Date of Award
5-11-2025
Date Published
6-18-2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Film and Media Arts
Advisor(s)
Jordan Kligerman
Abstract
This thesis examines the theme of rupture—familial, cultural, and personal—across three films by the author: the documentaries 8 Years and 90 Miles (2023) and La Atrevida (2025), and the narrative short Family Practice (2026). I explore how my personal/family life and cross-cultural background shape my cinematic investigations of identity, resilience, and belonging. 8 Years and 90 Miles traces Cuban athlete Bruno Rendon’s defection, revealing how the experience of exile fractures a person emotionally and physically. La Atrevida redefines Reggaeton’s history by telling the story of Excenia Knights, the first woman on the Reggaeton scene. It highlights the cultural shifts and erasures in Reggaeton’s origin story (excluding women and other Panamanian artists), and the personal losses that drove Excenia to leave the music industry. Family Practice adapts documentary techniques to reveal how unresolved past trauma can re-surface and lead to the unravelling of a psychotherapist. I analyze my own film-making process using relevant theories, related films, and aesthetic/thematic influences, to demonstrate how visual language—B-roll, archives, color palettes, mise-en-scène—externalizes internal ruptures. These works collectively argue that familial and cultural disruptions, whether through absence or reappearance, leave lasting imprints on individual lives.Exploring Rupture through Documentary and Narrative Filmmaking
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Higonnet - Faithfull, Luca David, "Exploring Rupture through Documentary and Narrative Filmmaking" (2025). Theses - ALL. 943.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/943
