As Fieldston waves goodbye to the legendary Larry Buskey, who retired last year, the community welcomes the new film teacher: Shaun Seneviratne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not into doing things in a traditional way. I want us to push the boundaries of creativity,\u201d said Seneviratne, who can often be found around campus in his signature vibrant \u201cshacket.\u201d Whether \u201ctinkering\u201d in the film lab or \u201climbering\u201d outside to stay active, he never lets a moment go to waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a child, Seneviratne grew up watching and loving the \u201cBatman\u201d and \u201cGhostbusters\u201d movies. When he was ten years old, he saw a great independent movie called \u201cClerks,\u201d which was made in his home state of New Jersey for $30,000. \u201cIt just showed me that like, oh, movies could be made in a totally different way. It doesn’t just have to be Hollywood movies,\u201d said Seneviratne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Independent films \u2013 not produced by big studios \u2013 inspired Seneviratne to create his own. However, he felt he could never seriously pursue his dreams as a first-generation American because his Sri Lankan parents pushed him to find a traditional job. This led Seneviratne to a major in marketing and journalism and to minor in film studies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite his analysis of film throughout his years at university, it wouldn\u2019t be until he was 24 years old that Seneviratne picked up a camera. He was shooting a birthday video for his long-distance partner when he fell in love with cinematography. Later, when visiting her in India, he used the stories from that trip to inspire his first feature film, \u201cBen and Suzanne, A Love Story Told in 4 Parts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seneviratne has spent much of the last 14 years developing <\/em>this project. The film premiered last March at the South by Southwest Film Festival. In the past year, Seneviratne brought his movie to film festivals all over the US and the world. \u201cThe only dream of my adult life was to make that movie,\u201d he proudly remarked. \u201cAnd now I\u2019m having this successful run and I need new dreams, which is kind of a really great place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aside from directing his feature film (and many short films as well), Seneviratne has spent the last six years teaching at the Brooklyn STEAM School, building the film production program there. Now, at Fieldston, Seneviratne is ready to \u201clevel up\u201d the material he teaches to his students. After his first couple of weeks here in the Bronx, he is enjoying the atmosphere and freedom, \u201clike we\u2019re doing college but at high school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the film teacher, Seneviratne teaches four classes: Intro to Film Production, Film Production, the Film Majors class and Non-Fiction Film, which he is especially excited about. Specifically, he looks forward to pushing the boundaries of documentary filmmaking and experimenting with different ways to create non-fiction films. \u201cYou watch a Netflix documentary, there’s going to be interviews, talking heads,\u201d said Seneviratne. \u201cBut non-fiction can be about anything; it just has to come from life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With his fourteen years of experience in the film industry, Seneviratne is excited to bring his knowledge and crafty brain to the Fieldston film program. He also hopes to create a flexible, stress-free classroom environment that will feed off the students \u2013 letting them shape the day-to-day curriculum. \u201cI’m really not a fan of adults that pretend like they’ve never had a teenage experience,\u201d said Seneviratne. \u201cI’m coming from a perspective of very much understanding what that is and trying to help you all navigate through these transitional years of being a teenager in a way that’s not just telling you what to do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n With big shoes to fill, Seneviratne is confident he can carry on the torch from Buskey while simultaneously creating his own legacy here at Fieldston. When they met last year, Buskey and Seneviratne connected on a big level, even realizing they have the same favorite director: Wong Kar Wei. \u201c[Buskey] told me, \u2018I got them over here, but you’re going to take it to the next level,\u2019\u201d said Seneviratne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Always challenging the status quo, Seneviratne encourages others to push the boundaries and live each day to the fullest: \u201cIf we live a life of safety without any challenge [or change], then are we really ever growing? Are we really experiencing life?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, when you see him around campus, be sure to ask Mr. Seneviratne for a movie suggestion\u2026 he might know a good one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Fieldston waves goodbye to the legendary Larry Buskey, who retired last year, the community welcomes the new film teacher: Shaun Seneviratne. \u201cI\u2019m not into doing things in a traditional way. I want us to push the boundaries of creativity,\u201d said Seneviratne, who can often be found around campus in his signature vibrant \u201cshacket.\u201d Whether \u201ctinkering\u201d in the film lab or \u201climbering\u201d outside to stay active, he never lets a moment go to waste. As<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":301,"featured_media":10268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,347,426,322,644,318,425],"tags":[],"coauthors":[636],"class_list":["post-10267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-community","category-faculty","category-featured","category-features","category-news","category-spotlight"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-29-at-8.54.28-PM-e1727657714791.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/301"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10272,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10267\/revisions\/10272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10267"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}