Eva Rendle (‘19) receives Student Academy Award nomination

August 23, 2019

Documentary filmmaker and 2019 Berkeley Journalism graduate Eva Rendle has been named one of seven finalists in the 46th Student Academy Awards.

Eva’s thesis film “All That Remains” is an intimate portrait of the second responders and vineyard workers who are still dealing with the aftermath of the 2017 North Bay Fires, one year later.

The film focuses on the estimated 50,000 undocumented people working in the wineries and vineyards in Napa and Sonoma counties—the often invisible workforce that forms the backbone of Norther California’s Wine Country. It’s a population whose members found themselves in a heightened state of inequity after 23 days of raging fires, and are still feeling the reverberations of immigration fears, wage losses, and housing scarcity long after the fires were contained.

“The film achieved just what we want a project like this to achieve: expose the realities lived by the most vulnerable in our communities,” says Edward Wasserman, dean of Berkeley Journalism. “Making people consider the wider impact of conflict, or disaster or policy is what we do as journalists, and what I’m so proud we train the next generation to do here.”

Eva Rendle shooting during the harvest season. Photo: Hao Guo (’19)

“After putting my heart and soul into this project for the past year, it’s really rewarding to put it out in the world and see it being received so well,” says Eva Rendle. She had never picked up a video camera before coming to Berkeley and says the project was possible only thanks to her classmates. “Marian Carrasquero was an essential part of the success of this project,” says Rendle. “She spent many hours in the Wine Country with me, providing stunning cinematography, as well as field translating, for this film.

Marian Carrasquero and Eva Rendle shooting in the Wine Country. Photo: Emma Schwartz (’19)

“In the end, filmmaking is a team effort, and I absolutely could not have made this film without my classmates and advisors. Whether it was brainstorming storylines during pre-production, driving up to Napa at 1 a.m. with me to film the grape harvest, or watching endless cuts in the edit lab, their feedback, support, and encouragement were invaluable throughout this entire process.”

It’s not Rendle’s first honor during her time at Berkeley Journalism. In 2018, she was named the recipient of the newly established $3,000 Brian A. Pollack Documentary Film Scholarship, awarded annually by the School’s faculty.

This year’s Oscar nomination follows a four-year run of success for Berkeley student filmmakers. Last year, the thesis films of four graduates—Grace Oyenubi, Lauren Schwartzman, Alan Toth and Nani Sahra Walker—accounted for three of seven finalist spots in the documentary category for U.S. film schools, a historical record for Berkeley Journalism. Schwartzman took home the bronze medal.

The year before, grads Brad Bailey (’17) and Jason Hanasik (’17) were named finalists for Bailey’s “Hale” and Hanasik’s “How to Make a Pearl.” Bailey went on to win the gold for documentary. In 2016, producers Melina Tupa (’16) and Daphne Matziaraki (’16) were both nominated. Matziaraki took home the top prize.

The 46th Student Academy Awards will be presented on Oct. 17 in Beverly Hills, where the students are invited for a week of industry activities. The medal placements–gold, silver and bronze–will be announced at the ceremony. All Student Academy Award-winning films automatically compete for 2019 Oscars in the Documentary Short Subject category.

“All That Remains” will premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October.

About the Documentary Program at UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley’s documentary program is widely considered one of the most important graduate nonfiction film programs in the country. Carrying on the work begun in the 1980s by veteran producer Andrew Stern and pioneering African American filmmaker Marlon T. Riggs, professors Jon Else, Orlando Bagwell, Dawn Porter, Carrie Lozano and others have trained hundreds of filmmakers of remarkable talent, diversity and accomplishment.

Grounded in the values of professional journalism–accuracy, eloquence, aggressive research and reporting, strong writing, ethics and analysis–combined with the fundamentals of filmmaking craft, documentary at UC Berkeley emphasizes visual storytelling in a wide range of storytelling styles: investigative, historical, biography, personal essay and cinéma vérité. Alumni routinely have premiere screenings at the top film festivals in the world, among them Sundance, Cannes, SXSW, and Tribeca.

Help the next generation by making a tax-deductible donation to our Fine Cut Fund. The fund supports documentary and multimedia projects and helps defray the hard costs of production—travel and shooting expenses, outlays for equipment and research.

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