SFUAD film student Luiz Cavalcanti discusses his newest work “I wanna get shot.”

When Elizabeth Alejandra Rodríguez saw there was no gym trainer at the Driscoll Fitness Center, she decided to become one.

Whether they stayed put, went home or explored the wider world, these SFUAD students enjoyed their Thanksgiving break.

SFUAD Graphic Design student Abel Anaya discusses his love of design and photography, and his goals for a future career using both.

SFUAD alum Rebecca Alvarez discusses life after graduation.

Guilherme Spada is back with his second short film. Once more, he captures all the power of a psychological thriller and transmits it to us through House of Dolls. “The story is about three day-dreaming sisters that find out about love and sex. Because of the difficulty they have to express themselves, they end up doing bad crazy things,” says Spada. Marisa Melito, Dani Vondrak and Jess Cornelius play the three protagonists of the movie. Marisa Melito, who stars, was offered the role the night before filming began. “Jess Cornelius found me in the hallway and said her friend really needed another actress for his film. I had no idea who anyone was the next day at filming besides Jess and Dani (who I’ve met before) and I’ve also never done any film work before,” she says. “I’m a dance major, but I’ve done a lot of theatre in high school so it was weird having a camera and lots of people in your face watching you. Despite being a little bit out of my comfort zone, I had a lot of fun making this film and getting to know everyone, and I’m so happy that I got to be a part of it.” Film students know how important is to work as a team, since every project from the film department needs a group of people working together. For film student Claudia Vargas, being part of Spada’s team was very satisfying. “I loved being a part of the production of House of Dolls. Guilherme had a great team; he has very clear what he wants and I really think he is defining a style of his own. I really see him doing big things in the future and I am very proud.” As...

SFUAD and Santa Fe offer plenty of choices for Halloween. Here are a few picks. For extensive Halloween calendar listings, check out this round-up from SantaFe.com and these choices from The Santa Fe Reporter. October 31 “Break the Piñata”  Celebrate Halloween with the Photography Department by breaking a big scary piñata on the Marion Courtyard. Feel free to come in costume. 5 pm Trick or Treat If you want to feel like a kid again, trick or treating is always a good option. SFUAD offers a campus-wide Trick or Treat at various departments from noon to 1 pm. If you prefer to do it off campus, consider Canyon Road, where, from 4 to 6 pm, some galleries like Canyon Road Contemporary Art or Gallery 822 will have their doors open. Needless to say, being in a costume is essential.  Movie Night! What is a Halloween night without a touch of horror movies? For those who don’t want to leave the campus, The Screen will play the original Nightmare on Elm Street at 10.30 pm. The Lensic Performing Arts Center will screen the classic The Man Who Fell to Earth at 7 pm. And The Jean Cocteau Cinema offers the Vincent Price thriller House of Wax at 6:30 pm as a special benefit for The Santa Fe Film Festival, with a costume contest and Mistress of Ceremonies Victoria Price. The Jean Cocteau also will screen The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the late show at 11 pm, and throughout the weekend (costumes also welcome for Rocky Horror!) November 1-2 Once Halloween ends, the Mexican tradition marking “Dia de Muertos” (Day of the Dead) begins. Gerard’s House will offer a celebration and memorializing event from 4-6:30 pm featuring performances by Wise Fool and The Santa Fe Symphony, with...

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern New Mexico recently held its annual gala, a fundraising event for the organization, this year held at Buffalo Thunder Hotel, drawing volunteers from all over northern New Mexico—including Santa Fe University of Art and Design. “Preparing an event like this is always hard, but fun at the same time. It is really important for Big Brothers Big Sisters since it’s one of the sources from we get most of the funds of the year for the kids,” says Chris Leslie, one of the organizers of the event. A lot of different business and people from all over northern New Mexico donated items ranging from furniture and jewelry to hotel rooms and trips. SFUAD student Dani Vondrak, a regular volunteer for BBBS, helped gather volunteers for the event. “On the event day we showed up and ask some of the people who were in charge what we could do to help out, and a lot of them were telling us that we should be behind the booths of the art pieces or vacations that are bet on, to kind of exemplify what they were about and explain why they should bet on that,” says SFUAD student Victoria Ann Dailey. This event also was an opportunity for some of the students to put their skills to use. Charles Austin Ross, a film student, helped in the gala with his camera: “I got this project by a stroke of luck. I was talking to Ron Nunnely over at the [Driscoll Fitness Center] and a friend and member of the gym came in to talk to him. Chris Alexander of Big Brothers Big Sisters was that friend, a really nice guy. He asked my major and I told him Film and so he extended an offer my way.” After the auction,...

