Campus Characters You might not know the following figures—but you should. In Campus Characters, The Blue & White introduces you to a handful of Columbians who are up to interesting and extraordinary things and whose stories beg to be shared. This issue, we bring you two people with interests in their Columbia class pages. If you’d like to suggest a Campus Character, send us an email at bweditors@columbia.edu..
Sean Kelso
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n average, Sean Kelso sees a new movie every week. One of his most recent favorites was The Art of Self-Defense, a small-release film about toxic masculinity with Jesse Eisenberg. But Kelso’s taste in film isn’t just confined to arthouse dramas. His other favorite? “It may be cliché, but I really liked Avengers: Endgame. It’s a franchise I’ve grown up with at this point,” Kelso said. “It’s incredible to see the overwhelming support for a movie of that scale.” Kelso doesn’t limit himself to liking just one genre of movies; similarly, his academic and extracurricular passions defy simple categorization. He has both dabbled and excelled in various aspects of art, literature, and science––and found exciting and crucial intersections among disparate fields. Kelso is the incoming president of Columbia University Film Productions (CUFP), an umbrella organization for students interested in any and all aspects of this art form. They produce student films, run an annual undergraduate film festival, host speakers from the entertainment industry, and lead trips to screenings and talks around the city. Kelso joined the organization right after he transfered from Saint Louis University in his sophomore year as the webmaster. At the end of his sophmore year, Kelso launched CUFP’s film criti-
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cism website, CUFP entertainment (CUFPe). Kelso remembers being surprised that there wasn’t a publication devoted to student film reviews on campus––and so, using his backgrounds in both writing and computer science, he endeavored to change that. “I met Eric Kohn from IndieWire at a movie premiere and I spoke to him about some things that would be interesting to include,” Kelso said. “I just used that information and created a platform for students to share their thoughts.” A year later, they’re up to around 3000 views per month. For Kelso, it’s all about cracking open the film world for Columbia students, showing them that there’s more to this industry than meets the eye. That’s what he hopes to keep doing in the coming year: “Expanding CUFP’s horizons.” “It’s about getting more people interested in the subject and not thinking it’s cliché or a closed-off group,” he said. But Kelso does acknowledge that the film industry can be inaccessible to the public. Still, Kelso has managed to find his way into some major movie premieres and talks during his time at Columbia, finding his way into conversations with actors, directors, and industry professionals like Eric Kohn. How does he do it? It’s a combination of taking advantage of the opportunities the city has to offer and using those connections to expand your network. “It’s not an immediate process by any means––it’s much more a collective, slow gradual process of meeting people, reaching out to see if they have any other interesting people they can connect me to. It’s all with the goal of showing the people of the film club as much as they can see, showing them what it means to be apart of the entertainment industry at large.” He doesn’t talk about it much, but Kelso is also an actor, and he cites his time on set as a great source of industry connections. “My background in being a part of movies has helped a lot,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough to work on shows like The Deuce on HBO,
Illustration by Lea Broudo
The Blue and White
