2025 FAU DIGITAL STORYTELLING SHOWCASE

2025 FAU DIGITAL STORYTELLING SHOWCASE

FAU STUDENT

DIGITAL STORYTELLING SHOWCASE

JUROR : Eddy Moon
Head of Programming of White Elephant Group Films https://www.wegfilms.com/team-members/eddy-moon

Award-winning filmmaker and nonprofit Arts Programs Director with 10+ years of experience in curating diverse film programs, managing arts nonprofit operations, creating artist development programs, and building industry partnerships. 

Event: November 20th, 2025

Doors — 6pm
Shorts — 7pm

Q+A’s Sandy Lighterman of Film Fort Lauderdale https://filmlauderdale.org/

Expanded Cinema Collaboration
with Richard Vergez & Alejandra Abad — 8:30pm

Awards
with Guest Juror: Eddy Moon — 9 pm

(located at the CYC Wall)

Installations in Main Gallery, Core Space and Outdoor Projections

VENUE LOCATION

MAD ARTS

https://www.yeswearemadarts.com/

481 South Federal Highway
Dania Beach, Florida 33004
United States

FREE TICKET
 


PROGRAM

FAU STUDENT DIGITAL STORYTELLING SHOWCASE 2025

  • Pumkin Patch (2025)

    animated by Myth

  • The Wizard and The Sorcerer: First Encounter (2025)

    animated by Rosie Rodriguez, Chloe Mathieu, Michael Castillo

  • Reality? (2025)

    Animated by Alina Kahn

  • Haunted Dugeon

    animated by Avery Adams

  • Unfated Eternity (2025)

    animated by Natalia Marie Oviedo

  • OSSUARY

    animated by Joshua Perrin

  • Mighty Spoonbills (2025)

    animated by Sada Balboa

  • Thank you mom (2024)

    animated by Kevin Jo

  • Paws that Heal (2025)

    animated by Priscilla Nieto

  • The Great Collide (2025)

    animated by Trevor Dix

  • Spark (2025)

    animated by Noami Lewis

  • Comfortably Uncomfortable (2025)

    animated by Siarra Ruiz

  • Rat Pack (2025)

    animated by Trey "Pigeon" G

  • Hide-and-Seek (2025)

    animated by Elenilson Salazar

  • Handle with Care

    directed by Bryce Malcolm

  • Keep the light

    animated by Roodensky Floristal

  • In the Name of Progress (2025)

    Thesis concept created by Kalecia Grier

MAIN GALLERY

MAIN GALLERY

Parinaz Moghadampour 

For a Waterfall  (2024  FAU Alum)

Medium: Interactive Installation Design

Brownstafford Abraham

Title: Sensation of Agency "Feeling Control (2025)"

Medium: Interactive Art

https://brwnart.framer.website/

FAU Students & Professor Abad
Outside (2025)

Medium: Cyanotype Textile and Exquisite Corpse Stop-Motion Animation collaboration with:

FAU Visual Storytellers Club: Sophia Manrique, Halie Ojukwu, Rosie Rodriguez, Olivia Behar, Felipe Grande, Cat Fullton, Olivia Allen Allen, Julian Alfonso, Naliah Nettles


Stop-Motion Animators from History and Theory of Animation and Computer Arts:
Isaiah Williams, Alex Del Orbe, Savanna Rivera, Deveyn B, Sabrina, Anelus, Gaby Ryah Shata, Lucas Garcia, Hunter Stewart, Gabreil Ramos Ferris, Chi Nguyen, Ross Anzue, Jordan Roman, Gabriel, Alexander Negersmith, Maya Campbell, TJ Monereau, Aziza Tazhbayeva

Sofia Espinosa

Unreal Engine

Astrid Maldonado

Title: Vessel 

Medium: newspaper, string, projection 

Logan Andrews

Title: NikkiNack (2025)

Medium: RPG Video Game

Tanya Arora

Wolf and the Flower (2024)

Medium: Installation & Animation

VISUAL POEMS

VISUAL POEMS

MAPPING THE SENSES (2025)
VISUAL POEMS

Interactive Installation by Prof. Alejandra Abad withFAU Students rotoscoped silhouettes

CORE SPACE

EXPANDED CINEMA

EXPANDED CINEMA

RICHARD VERGEZ & ALEJANDRA ABAD

Projection Mapping with textures and sound — 8:30pm

CYC Wall 


FALL 2024

2024 JUROR

Juried by Cassie Shao  https://www.karasucassie.com

Animated Shorts by FAU’s SCMS Students 2024

  • animated by Sam Young

    Patterned (2024) will explore self and identity, examining our connections with ourselves, others, and our environment. It will delve into our relationships with intangible concepts like love, fear, and rejection—everything we cling to but can’t see

  • animated by Alina Ambar

    Internal (2024) portrays the meaning of internal beauty through animation. It is important because it can help people with self image problems. Experimental introspection of social norms and self acceptance.

