News Release

STUDENT NEWS / February 14, 2007

Boise State University Student to Travel to Cannes Film Festival for Internship about Movie Industry

Saandra Steinfelt, a senior and filmmaker in the Department of Communication at Boise State University, will head out this spring for an internship at a film student’s dream workplace: the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Steinfelt is one of 150 students who are participating in the American Pavilion Worldwide Student Program, and she is the only student from Idaho to do so this year. Walter Harris, the director of the program, said that Steinfelt will work in the pavilion helping filmgoers, but that students will be able to participate in roundtable discussions with actors, producers and directors who will be able to give them insight and tips for working in the film industry.

Steinfelt also will have an opportunity to show a short of the documentary she is working on, “We Can Change the World,” which focuses on the Idaho students who met the Dalai Lama during his visit in 2005. She followed the students, documenting how the visit affected their lives and how they decided to practice acts of compassion. Steinfelt plans for this film to be shown internationally as a humanitarian documentary and in classrooms globally to help teach compassion.

“She has good goals — she wants to learn as much as she can and how she could best fit into the industry,” Harris said of Steinfelt.

Steinfelt is an honors student and a member of the Golden Key Honor Society who has worked on several films, including “Ibid” by Boise State instructor and acclaimed director Heather Rae, which will be shown at the upcoming South by Southwest festival. She is a past president and vice president of the Dead Eight Film and Video Club at Boise State.

Steinfelt has to pay for her internship as well as her plane fare to France and said that she will spend the next several weeks raising money through contributions, grants or scholarships.

“I see this experience at Cannes as a way to learn about the industry and be able to promote compassion through filmmaking,” Steinfelt said.

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Media Contact: Julie Hahn, University Communications, (208) 426-5540, juliehahn@boisestate.edu

Boise State University is emerging as a metropolitan research university of distinction. This transformation is being powered by the university’s first comprehensive campaign to support students, faculty, strategic initiatives, research and infrastructure. That’s why the campaign to raise $175 million in private support is called Destination Distinction.
 

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Last reviewed on Thursday, February 14, 2008