New Doc Spotlights One Man’s Quest for US Citizenship and His Community of Support
American University School of Communication (AU SOC) Professors Claudia Myers and Laura Hinson have partnered on a new short documentary, The Test, that premiered in August at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the largest film festival in New England. The film is now making news on the festival circuit, winning Best Documentary Short at the Santa Fe International Film Festival.
The Test tells the story of Eric Frimpong, a Ghanaian maintenance technician at a Virginia retirement community, Goodwin Living, who dreams of becoming an American citizen to provide a better life for his family, who he hopes to bring to the US. With their future, as well as his own, at stake, he enlists the help of two elderly Goodwin Living residents, Jill and Carl, to prepare for the highest-stakes challenge of his life: the US Citizenship test.
This film was produced following the methodology of SOC’s Community Voice Lab, meaning that the subject is a collaborator, wholly involved in the telling of their story. Myers and Hinson involved multiple graduate students in the film’s production to provide the opportunity to work on a professional film set and build their professional portfolio.