“I’m sorry about the mess in my room,” says Sydney Latchaw while she opens the door. But it’s clear from her room how organized Latchaw is: her books are perfectly arranged, the kitchen is so clean you can see your reflection and the bed is perfectly made. Latchaw also is using her organizational skills to pull together ‘The Hunger Games’ for all the residents of the campus, an idea she’s had for two years. “I thought it was going to be this big,” she says, indicating her initial belief that organizing the event wouldn’t be too overwhelming, “but I think that as soon as I started to write everything down, it was like ‘oh this is all a hard work, we’re going to need all the RAs on board.'” The Hunger Games is a movie based on a novel written by Suzanne Collins. In the story, an apocalyptic event destroys civilization and a new nation called Panem, divided in 12 districts, is established in North America. Each year, two young representatives from every district are selected to participate in The Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death. “I know this last time the movie came out there was a huge group of students that got really jazzed about it,” Latchaw says, “So a friend and I were like ‘well, we could do Hunger Games on campus.’ And so we came up with this whole system of challenges and stuff like that to mentally test the participants.” Even though, according to Latchaw, the organization of the game is hard, she has almost everything planned out. To start, she will set out boxes in the dorms’ hallways, in which students can enter their names. “And then at the Vampire Ball, which is going to be another...

“A child raised practicing sports is raised with values that nothing else can give them: companionship, solidarity and, most importantly, being able to be part of a team,” says Pablo Byrne, a senior from Mexico, and one of the students who meets every Tuesday at the Driscoll Fitness Center to play soccer. Last semester, a group of SFUAD students joined in the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Fe’s soccer league. Now, students—along with players from other schools and the Santa Fe community—transform the court at DFC to a multicultural meeting place each week. “One of the best things about soccer is the union it makes between people. We are from different countries. We are here, together, doing the same thing, at the same time and we all enjoy doing it, which is incredible,” says Victor Rodrigues from Brazil. And soccer, some players say, is the perfect sport to bring people together. “Sometimes, people in my country are really separated because of political reasons,” says Patrick Roessner of Mexico. “But when the World Cup comes, all of Mexico is united, supporting the same team and being happy or sad for the same reason: the victory or the defeat.” But even when people enjoy playing soccer, there are contrary opinions about this phenomenon called soccer: “When your team is playing, it seems like it is the only important thing in the world,” says César Pérez of Mexico, who enjoys the DFC game, but doesn’t have the same level of fanaticism for the game as a whole. “In my country, there are lots of problems in the politics, people being killed in the streets, and poverty. However, none of these things matter when it comes to soccer: people forget about these things and they are happy if...

On Sept. 15, the campus was full of people grabbing flags and painting their faces green, white and red; music played everywhere. What was happening? Mexican Independence Day was happening. “Since I was a kid, this was a very important day in my family and in my country. It’s a day to be with all your family, with people that you don’t usually meet, and your friends,” says Jose Arturo Torres from Querétaro. “Even though it’s a day when you miss your family and your country a lot, it’s also a reason to spend time with my friends here from Mexico and also from another countries, so they can see something different for them, and so normal for us the Mexicans.” The holiday marks Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1810. “We celebrate this day as the beginning of a new country that finally was able be a country by itself, with its culture and its identity. We were finally a nation,” says María Villaseñor from Guadalajara. In commemoration of the day, a group of international students ate dinner together at the downtown restaurant Jalapeños. Most of were Mexicans, but there were also some people from Syria, Spain and Brazil. According to Daniel Bernáldez, coming together is what matters on this holiday: “We the Mexicans are very familiar people, which means that every celebration requires the family be together. The union in a family is something essential for us, and living in the campus makes us feel like a family, so this was a good reason to make something together, like having dinner.” And, of course, food matters too. “The best thing about Mexican food is that when we start to eat, the food needs lots of condiments, and salsas, and lemon, and salt, and...

Thousands of people come from other cities and states to be a part of Santa Fe’s Zozobra celebration: the burning of a giant marionette called “Old man Gloom” or “Zozobra,” which dispels the hardships and travails of the past year. Zozobra means, literally, “anxiety” in Spanish, but what does Zozobra really means for people who come to the oldest capital city in the United States for this celebration? If there was a synonym for  Zozobra at the Sept. 5 burning, it was “family.” The whole Fort Marcy Park was full of families sharing just their time. Ben Gomez, a Vietnam veteran, has been coming to this event since he was a kid. He used to bring his son; now also his granddaughters come with them. “It’s an important day because the whole family meets every year. When my son was a kid, he danced up there. We just come here, sit in the yard and spend the whole day together. For us this is an important tradition, we all come together, buy funny hats and we become this in a family day. We just enjoy being together.” Friendship also had its place at Zozobra. The whole park was full of teenagers, both enjoying themselves, and volunteering. One group had come from Northport School, in New York, as part of the International Baccalaureate Program. In this program, they go to a city every year to help in any event. Last year, they went to New Orleans, and this year they came to Santa Fe, where they seemed impressed with the city and the event itself. “This is really different from New York, and we love it,” Anna said. “Yesterday we were in Pueblo, helping in one of the kitchens for poor people, and today we...