By: Valerie Iuleva
Excluding any mystery, the answer is – to go to the Cleveland International Film Festival. That’s what I did with a group of fellow students on April 14th, as a Mandel Scholar, going to the Ohio Theater on Playhouse Square, to see the “Local Heroes Shorts” program, featuring 9 short films of various genres: from documentary to horror and comedy.
My name is Valeria, that’s me, who is 28 now, I’m an international student, and I love to celebrate Cleveland and its opportunities! Here, my special thanks to the Mandel Scholarship program go, because in less than 1.5 years of me living near the city, I’ve explored several theaters, cinema-related spaces, community and arts centers, public library branches, museums, and so many more! I’ve seen all of that being led by the Mandel’s chaperone (usually Ms. Summer Paris, who is the author of the pictures going with this article), and accompanied by other motivated and interested students, with whom we exchanged thoughts and emotions about all these experiences. Mandel Center’s program is not only about receiving one of the most generous scholarships offered within Tri-C, but also about meeting great people and huge networking opportunities.
To make it even more real, I will just mention two of the latest examples of what Mandel scholarship gave me as opportunities: 1) to go to New York for an educational trip with all program’s expenses covered, and 2) to talk casually to the play’s author after watching the play. Impressive, isn’t it?
Returning to the cinema festival: the program we watched was almost 2 hours long, but the short films themselves were from just 3 to 23 minutes. The topic united the films made by or about Ohioans. Long story short: they all told stories about the community, its common goals, dreams, hopes, and even fears. And it was hard to choose favorites when I was asked about them by the group and Ms. Summer after we had watched everything. I couldn’t stay for the panel discussion, which took place after the films’ program, but as I read in the article later… It was a whole separate event in it! The scriptwriters, directors, and managers, along with some staffers of the projects’ teams, were talking to each other and their support teams in the watchers’ seats. The amount of support people expressed between each film was enormous. It felt as loud as it could be at sports event! One more Clevelanders’ passion revealed itself to me this evening.
What impressed me even more was the film created by the Tri-C Intensive Film Workshop. It’s a six-week program created for early-career film professionals who are taking their first steps in the project search and helps with solid portfolio-building steps. The team recreated journalistic photography career-start challenges in 1964 Manhattan… filming that in Cleveland in 2026! The film was appraised not only by me, but also received 2 Emmy nominations, along with various awards in Dayton, San Francisco, Paris, and Tokyo. Worth watching!
Opportunities in Cleveland are much closer than they may appear, and Tri-C, being a valuable partner of many organizations across the Cleveland area, does a lot to help students stay current, informed, and engaged. Join me for more events on campus and in the city, and consider applying to the Mandel scholarship program!
To know more about the CIFF’s “Local Heroes” program: https://www.clevelandfilm.org/screenings/local-heroes-shorts-program-1-2026/
To know more about the “Photography” film and to watch it for free on Vimeo: https://www.hemlockfilms.com/photography
To know more about Film Intensive Program at Tri-C: https://www.tri-c.edu/arts-and-entertainment/creative-arts-academy/film-academy/film-crew-intensive-training.html
To know more about Mandel Scholarship Program: https://www.tri-c.edu/mandel-center/scholars-academy.html
