this space all too well.
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— Shea Conner
