About the project:

Diffraction was written specifically to be a collaborative endeavor between students and professionals, that could be shot entirely on a college campus. We have professionals working as heads of department including producer, director, cinematographer, camera operator, sound recordist, production designer, art director, hair and makeup, fight coordinator, and composer. There are also 5 professional actors. The rest of the cast and crew, including the lead actors, are students. They make up about 70% of the team.

In addition to students working independently during production, we had 2 classes using the film as a project during the spring ’22 semester – Special Topics: Feature Film Production in the Digital Media department, and Computer Aided Design in the Theater department. Fall ’22 the film will be the main project in DGMD’s Editing Techniques class. Spring ’23 it will go to DGMD’s Sound Design class and the Advertising major’s Campaigns class.

When a young army vet turned university janitor discovers that a professor in her building is secretly building weapons for mercenaries she needs to outsmart the smartest person at the university before more people die.

"My goal when writing the screenplay was twofold: To examine how one finds the confidence and strength to stand up for what’s right—and to call attention to people who are ignored and marginalized by the larger public." Kris Holodak

About the film:

Jackie’s journey begins in a place of insecurity. She believes she’s a nobody, and therefore, there’s no point in having ambitions. While at work, Jackie runs into a professor who’s developing a medical breakthrough. Or so everyone believes. But, Jackie’s military experience helps her realize the professor is actually building a destructive weapon. Jackie must overcome her inferiority complex to outsmart the professor and outrun her dangerous benefactor. Over the course of the story, she learns to not only to believe in her own importance, but also to believe in it enough to act.

A collaboration with Kris Holodak's film company, , Diffraction is a full-length film featuring students, faculty and staff as actors and production crew.

"Feature films are giant, interdisciplinary, collaborative projects. For many of our students this is a bigger project than they are likely to do in their professional careers. Once they have done this everything else will seem easy."