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The Daily Hub

A roundup of ideas and projects from around the Institute

  • Maelstrom, a documentary directed, shot, and produced by Mizuko Yamaoka, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’02, about how her life was changed forever by a major accident was selected by the Japan Council of the University of Pittsburgh and SCREENSHOT: ASIA for the 2022 Japan Documentary Film Award. The film includes footage from her time at Pratt along with scenes from her life as a story of perseverance. The film will be part of the Tokyo Documentary Film Festival 2022 in December.

  • Rebekah Morris-Gonzalez, director of climate initiatives at the Pratt Center, wrote a piece for City Limits about New York’s $5 billion climate opportunity. “With $5 billion at our disposal and the climate and housing crises looming, we can’t afford to continue the energy efficiency redlining that is currently built into the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) incentive design,” she writes. “It’s time to address long-standing inequities and make investments that will deliver clean energy technology to LMI communities hardest hit by historical disinvestments and the climate crisis.”

  • An exhibition by William Kim, MFA Fine Arts ’25, was featured as a “Must See” in Artforum.

  • Assistant Professor of Social Science and Cultural Studies Jan Dutkiewicz wrote an article for Vox about PETA. “Its controversial tactics are not above critique,” writes Dutkiewicz. “But the key to PETA’s success has been its very refusal to be well-behaved, forcing us to look at what we might rather ignore: humanity’s mass exploitation of the animal world.”

  • A film by Max Drexler, BFA Film ’24, will premiere at the London Short Film Festival in January. The film, titled Phillips, is “about the role of the documentarian and the meaning of truth in today’s world.”

  • Pratt received a $10,000 Bridging the Gap on Campus grant, funded by Interfaith America, for The Art of Listening, a forthcoming professional development series led by Vivian D’Andrade, director of diversity, equity and inclusion, Justin Kelley, assistant vice president and dean of students, and Emma Legge, director of student involvement. The Art of Listening is designed to reach supervisors and student employees across Pratt, emphasizing the importance of active listening skills to enhance communication, foster trust, and work across perceived and actual differences.