University of Denver film studies student Débora Rocha officially wrapped her first student short film as a director and one of the writers for “Party Quest” in early April. As a third-year international student from Brasília, Brazil, the feeling of wrapping came as a relief and a childhood dream came true.
“I think since I was a kid, I always knew that I wanted to tell stories. I knew narrative film was the right place for me to tell those stories. I always felt the imaginary and the idea of telling your story from a different world that didn’t necessarily exist was important to me. I think directing this film was the first time that I was able to challenge myself to do something like that, which was awesome. It’s kind of amazing to see what we’re doing together,” Rocha said.
Rocha knew that she wanted to study film in the United States early. “I grew up with American films and foreign films, but no films from Brazil. I knew that I wanted to come to the US because of how much I liked the style of filmmaking,” Rocha said.
The MFJS major in Film Production and Studies requires a capstone course in either narrative or documentary film—each is a 20-week, two-quarter process that encompasses pre-production, production and post-production of a short film. Students form groups and choose an original first draft script submitted by the students in the class. This year, the narrative capstone was offered and Rocha, a third-year, enrolled and submitted her draft of a script for the film “Party Quest.” Scripts go through heavy rewriting processes before casting and actual production begins.
“I was originally the one that wrote Party Quest. Kiera, David and Rachel also wrote the other drafts with me. And it got chosen to be produced! We got a group, and we started writing it together …I think we accomplished something far greater than I ever expected we could, which is amazing. I mean, I look at the story now [and] I see something much deeper and fascinating, a much more involved story,” Rocha expressed.
“Party Quest” is a heartwarming comedy about a college student with autism, Austin, played by student David Freyre, who just lost his best friend, played by Darius Cade. This friend becomes the narrator of an epic tale of Austin moving on. The film follows handling grief and finding what the next step is—in Austin’s case, allowing himself to be in an environment that is not necessarily the most welcoming for him.
Rocha and her filmmaking team, consisting of sound supervisor and editor Kiera O’Neill , director of photography Rachel Birnkrant and co-executive producer David Freyre, bring a noticeably welcoming sense of community to the set crew and cast. Rocha explained that her team is one of her main motivations during the long set hours and long nights of filming or editing.
“My group keeps me motivated. I think knowing that you found people that you have such great chemistry with and people that love a project as much as you do is amazing. You reach this point where you’re like, ‘Okay, we’re doing this together, we’ve got to keep going and rooting for it,’” Rocha said.
Rocha’s initial inspiration for the original script of “Party Quest” was drawn from a personal experience with a diagnosis of autism late last year.
“At the same time [as writing the script], I had started seeking counseling because I had a hard time with people and time. Even though I was thriving in school, I felt I wasn’t thriving with anything else. I started writing the original draft of ‘Party Quest’ the day I found out I was diagnosed with Autism. It’s a crazy origin story for the ‘Party Quest’ script. I decided that I wanted to write a story about an openly autistic character because I thought the media doesn’t portray many characters within the spectrum. I thought, well, this is a great time to do that and tell the story from a perspective that I know,” Rocha voiced.
Rocha and her team started filming “Party Quest” during the weekend of National Autism Day, on April 2, 2022. In addition, Freyre, the leading actor, is also openly on the spectrum. Being on set, it’s easy to feel a sense of community and belonging from the cast and the crew. Rocha credits this to the “holistic and welcoming experience” that comes with studying film at the MFJS Department at DU.
From left to right: Darius Cade, playing Jack/narrator, David Freyre, playing Austin and co-executive producer, Débora Rocha, director, co-executive producer and director). This photo is featured in the film as main character Austin reminisces about his passed friend, Jack. | Courtesy of Débora Rocha“I think the film program at DU is holistic because you learn documentary, narrative, cinematography, scriptwriting [and] directing; you have all of those different classes that kind of prepare you from doing whatever you want …I don’t think I would get this community and this amount of knowledge or support from anywhere else,” Rocha said.
The “Party Quest” team was awarded the winner of DU’s Pitch Fest earlier this year. You can follow the film’s progress on Instagram. There are four other DU student short films currently being produced alongside “Party Quest.” They include “The Bird of Paradise,” “Orchid” and “Lemonade.” All the student short films from this year will be premiered on June 9 in Davis Auditorium in Sturm Hall alongside a selection of music videos being produced in a separate film production class.
