Crowding into a theater to watch unfinished films may sound unusual, but at The New School’s School of Media Studies (SMS), it’s a time-honored tradition attracting filmmakers, industry professionals, actors, and eager audiences alike. Ruff Cuts — on its 16th year of programming — serves as an opportunity for filmmakers to screen their works-in-progress to a live audience, and receive critique and questions from attendees.

The most recent screening, on Nov. 15 in the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen auditorium, was the second of the semester. The auditorium was nearly full — lively conversation and critique ricocheted between audience members and filmmakers as the eight films of the evening took the stage. Ruff Cuts usually holds screenings several times a semester and this year they plan to hold a third screening on Dec. 6 to celebrate their 16th anniversary.  

“It’s for students, by students,” said faculty supervisor of Ruff Cuts, Rafael Parra, who assisted students in founding the program in 2008. The screening events are organized by a small team, primarily made up of volunteers. 

For lead producer Esther Jobi, who is pursuing her Masters in Media Studies at SMS, Ruff Cuts was initially a way to get to know people in her department. “What I realized was that Ruff Cuts is a very beautiful way of promoting small-scale films,” Jobi said. Often, student films never reach a wider audience, she explained, but Ruff Cuts provides a platform for students to come together and see each other’s work. “You don’t have to go to Cannes Film Festival for that … you can just go to your own institution, start screening there, and you learn from it,” Jobi said. 

For Jobi, one primary draw of Ruff Cuts is the opportunity to hear feedback while you’re in the midst of the project. She remarked that hearing feedback on your final draft can be obsolete as it comes long past the point where you would be able to put that feedback to use. When you receive critique on a rough cut, you have the opportunity to implement those changes. “I can actually shoot this now. I can call my actors in and I can do this,” Jobi said. 

Faculty supervisor Tal Shamir — a founding member of Ruff Cuts when he attended The New School in 2008 — expressed that putting your work in front of an audience for feedback is an invaluable part of the filmmaking process, and a unique aspect of Ruff Cuts. “The audience has a chance to be part of the creative process, which I think is very rare,” Shamir said. “For filmmakers, when you edit the film, you become blind to it after a while. So having an audience and feeling it in your stomach if it works or doesn’t work is incredible.” 

The films screened at Ruff Cuts are diverse, reflecting the varied facets of the School of Media Studies. On Friday, the eight films included a music video for a Tyler, The Creator song, a vertical social media style piece on powerlifting, and various narrative fiction and documentary short films covering a breadth of themes and genres from surreal comedy to familial drama. The films’ runtimes ranged from 2-13 minutes, leaving plenty of time for questions and feedback in between each film.

Janay Joseph, a second-year Masters student at the School of Media Studies, presented her Charlie-Chaplin-esque short film Tails Never Fails. “I’d always wanted to submit to an event like this, especially since there aren’t that many events like this at other universities,” she said. For Joseph, it’s great that this event happens multiple times a semester. Some of the films screened on Friday were also shown at previous screenings she attended. “Because you’re able to submit over and over again, the film just gets better and better,” she explained. 

The experience of watching an audience take in your film is unique, according to Joseph. “I was really taking note of how people were reacting to the film; what parts people were laughing at, and whether that was intentional or not,” Joseph said. “That’s what I love to do with my films. Even though I’m shaking in my seat being in there with the audience, gauging their reactions, I learn a lot from the experience.” 

The event moved quickly, with brief interludes for resounding applause and announcements of upcoming School of Media Studies events. Attendees did not shy away from engaging with the work presented. Audience members asked probing questions about intention, inspiration, and methods, provided technical advice, and expressed heartfelt observations. 

Alyssa and Saba, both first-year students at the School of Media Studies, attended Ruff Cuts on Friday as audience members to try to engage with the school’s film community. “I wanted to see what film department exists here,” Alyssa said. “It’s a lot more than a traditional, pretentious film program. It’s kind of experimental,” she added. Being a first-time Ruff Cuts attendee, Alyssa reflected on how the screenings were a motivational push to submit her own work. Alyssa and Saba weren’t without their own feedback — they felt that the program could have been condensed, and would have preferred more time dedicated to critique rather than questions.

Although the critique is a driving force behind the event, Ruff Cuts is not only a place for artistic evolution, but for nurturing a growing community. Often, feedback came from a fellow filmmaker in the audience. The blurred boundaries between the audience and the artist created a level playing field, allowing for honest criticism and connection over challenges shared by student filmmakers. “The majority, if not all the people that asked me questions tonight I’ve never met. I would see them in the hallways, or maybe I had a class with them in the past,” Joseph said. “It was great that they were able to see my work and learn something new.” 

Industry professionals and alumni of The New School were also in the audience. “We have lots of people from media management … we are also inviting people from the College of Performing Arts, actors and composers. We’re trying to bridge communities, and this is a great way to do it,” Shamir said. 

The evening finished with one final round of cheers for the filmmakers and organizers, and an invitation to continue mingling at Another Country, a nearby bar. “That’s the whole idea of Ruff Cuts. To create a community of students who are interested in the same things … the love for filmmaking, the love for telling stories,” Parra said.