Sascha Agenor '25 Receives Inaugural Project Green Light Award

The Department of Film and Media Studies has selected Sascha Agenor '25 as the inaugural recipient of the Project Green Light Award, a grant created by the Class of 1968 to support new works by undergraduate artists. 

Agenor will receive $5,000 to support the production of Munchiez, a 15-minute film that follows the story of two people struggling with loneliness, memory loss, and disillusionment in the wake of a chemical spill that compromised the water supply in their community.

"The department's selection committee was moved by Agenor's attention to the vital questions of how we make sense of a world where our vital resources are under threat, and how we can come together to make meaning and heal," says Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies and Comparative Literature Roopika Risam, who chaired the selection committee. "The project engages with a diverse set of media and tools to tell this story through Black and queer aesthetics, reflecting the department's commitment to mediation and media-making in a diverse and complicated world."

"When I started writing Munchiez, I knew I wanted to tell a psychological thriller that explored themes of consumption, obsession, memory, and loneliness in a rural place and that centered on Black, queer identity," Agenor says. "The story is told from a dance perspective, and I drew a lot on my experiences as a dancer and performer when I was younger. My goal was to create a filmic reality that was surreal and otherworldly, much like Gregg Araki's approach in his movies The Doom Generation and Nowhere and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange."

"The visual language of Munchiez is trippy and disorienting, similar to Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream and Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels," Agenor says. "Incorporating animation and mixed media is essential to the project as well to further abstract feelings, space, and identity."

The selection committee was also excited by the local nature of Agenor's project, which will be shot in the Upper Valley and provide opportunities for other Dartmouth students and the local community to be involved.

"The robust competition for the Project Green Light Award demonstrates the creativity of our students and their enthusiasm for opportunities to engage in the arts," says Associate Dean for the Arts and Humanities Samuel Levey. "We are grateful to the Class of 1968 for making it possible for student artists to create compelling new works in partnership with our dedicated faculty and staff." 

The Project Green Light Award will rotate annually among arts departments for a limited run. 

Following the Class of 1968's 50th reunion in 2018, several alums proposed an initiative to support the arts at Dartmouth. To that end, the class formed its Arts Legacy Committee, which is charged with developing worthy projects and proposing them for funding. 

"In recent years the class has both commissioned new works and purchased extant works, many of which it donated to the College, but we had never provided direct support to Dartmouth's student artists," says committee member Donald Marcus '68. "Project Green Light was created for that express purpose and we've been delighted to work with Dean Levey and the Arts Advisory Council in shaping PGL to effectively support new undergraduate projects of special merit."

Agenor looks forward to collaborating on the film with peers at Dartmouth.

"I'm really excited to work with the actors and design department to bring the characters to life. For the film to be executed successfully, the performances must be dramatic and haunting. I've cast actors and non-actors, dancers and non-dancers, so I'm excited about the endless possibilities of expression. Additionally, I'm looking forward to collaborating with my peers in the film department, who are true visionaries and artists."