Kate Glad
Kate Glad is an FTVM senior with a screenwriting sub-major. She is from Saint Joseph, Michigan, where she grew up watching films, reading, and writing with her parents. When it came time to decide what to study in college, she eagerly pursued film and discovered her love of screenwriting. Last winter, the script Kate wrote in FTVM 427, Red, was produced in FTVM 423 and premiered at The Michigan Theater.
Kate is interested in film history, genre, and non-traditional narratives. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and baking, going to museums, and the company of her friends. Kate is excited to write another script and work with the rest of the FTVM Honors cohort in the coming year.
Screenwriting Thesis - The Rothko Chapel
Primary advisor: Jim Burnstein; Secondary advisor: Swapnil Rai
The Rothko Chapel is the story of a young mother and her son living alone in the Colorado territory who have two visitors in the five years between 1870 and 1875. A feature-length western, the script deals with themes of loneliness, understanding, and our relationship to nature. As a piece of writing, it aims to subvert certain ideas about women in westerns, incorporate aspects of slow cinema, and imagine sublime moments in the lacunae of the genre much in the same way abstract expressionism interfaces with figural painting.
Mitchell Salley
Mitchell Salley is a fifth-year student pursuing degrees in both Film, Television, and Media and Communication and Media with a minor in Business. Mitchell grew up in Ann Arbor, and he has had a passion for film from a young age, which later developed into a keen interest in horror and thrillers. At Michigan, Mitchell has worked onset as a cinematographer for various student and independent productions, and recently served as a Film Fellow for the Maxwell Gray Film Fellowship, facilitated by the UM Depression Center. Outside of his studies, Mitchell is a member of the RC Players, where he works as both an actor and historian. He has also performed in Shakespeare in the Arb’s summer productions of Romeo & Juliet and Twelfth Night, appearing as Romeo and Sebastian respectively. Mitchell is overjoyed to be an FTVM Honors Candidate, and he looks forward to bringing his vision to the big screen in April of 2022!
Production Thesis - Darlings
Primary Advisor, David Marek; Secondary Advisor, Mark Kligerman
Darlings is a half-hour thriller that centers on two sisters, Evelyn and Mallory, one an actress and the other a playwright. The film begins with their duo on the brink of breakout success, but tension brews when Mallory begins to branch out — both creatively and socially — and Evelyn realizes she could lose everything. As dark secrets from Evelyn and Mallory’s childhood threaten to surface, Evelyn is further sent down a path of desperation and obsession, and she will stop at nothing to once again command an audience.
