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June 8, 2009
Graduates' film 'Disconnected' has many connections to Emory

By Tania Dowdy

Recent Emory College graduates Austin Reynolds and Jeremy White swapped late hours of writing theses for extended nights and long months producing a short film, “Disconnected.”

The veterans of Emory’s Campus Film Fest did not venture too far from campus to create their work-in-progress.

“Disconnected” is a cross between a twisted romance and a dark comedy. The film focuses on a gardener who becomes strangely smitten with a young woman in the office where he takes care of plants. To gain access to her, he poses as the temporary file clerk the company is expecting in a week. His obsessive admiration for her turns deadly when he discovers that his crush is pregnant by the office manager.

“The concept for the film grew out of a mixture of things we have been working on,” said White, the film’s director. “We wanted to put a character in a ridiculous situation.” 

The writing began last September and after four drafts, they proceeded with production.  To make the script come alive, the duo asked for support from the Emory community, who answered in a big way.

Reynolds and White spent the previous year fundraising. They reached out to alumni, academic and student groups including the Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts, the Office of the Provost and the student-run Media Council, and even received support from President Jim Wagner.

They give a great deal of praise to Goizueta Business School student Chris Knific, the film’s director of photography, co-producer, and “third brain child” of the project.

“The film would not have happened without him,” producer Reynolds says.

Reynolds and White enlisted the acting skills of several Emory students and alumni as well as professional actors to play the characters in the film.

“Ninety percent of the cast and crew are Emory affiliated.  It was nice to mix professionals with Emory students,” Reynolds says.

The crew used three locations to shoot the film, including the offices and cubicles in 1762 Clifton, which houses Emory’s Office of Communications and Marketing. In addition, they were able to close Maggie’s Neighborhood Bar & Grill, a hangout for Emory students, for several hours while they shot a portion of the film there.

“Disconnected” is now in the editing and post-production process.

“We want to send the movie to as many festivals as we can afford from the Atlanta Film Festival to Sundance to get the film out and associated with Emory,” says White.

In conjunction with other student groups, the duo plans to host a screening and premiere the film at Emory in the fall.

What’s next for the film’s creators? White plans to attend a directing program at UCLA, and Reynolds will take a year off.

This month, another film by Reynolds and White, “Committed” will be featured in the Campus Movie Fest international grand finale held at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.