Vote Oswego, a university-coordinated student-run project that helps members of the community make their impact in elections, is hosting a film festival and other awareness events to get students prepared for the 2024 elections.

Members of the campus community are invited to an admission-free Get Out the Vote Film Festival from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, in the Marano Campus Center auditorium (room 132). Free popcorn will be provided. 

The film festival will show 10 different short films created by students from the English and Creative Writing and Cinema and Screen Studies departments. All films are non-partisan and run on the theme of the importance of voting. After the showings, students can cast their vote for best film. 

In fall 2020, the film festival was created by Juliet Giglio of the creative writing program and cinema and screen studies faculty member Jake Dodd. Dodd and Giglio worked together to give students the opportunity, hosting the event online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Four years later, the event will be put on again in person and be more collaborative. Giglio’s screenwriting students are behind the scripts while students of Dodd and fellow cinema and screen studies professor Josh Adams are behind the directing, producing and editing of the films. The festival also had help from students in the Theatre Department serving as actors.

Funding acquired through the Politics Department chair and faculty head of Vote Oswego, Allison Rank, allows for students involved to access content and training that promotes non-partisanship within films.

While attending the event, students will also be able to learn more on the upcoming election, check their registration status and register to vote with the help of staffers. 

“All of our staffers are highly trained,” said Vote Oswego student project head Halle Collins. “They can help students figure out if they need an absentee ballot and help them fill out voter registration or absentee ballot requests, or both.”

Since absentee ballot requests need to be received by a student's local Board of Elections by Oct. 26, much of the activity is time-based.

Students can even check their registration status outside of the events and at any time via VoteOswego.TurboVote.org. 

The events Vote Oswego are putting on can be beneficial for student voters, but also for the student staff themselves, such as through the mentorship under Rank. 

“She knows effective tactics and has a lot of experience running grassroots campaigns,” said Collins. “So we’ve been able to build a successful team under her guidance.”

Vote Oswego will also host their Oswego Ballot Blitz tabling throughout the week, as well host a Vote with Oz mock voting party in Marano Campus Center's Swetman Gym on Saturday, Oct. 19, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event will include food, a photo booth and asking students to vote for their favorite organization as they campaign for an ice cream flavor.

–- Written by Leila LaJoie of the Class of 2024