As team manager for the UK Solar Car Team, mechanical engineering senior Monon Rahman is a familiar face around campus. Recently, he won an award for something non-engineering related—filmmaking. “The Void,” an eight-minute film written and directed by Rahman, won “Best of Show” at the UKY Film Festival. The annual event showcases and celebrates the films created by University of Kentucky students.
“This semester, I challenged myself to take a screenwriting class because that has always been my weakest area in filmmaking,” said Rahman. “‘The Void’” was the first full and professional script that I have written, and collaborating with my coworkers at the Media Depot, I wanted to take it a step further and actually film it. Producing ‘The Void’ was a total team effort. I could not have asked for a better cast and crew. Everyone executed their roles perfectly, and I'm very proud of what we were able to make together.”
The UKY Film Festival is the only university-wide film contest open to any student regardless of major. The films are scored by a variety of local media professionals and campus representatives. Awards are given to the filmmakers with the highest point totals in the opinion of the judges. This semester, the festival received over 20 submissions.
On winning “Best of Show,” Rahman said, “I'm especially proud to be able to accomplish something in multimedia while still focusing on engineering. I think many people underestimate how much engineering and art have in common; both fields encourage considerable amounts of creativity, problem-solving and teamwork. Over the last few years, I've found that being involved in both fields can really help bolster these skills and abilities, and I would highly encourage engineering students to stay in touch and explore their artistic side.”
The UKY Film Festival is supported by UK Information Technology Services, the Bill Gatton Student Center and the UK College of Engineering. A full list of films can be found here.