The below Q&A, edited for length and clarity, was written by Savannah Freyler, a student in the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences.
Sean Forrest, MA is an instructor of film studies in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at UCCS. Introduced to the program as a lecturer in spring 2016, Forrest has been teaching and developing film studies courses that frame film history and theory through genre since 2020.
History of Visual Effects, Comedy Film, Horror Film, and Hollywood History are courses Forrest has taught and in some cases, developed from the ground up. Forrest is a Colorado film buff, Alfred Hitchcock scholar and genuine joy to speak with. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Forrest to discuss his history with the program, his vision for its future and the 22nd Annual UCCS Student Short Film Festival coming up on April 29. The UCCS Student Short Film Festival is a student-run event and a part of the Visual and Performing Arts festival taking place April 26-30.
How would you describe your field of interest in film and scholarship?
In genre studies – my background is primarily American and Hollywood filmmaking. As an undergrad and grad student in film history, I love international movements and definitely incorporate those as much as I can. As a teacher, I think it’s important to latch onto what your strongest aspect of background is. So, genre studies have really been a big lynchpin to my pedagogy – just tracing how genres begin, how they evolve and trying to get us to a point where you can look at them as a whole. Think of a survey class that you might take in a broader history topic and putting that into a film studies/film history component; a genre studies approach has been really the heart of my research and teaching since the beginning.
Can you walk me through your experience in film studies and the program at UCCS?
My journey here at UCCS has been as quick-paced as “His Girl Friday”, a screwball comedy, when I look back on it because I really came here not knowing I had a job. I never really had an interview, I guess I could say. We discussed movies and we talked about teaching styles and so it was a formal interview in those respects. And then the next thing I knew, I was getting a tour of campus and just thinking we were having a friendly chat at this point. I go to walk back to my car and I’m about to get in when my boss, Robert Von Dassanowsky, the founder of film studies, just kind of turns around and says, “So are you telling me yes or no? Are you going to teach me or not?” I said, “Yes, please!” And he said, “Okay, well, let’s touch base later in the semester and and we’ll get you set up for the spring.”
I was just hired as a lecturer, then came summer 2020. I frankly didn’t know what future I had because I knew schools everywhere were making cuts because of COVID and enrollment had plummeted. I just kind of figured, you know, film studies lecturer, you’re first on the chopping block and I didn’t know. I really was in limbo. As everybody was. Then I got a call – I was visiting my mom and trying to decide “do I need to stay here long term and figure out new paths?” – saying we want to make you an instructor, it’s a bit more responsibility and more class load, but we would love to have you on board for that capacity. I was beside myself and I was ecstatic. So I began here as a lecturer in spring 2016 and have been an instructor for almost three years now, which has been wonderful.
It’s been a dream, truly, I remember sitting in classes as a student, as an undergrad and grad student not necessarily thinking of being on the other side of the podium where my professors were, but there was this feeling that started to just blossom – it was like a weed that became a flower within me that just kind of felt called to it. As silly as it sounds, and maybe cliche.
I was more and more interested in the idea of trying to teach film, to give back what was given to me as a student – the films that I was shown or that I loved or that I felt were so important, even if I didn’t love them. That’s what I wanted to instill onto future generations of film students. Just to give back what was so graciously given to me in terms of film history and studies and knowledge of figures, of movements, of genres especially, and just wanting to give to those who are still coming up and make sure they have an outlet to see these films and experience them and talk about them as they’re on their journeys to make film.
Anyway, that was always sort of the backbone of my philosophy. Teaching is to pay it forward and to give back. I just hope that that’s something my students will at least keep in the corner of their minds – if not just fully pursuing the art of the study – that they’re at least informed by it and can appreciate films and in their own way is what really led me to pursue this. It was the chance to inform future students and encourage how to appreciate film, look at it and engage with it in a critical lens and a historical lens, too.
You know, I’ve gained so much through your historical lens because it’s very much mine as well. Just having somebody in your position teaching that is really special, really important.
The most heartening thing at the end of the day, at the end of a long class day at the end of the semester, at the end of the school year is if one student feels that way. If they say, “Gosh, I really want to watch “My Man Godfrey” or if they want to revisit “Psycho” or Hitchcock films or some of the silent films, every once in a while – students even want to do that, which is always exciting.
If it’s just one student that might say that to me later on, I feel like, okay, I’ve accomplished something. And to read the work of students in the semester, demonstrating what they’ve taken from it is mind blowing. I love that so much. It’s the purest gratification I can get. One or a handful, and sometimes more, especially prospective film studies students, even if they’re in the digital filmmaking track of Communications, it’s so important for anybody going into film to hear that it’s their job to preserve history.
