“The only reason I am still here is is because God used the community of believers to support me in my healing,” Barnard said. “It wasn’t me going to church but the church coming to me.”

Much like the rest of the College of Arts and Sciences in October, the Film and Digital Media department is abuzz with classes, screenings and filmmaking. For those in other departments, filmmaking may seem like more fun than it is toil. But even just a five-minute film can take weeks and even months of work, according to Waco senior Avery Ballmann.

With less than 2 weeks until the presidential election, tensions are high across the country. A February 2024 Pew poll found that 65% of Americans are exhausted by politics and 55% are angry when they think about politics.

“Greatness is subjective to some degree,” Kendrick said. “But to me, it’s the effectiveness of what they create. So if Steven Spielberg is trying to create a film that’s going to move you emotionally in a certain way or get you to feel or think about certain things, and he does that effectively, there’s a kind of greatness and that’s hard to do.”