KINGSTON, R.I. – Oct. 7, 2026 – During her senior year at the University of Rhode Island in 2021, Alyssa Botelho, a film/media major, aspired to make a short period piece set in 1710 New England about a young girl left alone by her parents. But she had a crisis of confidence about her ability to transform her vision into reality on screen.
After receiving some motivation from Keith Brown, the University’s film/media teaching professor, Botelho and Sean Campbell ’21—her then film/media classmate and now husband—created “To Dust All Return” for their capstone project. Brown’s push worked in more ways than one for Botelho and Campbell as the film won three major awards, including two in 2022 from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for “Best Film” and “Best Director (Botelho).”
“Instead of cutting that idea [to make ‘To Dust All Return’] off, Keith really empowered me to just go for it,” Botelho said in a video shared with the film/media program. “It’s one of the pieces I’ve made to date that I’m most proud of.”
Botelho and Campbell are two of the many alumni who have gained immense success after graduating from URI’s film/media program, which is celebrating a milestone 20th anniversary this year. In that time, the program has morphed into a prominent degree program within the Harrington School of Communication and Media, helping aspiring filmmakers hone their craft to showcase their work on screen—both big and small.
“It’s been amazing to witness the drive and creativity of our current students, but also see our alumni achieve success and make their marks within a competitive industry,” Brown said. “Some of them are kind of amazing in what they’re doing in film and media.”
Steady growth
Cameras at URI began rolling in 1999 when film studies was established as an interdepartmental minor growing out of the English department. Seven years later, after student interest increased, the program took a major step (pun intended) in 2006 with film/media becoming an undergraduate major within the University’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Brown recalled that the film/media program’s early days were confined to tight quarters within Swan Hall on the Kingston Campus, and had limited resources to execute its mission and vision. Once the program moved into Ranger Hall—the Harrington School’s home—collaboration and creativity began to accelerate with students using new state-of-the-art film equipment, and the program started to expand its offerings.
One such offering is the Narrative Film Practicum, where Brown and Assistant Film/Media Teaching Professor Nicholas Corsano work with students to produce a longer film during the fall semester. That process includes creating a script and casting actors before beginning filming in early November, Brown says. Come springtime, that film will premiere in a special screening at the Avon Cinema in Providence.
“That was something that could have never been done in the early days because we did not have the faculty and we did not have the equipment,” Brown said. “The equipment has grown tremendously and we can really broaden our horizons.”
From Rhody to the real world
URI’s film/media alumni have fond memories of being on campus collaborating with fellow classmates on projects and also learned many lessons that they now apply in their current work.
Filmmaker Arianna Rizzo ’19 said taking Brown’s 16-milimeter class (FLM 316) was a memorable experience, providing an immersive, supported learning opportunity to create films. Rizzo, now a lead marketing program manager for the Boston-based marketing firm Klaviyo, and her classmates learned how to shoot with different cameras, including the Arriflex Super 16—used for motion pictures and designed to capture a wider, asymmetrical frame.
“It was such a unique experience working with such a cool piece of equipment. I just feel very grateful to have taken the class that Keith Brown was offering to get this experience, and to learn the hows and whys of the fundamentals we learned in classes prior,” Rizzo said.
Before writing and directing commercial content for NBCUniversal and running his own YouTube account called “The Scrappy Creative,” Ryan Gomes ’19 remembered how Brown fostered community in his classes at URI. He also recalled how URI film/media’s focus was about having students both being creative and prepared.
“You could make any film you wanted to make, as long as you were prepared,” Gomes said. “That didn’t mean being popular enough to have the biggest crew or enough money to make the biggest short film. It meant being passionate enough about your ideas that you fight for them. If you could answer all the questions that were thrown at you, then you can go off and do cool stuff.”
Celebrating 20 years
To commemorate the film/media program’s 20 years of influence and impact at URI, the program will hold special events, including alumni features, visiting lecturers and short film screenings, throughout the 2026-27 academic year.
Lionel Jeffries ’22, a filmmaker and writer from Connecticut, will return to the University on Wednesday, Oct. 14, to screen his latest film “Waterwick” at 6 p.m. in Edwards Hall. The film is about an obsessed journalism student’s investigation of a former psychiatric institution, which leads him into the most repressed depths of his own haunted psyche, where he’s forced to relive both his happiest and most traumatic memories.
Then on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 6 p.m., filmmakers and URI alumni Matt Leake, Elsa Kincaide, Jack Ieronimo, Jonah Major, Campbell and Botelho will participate in a short film screening event inside Room 273 of the Chafee Social Science Center. Additional events celebrating URI film/media’s anniversary are to be announced.
Brown said having alumni return to campus for these events is both a testament to the program’s ongoing impact and also vital for students to meet and collaborate with those who traveled down the same road.
“For students just to be able to reach out to somebody else for advice, there’s been a lot of students this semester that have said, ‘Hey, this is what I really want to do, how can you help me?’ is really important,” Brown said. “It is really helpful for them to connect with people who are actually working and to get advice from them about the path they took.”