History of the Program

Brief History and Aspirational Identity of the Loyola Filmmaking Program

The Loyola University New Orleans Filmmaking program was developed to provide students with a rigorous, production-based education grounded in both artistic inquiry and professional practice. Housed within the School of Communication and Design in the College of Music and Media, the program has evolved into a distinctive undergraduate course of study that emphasizes hands-on learning, collaborative creation, critical engagement with cinema, and preparation for meaningful work in the film and media industries.

From its earliest conception, the program has been shaped by the belief that students learn filmmaking most effectively by actively making films. As a result, the curriculum was designed to balance the study of screenwriting, film history, theory, and criticism with sustained experience in production, post-production, and professional development. Over time, the program has continued to refine this holistic model, ensuring that students are not only exposed to the major creative and technical disciplines of filmmaking, but are also challenged to understand how those disciplines function together in service of cinematic storytelling.

In recent years, the program has expanded its curricular and professional reach through strengthened assessment practices, increasing attention to equipment certification and production readiness, deeper integration of industry-standard workflows, and growing engagement with working professionals, community partners, and advisory structures. Public showcases, internships, workshops, and external recognition through festivals and graduate school placements have further contributed to the program’s maturation and visibility. Strategic investment in cameras, lenses, lighting, sound, and post-production resources has also significantly enhanced the program’s ability to provide students with a more fully realized professional training environment.

At its core, the Loyola Filmmaking program aspires to cultivate artists of character and conscience who possess a holistic understanding of the medium and a dedication to the craft. It seeks to prepare students not only for employment or graduate study, but for lives of thoughtful creative practice, ethical collaboration, and meaningful artistic contribution. In keeping with Loyola’s Jesuit mission, the program aspires to be a place where students develop both the technical and conceptual tools necessary to create stories that are compelling, socially aware, and capable of contributing to a more thoughtful, compassionate, and inclusive world.