  • animated by Amaya Alleyne

    The Wolf’s Guardians (2024) is an emotional and dark story of loss and family. In the dead of the night Simon Ashmaw and his mother have their world torn apart. Viewer Discretion Advised: Loosely inspired by the Riverview Murders.

  • animation by Julie Nardelli

    animated by Julie Nardelli

    Ghost Gang (2024) Jackie is new to school and strange things start happening to her. Turns out, she’s the only one in the school who can see the ghosts that are haunting it! Ghost Gang follows Jackie, Bradley, Peyton, and Tommy in a spooky slice of life comedy series.

  • animated by Joshua Perrin

    animated by Joshua Perrin

    Amiss (2024) Following the death of his wife a man takes a job as Lightkeeper

  • animated by Conner Cox

    Confeld (2024) This is a parody of Seinfeld in the style of 2010s “storytime animators.”

  • animated by Sophia Manrique

    Una Carta Al Cielo (A Letter to Heaven 2024 ) Antonio, a 7-year-old boy, has recently lost his mother due to a chronical illness and he is currently struggling with accepting this reality.

  • animated by Natalia Oviedo

    The Sorceress's Echoed Burden (2024) The process of preparing to pass on generational responsibility occurs through magical dreams, as Blu has been having dreams of memories for the past ten years that point to her destiny.

  • animated by Gissele Bentacourt

    BLU (2024) is an adaptation of the story of The Red Moon by Pedro Pablo. In a Florida slope forest, the protagonist Blu is born from a Rain Lily and soon encounters deforestation and extinction due to infrastructural development. 

  • animated by Siarra Ruiz

    Mally Daydreams (2024) is an intellectual montage of the effects of maladaptive daydreaming, a psychological phenomenon in which real life experiences and interactions are substituted with fantasy. Each sequence of the animation are independent and distinct visual renditions of the condition that categorize it as a coping mechanism, employing a surrealist portrayal of its components.

  • animated by Fatima Fernandez

    In the Quiet, a Friend (2024) The main point of this story is to reflect on how everyone feels lost at times, which can lead to depression and anxiety. However, we should never give up—instead, we should seek help and learn to support one another. The genres explored in this animated story are: Slice-of-life drama genre and Psychological exploration.

  • animated by Malik Augustin

    A Star’s Vivid Journey (2024) The main character finds themself on a planet they are seeing for the first time. And due to the warnings of The World Tree, they find themself with an overbearing responsibility to save the planet from utter doom.

  • animated by Priscilla Nieto

    Nature’s course (2024) The story follows the life of a phoenix from its birth as it explores the world around it and makes friends, until losing everything causes the phoenix to be riddled with guilt and choose isolation to prevent harm to others. Will the phoenix hide itself away forever or will it learn to forgive itself?

  • animated by Amaris Ortiz-Gomez

    Ramona McBane’s Beastly Secret (2024) The visual poem’s theme is identity explored through the subject of werewolves. Protagonist Ramona McBane is the third great-granddaughter of the Wolfman, and she is part monster herself.

  • animated by Kirlan I Moreno Lopez

    The Sound of the Rabbit (2024)
    In order to cope with the trauma, Victor creates an alternate persona in his head called the Rabbit. The animation starts with the Rabbit commenting on the apparent change of season visualized within Victor’s inner head space. Trigger Warning: Viewer discretion is advised.



FAU DIGITAL STORYTELLING SHOWCASE 2024



Assistant Professor Alejandra Abad’s Special Topics Course in Digital Storytelling and Animation investigates the moving image as it relates to media production and contemporary art practices. Students experiment with storytelling in the medium of animation while blurring fiction and non-fiction as stories based on true events are then adapted into fantasy and/or explorations of psychological interiority. Topics range from mental health and healing to dream logic, experimental comedy, coping with grief, trauma, environmental advocacy, and the inner workings of the mind through diverse character development and visual poetry.


EVENT SCHEDULE

7:00 pm Doors Open

7:10 pm Introductions

7:30 pm Screening Begins

8:30 pm Screening Ends

9:00 pm Student Q&A

10:00 pm Event Ends


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Animated Shorts by

Sam Young, Alina Ambar
Amaya Alleyne, Julie Nardelli
Joshua Perrin, Conner Cox
Sophia Manrique, Natalia Oviedo
Gissele Betancourt, Siarra Ruiz
Fatima Fernandez, Malik Augustin
Priscilla Nieto, Amaris Ortiz-Gomez
Kirlan I Moreno Lopez

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LOCATION

Date: November 22, 2024
Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm
Address: Studio 18 Art Complex,
1101 Poinciana Dr, Pembroke Pines, FL 33025
Parking on the side of the building.
Phone:
(954) 961-6067

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Students from Florida Atlantic University’s School of Communication and Multimedia Studies will screen their animated shorts on November 22nd at Studio 18 Art Complex in Pembroke Pines in partnership with Lauren Mathes, Program Coordinator at The Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery.