Tufts students Sam Poliquin, A14, and Ben Feuerstein, A14, recently wrote, produced, and directed a short original film called The Man Who Made Music. The story takes place in a world where all songs and artists are poets, and therefore all “lyrics” are simply read out loud over the radio like a poem. A recently fired radio host soon discovers that adding sound to the lyrics yields a new and exciting result – music.

According to Poliquin, the film was a final project for the Ex-College class Making Movies and took approximately four weeks to make. In terms of inspiration, Poliquin wrote;

I took the idea of a world with no music and ran with it, taking more influence from one of my favorite movies, the “Invention of Lying.”  This story is unique because it has a heightened degree of fantasy but nevertheless takes place in a normal setting (Lowell, MA).  I pitched the idea to Ben, who then added his vision of using black and white transitioning into color as music is discovered.  I think this worked brilliantly.  Overall, we had a funky, comical storyline that we knew would stand out from the rest.  Plus, we would be able to shoot it pragmatically in everyday life without any elaborate sets.

Poliquin and Feuerstein found their actors through casting sessions posted on craigslist, got their film equipment from the Experimental College, and edited the footage in Braker’s basement lab.

Check out their terrific short film, The Man Who Made Music:

Each year, graduating seniors in the electrical and computer engineering program are required to work on a two semester project that addresses and attempts to solve an engineering problem. Seniors Yorman Garcia, Taylor Perkins, Farhan Shaukat, and Weiyi Zheng, otherwise known as “Team Vermillion,” worked together to create a “smarter drone” that can pick the best navigational path using GPS, an Arduino, and a Wi-Fi chip. The project is in conjunction with a Senior Design Course taught by professor Ronald Lasser that extends the full year. In Garcia’s words:

In the course, students are taught about things like the design process, the importance of knowing how to interact with people of different backgrounds, the importance of being ethical, and much more.

You can watch the video of their drone below:

Ever wonder how President Monaco takes his tea (spoiler alert: he doesn’t like tea) or what it’s like to live in Gifford House? Before his first commencement here at Tufts on Sunday, check out this “Interview with President Monaco” and get a glimpse into the life of Tony Monaco and his first year at Tufts:

Note: Thought recently posted, this video was filmed earlier this year.

Each year, the religious festival Holi, also known as Festival of Colors, is celebrated around the world by Hindus welcoming the transition to spring. In honor of this cultural celebration, Tufts’ Hindu Student Council holds its own Holi every spring on the Rez Quad and welcomes the entire student body to join in. This year’s celebration included southeast Asian food, dancing, and colored powder, and was coupled with the Association of Pakistani Allies’ Basant kite flying festival. Sam Zuckert, E14, managed to catch the celebration on camera – check out the YouTube video below.

An Asian American Studies minor is the newest minor at Tufts, but before the program was approved, the Asian American Alliance hosted a “Teach-In” to talk about what Asian American Studies is and why it’s important. The below video shows the meeting where they first present the audience with the question, What does studying Asian American identity mean? They examine stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans, argue why they believe a minor is important to the Tufts community, and even discuss historical strikes on college campuses revolving around ethnic studies programs.  In their own words, the group is advocating for a “generational commitment to a robust Asian American studies, Africana studies, and Race/Ethnic studies program.”

Check out the Teach-In:

What sounds more like Tufts than puns, civic engagement, and the environment? It won’t come as a surprise that Tufts alumni are essential to The Boston Tree Party.

The Party is a diverse coalition of organizations, institutions, and communities from across the Greater Boston Area coming together in support of Civic Fruit. We call for the planting of fruit trees in civic space and promote the fruits of civic engagement. Each community has committed to planting and caring for a pair of heirloom apple trees.

Three Tufts Alumni are leading the way at The Boston Tree Party. Lisa Gross is the Chairman and Founder, Maura Schorr Beaufait is the Chief of Operations, and Beth Nollner is Project Coordinator. Between them they hold degrees from Tufts/MFA, the Friedman School of Nutrition, and the Urban and Environmental Policy graduate program.

Check out this short documentary: “Growing Civic Fruit: A Documentary Film about the Boston Tree Party”

You can follow the Boston Tree Party on Twitter at @BostTreeParty

Tufts Film Works is Tufts’ local resource for student films on campus. Between sponsoring the re-occurring ExCollege class Making Movies, as well as providing students with the equipment for filming, the program is the ultimate resource on campus for aspiring actors, screenwriters, producers, and directors. Recently, students from this semester’s Making Movies class with Professor Don Schechter put together a short film as part of their assignment. In the words of co-director Kaveh Veyssi, A14:

 The focus was to be able to tell a story through all the elements of film: lighting, editing, sound, music, acting (body language and eyes), mise en scéne, etc.  The four of us were put together and given three weeks to write, cast, produce, direct this short film.  We were trying to tell a story without any dialogue, so we tried using sound and music to our advantage more than anything because as we’ve learned in the class, quite often sound is more important in the telling of a story than dialogue or the visual aspect of a film.

See the result below:

Tufts alumnus Ben Gittleson, A11,  has found something neat in Cairo. In the Egyptian capital, where political change has made life unpredictable, Parkour has gained popularity.

Ben, former Editor in Chief of the Tufts Daily, documented this discovery in a video and article that was recently featured on ESPN’s Page 2 website.

Cairo might seem like an unlikely place for parkour to take root. The free-spirited sport with French roots — in which athletes navigate urban environments with acrobatic techniques — does not necessarily mesh with Egyptian society’s conservative norms.

But it does provide an outlet for young Cairenes to get out their energy amid the pressures of life in the Egyptian capital. Endless traffic jams, suffocating pollution, and a dearth of public parks makes exercising difficult, and parkour is these youths’ answer to the constant stress.

Check out Ben’s video and the daring young Egyptians’ moves:

For more of Ben Gittleson’s journalistic work from Cairo, check out his website or blog.

Watch and listen as Ryan Clapp’s dream of an organization at Tufts focused on public education, discussions, educational networking and education advocacy becomes a reality! During his time at Tufts, Ryan worked hard to create the Tufts Education Society to bring together students interested in education, and to maximize the opportunities and resources Tufts already had, while establishing new ones.

See how the Tufts Education Society grew from one student’s idea to an officially recognized student group on campus:

If you were on campus recently, you couldn’t miss the campaign for TCU President. Behind the chalking around campus, the Facebook groups, websites and t-shirts were a lot of great ideas to address issues that Tufts students face. Candidates Wyatt Cadley (’13) and Logan Cotton (’13) stirred up discussion on a variety of topics.

At the second of two TCU Presidential debates run by the Tufts Elections Commission, their passion for Tufts truly shined! Check out this video, compiled by TUTV to highlight the two candidates.

In the election on Tuesday April 24th, Wyatt Cadley won the race, and will assume the role of  TCU President for next year. Both candidates built strong campaign teams and successfully engaged voters, with 49.76% of voters turning out – an increase of 1,000 voters from last year!