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This mural was painted by Houston artist Jacob Messa with help of UHCL students during our 2023 Sustainable Stories Film Fest Art Gallery Opening on November 10 in the main hallway of the UHCL Bayou Building next to our gallery.
Third Annual Sustainable Stories Film Fest
Coming up in November 2023
in the UHCL Bayou Theater &
Art Gallery
The University of Houston- Clear Lake’s third annual Sustainable Stories Film Fest and Juried Art Exhibition will start Nov. 6 and will run through Dec. 8, in the UHCL Art Gallery and the UHCL Neumann Library XR Lab. On Friday Nov. 10 there will be screenings in the Bayou Theater and an art opening / mural painting at the UHCL Art Gallery with VR installations at the Neuman Library XR Lab.
The mission of our festival is to expose the UHCL & local community to ideas, concepts & stories of sustainability and to empower filmmakers and artists working on sustainability-related projects. In collaboration with the UHCL First Year Experience / Common Reader Program this year’s special focus for the festival is Disability Visibility.
More than 130 films were submitted from all over the world for this year’s festival. We chose 52 of them to participate in our festival. The Bayou Theater screenings start on Nov 10 a 1p.m, followed by the art opening, vendor expo and feature film screening.
This year’s feature film, "The Artist & the Astronaut" is a remarkable tale of an unlikely love story between the artist Pat Musick, a civil rights activist and former UHCL art professor, and the Apollo astronaut Jerry Carr. Their paths intersected during some of the most pivotal moments in human history, making for an incredible story of love, art, and perseverance. This documentary is filled with never-before-seen footage of the early space pioneers and features interviews with key figures from that era, providing an intimate look into their lives and the historical events they were a part of. There will be a talkback with filmmaker Bill Muench after the film. The Art Gallery exhibition features 7 works by Pat Musick and other physical pieces of art related to aspects of sustainability and Disability Visibility, such as paintings, drawings, ceramics, sculptures and video art. The Neuman Library XR Lab hosts both local and internationally submitted VR pieces related to sustainability. Both the exhibition at the UHCL Gallery and the interactive pieces at the Neuman Library XR Lab will continue through Dec. 8, with daily film screenings scheduled in its adjacent black box cinema.
The festival is a joint effort by Associate Professor for Communication & Digital Media Brims, Director of Cultural Arts Eric Despard, Emerging Technology Librarian Elizabeth Fridrick, Director of First-Year Seminar Program & Coordinator of UHCL Common Reader Program Anne Gessler and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management at the UHCL College of Business Kathleen Garland.
For more information about the Sustainable Stories Film Fest, visit www.sustainable-stories.org/, https://www.uhcl.edu/art-gallery/, https://www.uhcl.edu/bayou-theater/ and https://uhcl.libguides.com/spaces/XRLab
Official Selection all films SSFF 2023
Screening Locations & Times
Black Box Loop - General Festival Submissions
The films on this list will loop with the selected Disability Visibility films listed below in the 30-seat Black Box Theater located behind our UHCL Gallery. The space is open to the public Monday - Thursday 9:00 AM - 6:00PM & Fridays 9:00AM - noon from November 6 - December 8. Some of the films on this list will also play in our 500-seat Bayou Theater on Friday, November 10 at 6:00 PM
Black Box Loop - Disability Visibility Submissions
The films on this list will loop with the selected General Film Submissions listed above in the 30-seat Black Box Theater located behind our UHCL Gallery. The space is open to the public Monday - Thursday 9:00 AM - 6:00PM & Fridays 9:00AM - noon from November 6 - December 8. The films on this list will also play in our 500-seat Bayou Theater on Friday, November 10 at 1:00 PM.
Video Art
The films on this list will loop in our main UHCL Gallery. The space is open to the public Monday - Thursday 9:00 AM - 6:00PM & Fridays 9:00AM - noon from November 6 - December 8.
VR Presentations in the Neumann Library XR Lab
Bayou Theater Screening Friday Nov. 10, 1:00 PM: Disability Visibility
The films on this list will play in our 500-seat Bayou Theater on Friday, November 10 at 1:00 PM, followed by a conversation with the judges for this category Associate Professor of Rhetoric & Writing Dr. Christina Cedillo & Assistant Director of the Accessibility Support Center at UHCL Ciara Evans.
Bayou Theater Screening Friday Nov. 10, 6:00 PM: Selected General Submissions
Bayou Theater Screening Friday Nov. 10, 7:30 PM: Feature Presentation
Pat and Jerry would grow up in the same neighborhood and go to the same schools. Pat would travel thousands of miles and Jerry would travel millions of miles before they would eventually meet each other in Houston Texas. This film centers around a uniquely American couple’s captivating story during the pinnacle of American exploration and social change. Although this film is in essence a love story, Pat and Jerry lived entire lives before they even met each other in 1976. Pat was a 1950s housewife with three daughters married to a football coach. Jerry was an astronaut with six children of his own. The experiences that each of them went through in the 1960s and 1970s prepared them to create art that would address the very important social issues of woman’s rights, race relations, issues of the native Americans, environmental sustainability and war. The screening of his film is followed by a conversation between festival co-founder Michael Brims & filmmaker Bill Muench.
Educational Outreach:
Our festival conducts free screenings of Best of Fest short films at local Houston & Galveston-area High Schools and Community Colleges
The screenings consist of the winning short film entries from the years 2021 & 2022. Each screening is about 45 minutes long, screenings are accessible online beforehand by school administrators to ensure compatibility with students. To schedule a screening, please reach out to Festival Director Michael Brims at brims@uhcl.edu
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