Student-Produced Documentary Batmite Set to Premiere at Film Fest Knox
The Film Fest Knox poster for Batmite, a student-produced documentary about the Knoxville skating community. The film will premier at the Film Fest Knox Festival on Nov. 17, 2024 in the Regal Riviera movie theater.
After moving to Knoxville, senior Emma Caskill was looking for a way to get plugged into the local skating community.
This led to the discovery of the skateboard store Pluto Sports. There she met its owner Brian Beauchene. Caskill enjoyed learning about the history of skating in Knoxville from Beauchene, who since the 1980s has been at the forefront of advocating for local skaters and helped build many of the skating parks in existence today.
Hearing all those stories inspired Caskill to find a way to share them.
“I just thought it was a really good story idea,” Caskill said. “I pitched it to my documentary video production class and they loved it, and then we just started working on it from there.”
Now, the student-made short film about the Knoxville skate community—titled Batmite after Beauchene’s nickname—will make its big screen debut next month at Film Fest Knox. The annual film festival will take place throughout downtown Knoxville from November 14-17 and feature work from local and regional filmmakers. The film was produced in Professor Nick Geidner’s JMED 446 Documentary Video Production, during the spring semester. The course introduces students to all phases of video-based documentary journalism and students also work with a team to produce a short documentary.
Joining Caskill on the project were classmates Jake Morelock (‘24) and Marie Fettah. Morelock, who recently graduated with a degree in information sciences with a minor in journalism and media, leapt at the opportunity to work with Caskill after hearing her pitch. An aspiring filmmaker, Morelock has worked on various projects as a college student for student media properties such as Land Grant Films and Lumos Media Services.
He always dreamed of participating in a film festival but just expected it would happen later in life.
“Something I helped make is enough to be screened in the same movie theater I grew up watching bigger movies at,” Morelock said. “Absolutely surreal. I can hardly wait.”
Fettah said Caskill’s pitch also sold her on the project. She especially liked the idea of highlighting a local community figure. The graduate teaching associate in University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s French department said working with Caskill and Morelock was a lot of fun, adding their passion motivated her to make the best film possible.
“I was really happy, shocked and a little emotional,” Fettah said about learning Batmite got into the film festival. “It is the first time a film I worked on is selected for a festival. It was a little dream. It made me even prouder to be part of this project.”
Geidner said after the course, Land Grant Films continued to support Batmite with equipment, editing space, and production support. Additionally, Land Grant Films is packaging the documentary with other Land Grant Films’ projects and pitching it to local and regional media outlets.
Caskill said her main concern when making Batmite was to accurately represent the skating community she loves. She hopes viewers of their short film will walk away with an appreciation for the skating community and learn more about its history in Knoxville.
Geidner said numerous award-winning projects have came out of the video documentary course over the past eight years, including more than twenty film festival selections.
Batmite will be screened as part of the Made In Tennessee Shorts 2 section of the festival on Sunday, November 17 at noon in the Regal Riviera movie theater.
To learn more about the Film Knox Festival visit filmfestknox.com.
Student-Produced Documentary Batmite Set to Premiere at Film Fest Knox written by Ernest Rollins and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.