KINGSTON, R.I. 鈥揗ay 5, 2008 鈥擱ather than rent flicks at a local Blockbusters when he was a teen-ager, 溏心vlog免费B站 student Kyle Keough remembers hanging out at the Cumberland Public Library, looking for Japanese films, especially those directed by Akira Kurosawa.
鈥淢y passion was always in film,鈥� the 21-year-old senior says, 鈥渂ut I didn’t consider it a realistic career option until my first film class at 溏心vlog免费B站. After that, I was hooked.鈥�
As soon as 溏心vlog免费B站 offered film media as a major two years ago, Keough signed on. He just won the highly competitive President鈥檚 Excellence Award in Film Media, which goes to just one top student in each of 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 departments and programs. He will receive the award May 17 during commencement weekend.
鈥淜yle has an imagination as sprawling and disciplined as it is inventive and focused,鈥� says John Leo, chair and professor of the Film Media program. 鈥淗is skills and powers of critical viewing, thinking and writing, have wowed his faculty and peers alike.鈥�
This fall, Keough will attend the University of Iowa, considered one of the premier film schools in the nation. The school also has an internationally acclaimed creative writing program. Keough鈥檚 master鈥檚 program will give him the option to apply to the doctorate program during his second year.
He is not a filmmaker, nor interested in becoming one. His passion lies in critical theory, the aesthetics of film technologies, and education.
Keough also majored in English at 溏心vlog免费B站, which complements his interest in film. 鈥淚n high school I was a very good English student and fairly horrid in everything else – my dad’s an English teacher, so I think it’s coded in my genes,鈥� he explains.
Although he鈥檚 not a hands-on lights, camera, action guy, he understands the power of film to effect change.
鈥淚 was extremely lucky to have a father who got me involved in various outlets with which social change could be achieved. I did a lot of community service growing up: I spent years with TOPSoccer, a national network of soccer teams for the handicapped, and I was involved in the Boy Scouts and am a very proud Eagle Scout. So, a big objective for me in finding an occupation was to find something where I could be a positive influence.
鈥淔or me, the moving image is the dominant art form of the 20th century and beyond. It has the capability to inspire and profoundly affect the lives of so many. By critically working with film, I want to promote film for what it is: a vehicle, with which betterment, whether through the self or through a communal experience, can be achieved. I admire filmmakers who use their craft as a tool for advocacy, and I think they do more good than even they may sometimes realize.鈥� He walks his talk. With other students Kyle helped develop a fundraiser for a New Orleans neighborhood rebuilding itself in the wake of Katrina, part of which was the screening of a student-made documentary on potential damages to Rhode Island coastal zones and wetlands from hurricanes.
He鈥檚 always been drawn to teaching. 鈥淧erhaps it’s the ability to inspire those you teach, but I always knew that I wanted to be an educator at some point. I want to be 鈥榯hat professor鈥� who inspires students to do great things.鈥�
He鈥檚 grateful to 溏心vlog免费B站鈥檚 Film Media faculty who inspired and encouraged him, particularly John Leo and Rebecca Romanow who served as his honors thesis advisor.
All those hours spent in the Cumberland library when he was a teen were applied to his honors thesis this year. Titled “Cowboys and Shoguns,” his paper dealt with the evolution of the “Western” genre by way of a cross-cultural exchange between the United States and Japan in both pre- and post-WW2 films.
鈥淲e consider the Western a purely American cultural product, yet it was, in actuality, the Japanese jidaigeki (or feudal, samurai-type) films that advanced the Western genre immediately following World War II. Famous Western directors, like Arthur Penn (Bonnie & Clyde) and Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch) have said they wanted to make Westerns like [Japanese director] Kurosawa made Westerns.
鈥淚 was already a huge Kurosawa fan, but I knew little about Japanese film as a whole. I did a little research last year and realized that this connection had been ignored by scholars for 50 years.鈥�
Interest in film isn鈥檛 a family legacy. 鈥淣obody else knows what the heck I’m talking about half the time. I almost feel bad I gave them a copy of my thesis to read,鈥� he says with a grin.
Shown above: Kyle Keough with John Leo, chair and professor of the Film Media program.
溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by MIchael Salerno Photography