Murrow Grad Spotlights Murrow Students In Sundance Film Entry

Eliza Hittman, a 33-year-old filmmaker and former Edward R. Murrow Graduate, is submitting her first feature-length film, It Felt Like Love, to the Sundance Film Festival. Her film, which is a coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old girl from Gravesend, also features a slew of current Murrow students and recent graduates, according to a story in the New York Daily News.

The film has a really cool premise, especially for all us Southern Brooklynites. It focuses on the impressionable and inexperienced Lila (Gina Piersanti) and her crush on an older, tattooed Rockaways boy named Sammy, played by Ronen Rubinstein. The film follows Lila’s awkward and dangerous obsession with Sammy, as well as her desire to experience sexuality no matter what the consequences.

Hittman, a native of Flatbush, went back to her stomping grounds at Murrow to find feature players and extras.

“I wanted to pass along an opportunity for students to try something that I was interested in when I was 17 or 18,” Hittman told the Daily News. “I hope this motivates them and instills in them what’s possible in this world.”

Locals in the film include 18-year-old Andrew McCord of Sheepshead Bay and 19-year-old Jesse Cordasco of Mill Basin.

“I feel pretty lucky. If [Hittman] had never reached out to the school, none of this would have happened,” McCord said to the Daily News.

I personally can’t wait to see this film, not just because I think its going to be good, but because its exciting to see all your favorite local spots emblazoned on the silver screen. It’s fun to be that annoying guy that leaps up and shouts, “I GOT PIZZA THERE! IT WASN’T THAT GREAT!”

Best of luck to the cast and crew at Sundance. Here’s hoping It Felt Like Love becomes a big, beautiful hit.