Associate professor receives University Film and Video Association Award

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Lisa Shirota, (808) 956-7352
Communications Director, Social Sciences, Dean's Office
Posted: Aug 31, 2015

Mark Moody
Mark Moody
RUMSPRINGA
RUMSPRINGA

RUMSPRINGA, a feature screenplay by Marc Moody, has received the first-place award in the juried script competition at the recent University Film and Video Association (UFVA) conference at American University in Washington, D.C.  Moody is an associate professor in film and screenwriting at the School of Communications in the College of Social Sciences at UH Mānoa.

The term rumspringa refers to an Amish coming-of-age ritual, during which youth are allowed social freedom before officially joining the church. Moody’s screenplay follows two young Amish men from Pawnee City, Nebraska, who fall in love during rumspringa, and are subsequently ex-communicated from their Amish community.

An international organization of professors, scholars, and film and video makers, UFVA provides opportunities to discuss and share ideas, evaluate creative work and monitor the developments in film/video technology, education, scholarship and artistic pursuits. It is also one of the principal U.S. academic organizations for studying media.

Moody graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1983 with a bachelor of arts in Drama. He went on to obtain his master’s degree in screenwriting from Ohio University School of Media Arts and Studies and his MFA in film at Ohio University School of Film.

An award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter, he has received many awards including being a twice semi-finalist at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars) Nicholl Fellowship International Screenwriting Competition placing in the top 30 out of 6,730 submissions for his screenplay UNION. He also has won numerous awards for his feature film Almost Normal, including the Phred Love Best Hawai'i Filmmakers Award at the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival, and Best of Fest at the prestigious Breckenridge Film Festival.

Almost Normal has gone on to achieve international distribution in 6 countries, has aired on MTV and has achieved streaming distribution in 2013 for ITunes, Amazon Instant Video, Netflix Streaming among several other sites.  He is currently writing a screenplay short for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Carson Film Series at The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film with a shooting date for summer 2016.

The School of Communications  in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa offers academic programs in Communication and Journalism. Communication focuses on communication in intercultural and professional communities, information and communication technologies (ICTs) and policy, and the media arts. Journalism is professionally oriented and develops critical thinking skills and ability to gather, analyze, and organize information, and to communicate it clearly and responsibly through print, broadcast, and online media.

The College of Social Sciences (CSS) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa is engaged in a broad range of research endeavors that address fundamental questions about human behavior and the workings of local, national and international political, social, economic and cultural institutions. Its vibrant student-centered academic climate supports outstanding scholarship through internships, and active and service learning approaches to teaching that prepare students for the life-long pursuit of knowledge.