新闻摄影女校友变出新的恐怖电影

Arkasha Stevenson has never shied away from capturing images that might provoke.

This is most clear in the Carolina alumna’s first feature film, “The First Omen.4月上映, this prequel to the 1976 horror classic “The Omen” had controversial images that disturbed audiences and led to friction between the filmmakers and the Motion Picture Association’s ratings board.

Despite the noise, Stevenson is still drawn to stories that may cause some discomfort. This goes back to her time at what’s now the UNC 赫斯曼新闻与媒体学院. Her studies in photojournalism gave her the opportunity to engage with the world around her.

“我真的是一个非常害羞的人，”史蒂文森说. “[Photojournalism] was the perfect way to explore the world. I can be in the corner and just not talk and get to know people intimately.”

This drive led Stevenson down some rather unconventional paths. 一次, after helping a classmate on a project covering the Durham police force, Stevenson followed tips that led her to a photojournalism project about female sex workers in Durham.

“It’s still something that takes up a lot of brain space,史蒂文森说. “我对这次经历非常着迷, but my photography teachers were so supportive during the process, 鼓励努力并提供情感支持.”

因为她在学生时代的工作, Stevenson received the prestigious Hearst Journalism Award and was named the 2011 College Photographer of the Year by the North Carolina Press Photographers Association. During this time, however, another passion began to surface. After seeing arthouse filmmaker David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart,” Stevenson started to consider what she might be able to do in the realm of filmmaking.

“我不是影迷，”史蒂文森说. “但当我看到那部电影时，我的脑海里突然爆发了一些东西. So much of photojournalism is containing your own thoughts and staying objective so that you’re not really allowed to express. To see a film that emotionally raw, it completely blasted me onto a different path.”

A full circle moment where Stevenson’s latest film played at Chapel Hill’s Varsity theater back in April. (Josh McCormack/太阳城娱乐)

That path led Stevenson to the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, 她在哪里从事导演的学术生涯. 她在学生时代就从事叙事短片的制作, 毕业后, 她想找个电视导演的工作. 在参演了FX电视台的《太阳城娱乐城》之后,” USA’s “Briarpatch” and even directing a full season of the anthology series “Channel Zero,” she was offered the opportunity to direct a prequel to “The Omen” from Disney’s 20th Century Studios.

“The First Omen” is a supernatural horror film that features plenty of gruesome moments. But Stevenson made sure not to fall into the realm of exploitation. 她说她在卡罗莱纳的工作, 尤其是在报道残酷的话题时, gave her a uniquely sensitive perspective on portraying violence.

“When you photograph real acts of violence against the body, you start to understand that it resonates in such a deep way,史蒂文森说. “We had intense conversations about what was or wasn’t violent and how to not fetishize those images.”

The positive reception from film critics and filmgoers is evidence that Stevenson did something both frightening and thought-provoking. Yet, even after working in Hollywood, she still gives credit to her Tar Heel roots.

“Carolina’s photojournalism department was such a safe haven for me,史蒂文森说. “It was a very supportive community that understood the value of education wasn’t always in the classroom and that it came from going out into the world.”