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| Photo: Joe Napsha |
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| David Safin, an assistant professor of communication at St. Vincent
College, spent a lot of time on his bicycle in his short film 'A Ride
Around Roscoe.' Photo: Tribune-Review |
Safin, an assistant professor of
communication at St. Vincent College near Latrobe, produced a homage to
his childhood and his hometown this spring in a 6-minute, 22-second
film, “A Ride Around Roscoe.”
“I would not have been doing this if it had not been for him,” Safin, 37, said of his father, George Safin.
Safin's father had shot more than 200 hours
of home movies, beginning in 1984 and continuing until 1996 when David
Safin was 18.
Safin tapped that treasure trove of home
movies for his film, which he entered into the Johnstown Film Festival, a
film shorts competition, that was held Sept. 10-12 in Johnstown.
“If I can hold someone's attention for 6{ 1⁄2} minutes, then I did a good job,” said Safin, whose film also has received over 3,000 views on social media.
As the title of his recent film suggests,
Safin makes a film of his bicycle ride around Roscoe, with him pedaling
on his mother's bicycle, with a basket in the front, and narrating the
story of his youth.
“I've always like to tell stories. Film is a
new way to tell a story, whether it is fact or fiction,” said Safin,
37, of Harrison City.
The trip down memory lane for Safin, as well
as a trip around town, is interspersed with a healthy dose of clips
from the home movies his father took. Among the old movies he used were
scenes of youngsters walking in the town's Halloween parade that
attracted hundreds of people; events at St. Joseph Catholic Church,
where he was baptized, had his confirmation and was an altar boy; and
his grandparents' house where he and his brother played wiffle ball and
held picnics.
The film includes shots of the building that
held a tanning salon he was managing when terrorists attacked the
United Stations on Sept. 11, 2001; the house where his parents lived
when his older brother was born; the Roscoe Presbyterian Church where
tickets to Kennywood amusement park were sold; and the Monongahela
River, which rose up to flood River Street in November 1985.
Safin offers a touching piece of philosophy near the end of the film...
Beginnings
Safin took a drama class at California Area High School and a series of video classes at St. Vincent College and liked it.
Safin, earned a bachelor of arts degree in
communication from St. Vincent College and a master of science degree in
multimedia technology from California University of Pennsylvania. He
also has a master of fine arts in film and digital technology from
Chatham University.
He has been a full-time faculty member at
St. Vincent for two years, but starting working part-time in 2003 an
adjunct faculty member for the communication and history departments and
as director of multimedia services, Safin said.
Additional resources
Join David Safin below on a bike tour of his hometown of Roscoe, PA. Along the way, he will tell you some stories about the place where he has raised.
Join David Safin below on a bike tour of his hometown of Roscoe, PA. Along the way, he will tell you some stories about the place where he has raised.