I remember at the end of Visual Effects last semester, the ending note you left us on after we watched “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is that film preservation is in our hands, and that’s something that every film student needs to hear.
It truly is. That it’s not just you saying, “Okay, go watch some movies and have fun with them,” because it is in your hands. I have to stress that over and over again, as you’ll hear me say a few more times before we’re done, I promise.
And that’s the other aspect of my job that is crucial to me is – students will preserve the films that we watch or the films we talked about, or or films that they think are important; they can make sure they survive and endure physically and collectively, whether you like them or even if you don’t, whether they’re significant in your mind, for whatever reason. I just always harp on that because it’s the responsibility that’s passed to you and it’s a very, very serious responsibility.
What is your favorite course to teach at UCCS?
It’s a tough question. So you’re in Horror right now and this is the course I’ve taught most. Apart from Hollywood History, and partly because I love doing this class very much. This was the first class that Robert [Von Dassanowsky] really let me develop fully on my own because Hollywood History had a backbone to it already. There were bits and pieces of it in place from previous incarnations and teachers, so I used the template for sure, but Horror I had the blank slate to really design it from beginning to end, and I was so thrilled with that opportunity. It was my second semester teaching that I did this class. And there’s a lot of skepticism, you know, about horror: “What’s academic about horror? What student would want to take Horror Film?”
As we’ve discussed, it’s the critical stigma towards this genre, dismissed as though nothing it says is of importance; but the idea is no, it does and it’s not all about blood and guts. There is a richness to this genre that deserves an exploration in the classroom and in the film studies classroom. I’m so grateful they put the faith in and let me do it. This class is dear to me for that reason. But I think maybe pound for pound the most fun I’ve had teaching a class was the visual effects course that you took last semester.
I just think the range of films that we got to explore, the topics, the figures behind them, I just think that’s academically the most enjoyable topic. The films are films that students resonate with at a more personal level, and they have more experience with. I think that was just the most fulfilling class.
What are some films inside of the classical canon that one might be able to find on any one of your syllabi?
I’d say “2001: A Space Odyssey” makes a few appearances every other semester or so. “Citizen Kane” is not one I usually teach from front to back, but it gets mentioned and as it must you you do “Citizen Kane” to death in film school, there’s a reason why for the technique alone. “Breathless” by Godard is one. I haven’t taught that in a while, but I did in my gangster class a while back because it was a deconstruction of the American genre and a love letter to the gangster film. It is important, canonically, and so foundational to the French New Wave.
In a more theoretical lens, I really like to watch “Raging Bull” by Martin Scorsese. It obviously deals with tough subject matter and it’s very violent and it can make people uncomfortable – of course the point is not to make anyone feel uncomfortable – but to look at the technique used in making it and what is trying to be captured. Another one is “Doctor Strangelove” by Kubrick, which we’re showing this coming week in Comedy Film. Of course, as an example of true satire, satire taken to its utmost extreme.
Going back to the visual effects course, I think if you look at modern effects you can’t get more canonical than “Jurassic Park.” I think it always goes back to “Jurassic Park” and how good it still looks – that’s what students always come back to as well. One of the last ones that I would say for now is “Double Indemnity” by Billy Wilder as what film noir is in its purest essence. Characters, settings, dialogue, mise-en-scene, cinematography and especially the lighting of it…that’s a movie I will try to include in any topic I’m teaching in some way.
What do you look forward to most in the annual UCCS Student Short Film Festival?
All of the films! In my time on campus and going to the festival, I just love how truly diverse the backgrounds are of the student filmmakers. They’re coming from film studies and digital filmmaking, but they’re also coming from psychology. They’re coming from studio art. They’re coming from criminal justice. This is not closed off whatsoever – this is an open market for filmmaking and every student who wants to make a film. This is your best chance to get it shown to the community on campus, to work with friends and peers and colleagues. I just love seeing how insanely vastly different every film is from one another and from year-to-year. You never have a similar film made.
And the quality! I’m blown away by the technical sophistication of these films, the pedigree, the talents behind and on camera that go into them. When you’re in a setting with other spectators to enjoy these films, the feeling I love the most is the reactions you get from the crowd. Just to see the fruits of their labors put on a giant screen – truly the best. This is student work in the visual field at its finest. It’s cinema. These are great films and they never cease to impress me.