10 student films with original scores premiere at Double Exposure
The Media School Report
April 7, 2026
The Double Exposure program pairs aspiring filmmakers, composers, musicians, sound designers and engineers, projectionists, house managers, and ushers to produce the entirely student-run world premiere at IU Cinema. (Photo by Blake Schwandt | The Media School)
Ten short films made by Media School students and scored by Jacobs School of Music students screened at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the IU Cinema in the annual Double Exposure film festival.
The Double Exposure program pairs aspiring filmmakers, composers, musicians, sound designers and engineers, projectionists, house managers, and ushers to produce the entirely student-run world premiere at IU Cinema. Each film is entirely produced, scored, and sound-designed by IU students, with mentorship of senior lecturer and course instructor Susanne Schwibs.
As part of the experimental film festival, faculty members advise students throughout the process. Each fall semester, Media School students produce films and submit them for consideration for Double Exposure. Selected student directors are then paired with Jacobs School of Music composing students in the spring semester.
“At every step of the way, [Schwibbs] was there to help coordinate, give guidance, and offer solutions,” student director and Media School senior Betsy Leija said.
“Not only was she available for technical support, but she also offered much moral assistance. She was our biggest fan, from the beginning all the way through to the end. I do not believe that my short film, ‘Invocation,’ would be anywhere near what it was without her help.”
Films
Director: Rocco Jann | Music: Carson Merical
A chaotic, farcical duel for viewership between two flamboyant media personalities, the film features “absurd headlines, unhinged media personalities, [and] whacky visuals,” to project a satirical, yet educational tone on the news industry.
Director: Catie Stanton | Music: Tianqi Zhang
When Cassandra returns home after losing her way, she is forced to decide whether to follow in her estranged mother’s footsteps, or to be better. This therapeutic film exhibits a combination of anger, resentment, love, loss, but most importantly, hope.
Disclaimer: Contains suicide and mental health issues.
Director: Dylan Dankel | Music: Niki Simerly
Aging out of foster care, Rowan faces the uncertainty of independence with little more than a backpack, a trash bag of clothes, and a frayed photograph of his younger sibling, Riley. Fueled by the drive to reconnect, he sets out into the night.
Director: Nolan Goode | Music: Theo Morris
I’ve come to the conclusion that I can never be content with one specific way of life or way of thinking. When it comes to these things, I’m too curious of a person, a trait slowly dying from the chokehold that goliaths like organized religion and technology have put us in. That’s a large reason why I made this film.
Director: Betsy Leija | Music: Sean Giovanetti
Have you ever felt that something was calling to you? That somewhere in the dark, something was waiting, promising to awaken feelings you have never known? In “Invocation,” Isa is caught in the haunting struggle between her religious past and a mysterious being that calls to her each night, drawing her toward forbidden desire and uneasy serenity. As her longing deepens, Isa must confront whether surrender is damnation or liberation.
Director: Blake Schwandt | Music: Donavan Walker
Set in a charged Los Angeles summer, the film follows a young artist’s journey through fleeting sexual encounters that open portals into his unfelt interior world. What begins as bodily exchange becomes a spiritual excavation – an attempt to sense the parts of himself that exist beyond sight. Through fragmented memories, warmth, and ecstatic disorientation, the film maps desire as a path toward wholeness.
Director: Goodman Murphy-Smith | Music: Tu Gu
A nameless teenager wanders an unfamiliar house infested by a past it cannot forget. Deep in its endless hallways, a door hides many eyes. “Devourer” is a sleepwalk through a contemporary teenage experience, lost in a landscape of violent videos, alienation, and technology rotting in the shadow of the Information Age. Contains implied violence against a child and brief flashing lights.
Director: Gracie Runge | Music: Shmuli Myers
Dom and Kevin are two best friends who enjoy hosting legendary game nights in their apartment. They are pushed to their breaking point by their acquaintance, Fitz, who constantly freaks out during games. Fitz is a bad sport, and every time he loses a game, he goes “nuclear.” Dom and Kevin propose a challenge to Fitz: he has one last chance at game night before he is banned from game nights forever.
Director: Lilly Luse | Music: Shixin Zhang
A young woman trapped in a tower is cursed to weave at a loom for eternity, isolated from everyone with only an enchanted mirror to cast mere reflections of the outside world. She knows that if she turns from the mirror to look at the real world through her own eyes, the curse will fall with fatal consequences. One day, she takes her life into her own hands.
Director: Deo Akiode | Music: Donavan Walker
Our actions outlive us, but so will our inactions. We all live with the burden of our regrets and mistakes, but for some of us, we know our time to make amends for them is running short. In this film, we watch a desperate man try valiantly to do so: his journey reflecting themes of loss, memory, and harsh honesty.
Director: Polina Saburova | Music: Camilo Rincón
This is an experimental multilingual audio-visual poem about home and belonging in the context of migration in the ever-changing world. How can you create a home where there isn’t supposed to be one? When you leave, what stays with you of the place that you call home? Is it a smell or a touch or an image or a sound? Who or what is a home?
