On Saturday, Nov. 7th, Film Studies student, Andrew Liang had his big screen debut as a filmmaker at the 31st annual New Orleans Film Festival. His documentary short, Under the Knife: Overcoming Boundaries, screened at the massive outdoor cinema on the Lafitte Greenway in a shorts program called “Small Town Louisiana.”
Liang’s film is about Nicholls’ Culinary student, Blake Bowdin, who has unique challenges. Living with cystic fibrosis and a double lung transplant, Bowdin also thrives as a budding chef while legally blind. It’s truly an inspiring story and a calling card for the John Folse Culinary Institute, the Film Studies concentration, and Nicholls State University.
Liang created his film as part of Assistant Melissa Remark’s ENGL 446: Documentary Film Production class. The film was screened as part of the 2020 Undergraduate Humanities Symposium @ Scholars Expeaux.
Film students, Owen Callais, Amanda Eschete, Kacie Fields, and Hannah Guillot, and Assistant Professor Melissa Remark participated in a Service Learning project, volunteering at the film festival, which overlapped with Liang’s screening. The film debut and the volunteer day were a huge success.
Under the Knife: Overcoming 
Boundaries screens twice more at the New Orleans Film Festival – Wed. Nov. 11 & Sat. Nov. 14.
