by Michelle Pera Baumann '06

What do a rocket scientist turned circus performer, genocide, University of Oregon student life circa 1928 and heart-pumping electronic music have in common? They are the subject matter of four student-produced documentaries chosen to air on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Oregon Lens.

The documentaries were produced in conjunction with the School of Journalism and Communication’s sixteenth edition of Flux magazine, the award winning annual publication of student work.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” student filmmaker Desiree Aflleje '08 says. “Who knew so much sweat could go into a five-minute film?”

Aflleje's film “Psychic Numbing” explores Eugene psychologist Paul Slovic’s research on how flawed human judgment contributes to a legacy of genocide in Darfur.

The SOJC recently added a film documentary class in partnership with the electronic media sequence to give students an opportunity to exercise their filmmaking skills. At the conclusion of the class, student teams pitched film ideas for the chance to work on Flux.

“The class was an experiment, an extremely successful one, that we want to repeat every year,” Flux adviser and SOJC instructor Mark Blaine says.

One of the ideas chosen was “Nuclear Acrobat”, a documentary about a Portland woman and Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who gave up her dream of working at NASA to become a circus performer.

“The main reason we chose "Nuclear Acrobat" was because it had everything your could hope for visually: It was colorful, had interesting characters and screamed for video,” student filmmaker Steven Wilsy says. “We knew there was an article being written for the print version of Flux, but felt that video would capture the performances and amazing acrobatics better than words. It turned out to be the perfect medium for this story.”

Each student group had one term to produce their documentary before presenting the final product to a panel of OPB executives.

“We are extremely proud to have our film on OBP,” Catie Ciciretto says about her film “Bass Driven.” “As students at the University of Oregon, we are proud that we can show the quality of our education from an Oregon school.  On a lighter side, after the call and hugging and laughing for a long while, we called everyone we loved to tell them the great news.”

“Bass Driven” is a heart-pumping, sensory look at the electronic music scene in Eugene through the eyes of the internationally known party promotion company, Gaia Tribe.

“I’m thrilled that all four documentaries were selected for Oregon Lens,” Blaine says. “It’s better than winning a Gold Crown (http://cspa.columbia.edu/docs/contests-and-critiques/crown-awards/index.html) or Pacemaker Award (http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/contests.html). It’s validation for the school, the students and the Flux publication that we have this amazing opportunity for students to create a polished and professional piece of work.”

Blaine also notes that this issue of Flux was a turning point for the publication.

“We’re rethinking our online presence and how we create stories in a variety of mediums,” he says. “These kids set a high standard for future documentaries and we’re not looking back.”

The final film being broadcast is “Reinventing Ed’s Coed,” a light-hearted documentary about University of Oregon students who produced the first full-length, student-produced film 80 years ago. The documentary explores how the motion picture was nearly forgotten and how a former SOJC Dean and UO alumnus are keeping the story alive.

“It is truly amazing that all of the Flux documentaries made it to television,” Wilsey says. “I think this speaks very highly of the professors and students at the School of Journalism and Communication. I am very proud to have been among such an amazing student body.”

To view the documentaries online, visit flux.uoregon.edu.