Q&A with New WSU Film Program Director

Weber State University recently launched its film and digital media studies program. Award-winning filmmaker Ashkan “Ash” Soltani-Stone, newly hired assistant professor of film and digital media studies, answers questions about the program and about his filmmaking.

Q: What excites you most about the new film and digital media studies program at WSU?

A: I am excited about the interdisciplinary approach among the visual art and design, communication and English departments, which will promote collaboration between film students and faculty from different fields of study. 

Q: What will students gain by pursuing a degree in film and digital media studies? 

A: Students who enter the program will gain skills that are immediately marketable. Educated film and digital media professionals are being sought not only by the entertainment industry but also by regional and international businesses, nonprofits, health care providers and science and research foundations that are searching for specialists who can tell their stories to the public and to potential donors. 

Q: If you could make one film right now and had the resources for it, what theme would it have?  

A: I recently wrote a screenplay (inspired by a true story) for a feature-length comedy about the misadventures of two aging “headbangers” who escape the nursing home to attend a heavy metal festival. I believe comedy is an ideal format to deal with serious themes such as melancholy and mortality in a subtle way. 

Soltani-Stone earned his Master of Fine Arts in Film and Media Production from the University of Utah. 

In his films, Soltani-Stone explores a wide range of topics such as affordable housing, immigrant workers, indigenous land rights and subversive music. Soltani-Stone’s latest project, Rez Metal, is a feature-length documentary about the heavy metal music scene and underground youth culture on the Navajo Nation Reservation. 

Soltani-Stone established the film production program at Minnesota State University, Mankato and taught at the AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts and Whittier College in Los Angeles before joining WSU.