This week The Argus sat down with Eliot Kimball ’24 to talk about his experiences in creative collaboration at the University. From senior film thesis sets to the soccer pitch, from Connecticut all the way to Seville, Spain, Kimball combines his passions to try and make social change. Not to mention his documentary work on the New Haven carceral system, one of the many side projects that have contributed to Kimball’s unique experience.  

The Argus: What are your majors and how did you choose them?

Eliot Kimball: I’m a film and Spanish double major. I did a lot of documentary work my senior year of high school into the beginning of Wesleyan, and I’m still doing that work. So, I kind of knew that I wanted to do something film-related. And then, [I added] Spanish a little bit later on. I honestly had no intention of doing Spanish when I got here. My first semester, I took [“Introduction to Hispanic Literatures and Advanced Practice in Spanish” (SPAN221)] with my brother [Lucas Kimball ’21], who was a junior, and we were the worst two Spanish speakers in the class. But it was fun to take that class with him. Then, I decided to go abroad to Madrid, which was spectacular, and after that, I only had three credits left. 

I think my favorite class I have ever taken is “Screening Youth in Latin American Cinema” [(SPAN280)] with Associate Professor of Spanish] Maria Ospina, which I took right before I went abroad. That was the perfect symbiosis of my two interests in film and Spanish. It was awesome to think about Latin American history and culture through cinema. I’m a hands-on learner, so film has been a great way for me to learn and get exposed to different perspectives. In my own work, that’s what I hope to do as well: broaden perspectives and create more empathy for other people by allowing them to see the world from a different perspective. I got to learn so much about Latin American culture on a micro-scale through stories of youth and children. I got a lot more out of that class than I would have if it was through the lens of Latin American literature.

A: Speaking of your own work, can you tell me a little bit about the film thesis process? 

EK: Absolutely. I am doing a digital film thesis, which I’ve been working on for a ton of hours. I actually just did my first weekend of shooting this past weekend, which was great. The thesis is about a grieving old man, his rambunctious nine-year-old niece, and a children’s dance competition that they do together. I wanted to combine comedy with a family drama, sort of like “Aftersun” or “Little Miss Sunshine.” I’ve also been doing a ton of pre-production stuff. 

Senior thesis films have been something that I’ve always loved doing. Every fall I’ve been at Wesleyan, I’ve worked on thesis films and it’s been such a great way to get to know people from different class years and find people that you like collaborating with. You really get to know people in a much more intimate way because you’re working on a film set with them for 12 hours, four days over the course of two weekends. I’ve learned so much about what not to do working on thesis sets because I’ve worked on some strong thesis sets and a lot of not-so-strong thesis sets. The beauty of being involved in it is that it’s such a learning process, and I’m even experiencing that now, having worked on eight over my years, which is two to three a year.

There was a documentary that I directed this past spring, called “Free Maleek” about a man who’s been wrongfully incarcerated in New Haven for over 30 years. I got involved in that project through the [Digital Design Commons (DDC)], which is a new thing on campus that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in digital media or video creation or photography. It’s an open resource on campus for anyone to check out equipment and then also get involved with student productions. Pedro Bermudez, who was the person in charge of the DDC, reached out to me after I got back from abroad because he had seen some other work that I had done and asked if I wanted to edit this project. There wasn’t really a director at the time, and I sort of became the director. It was a ton of hours last spring working on this. We had countless hours of footage, and we wanted to get it down to 10 to 15 minutes. The film came to life through the editing because we had all this raw footage.

We released the film at the beginning of the summer, and amazingly, it had a pretty big impact in the movement to have Maleek’s case be relooked at, and ultimately, towards the end of the summer, Maleek’s case was overturned. I think the documentary made a contribution to that, which is a pretty amazing thing. And so at the beginning of October, I was able to be there in person when Maleek came out and got to meet him. It was a pretty special moment because one of the first things that he wanted to do when he got out was see the documentary because he hadn’t seen it. I got to be there when he watched it for the first time, and I got to film that. I’m hoping to turn it into a larger project because Maleek’s case is just one of many Black men in the ’80s and ’90s in New Haven who were targeted by a corrupt police system and were framed for cases and put behind bars for decades and decades for crimes that they didn’t do.

This movement is just [beginning] now and there have been some other people—Maleek hasn’t been exonerated yet, so his fight is still ongoing—exonerated and men in New Haven who have gotten large settlements from the state. The very same prosecutors who were involved in their cases went on to become prominent judges in the state. There are lots of other men who are still incarcerated who had the same prosecutors. The top needs to be blown off this corruption. My hope is that there can continue to be a partnership between Wesleyan on these projects to create more media and content and awareness. This would put more pressure on the court system in New Haven to get these cases looked at and ensure that the people who committed these acts of harm can be brought to justice.

A: What has it been like for you working on this project? It seems like it’s been a very long, intense process.  

EK: It has been long, and ongoing, but so, so inspiring at the same time, and such a great example of how it’s so important to create narratives around social justice issues because using film or other media as a means to educate and broaden perspectives and build empathy is such a powerful tool. That’s something that I’ve learned firsthand on this project.

I’ve also learned [that] it’s such a collaborative thing to work on a film or a creative project like this, and there were countless other Wesleyan students who also have been involved. It’s been so inspiring to work with them and get feedback from them and other Wesleyan students who have since graduated but were helping me throughout the editing and filming process. I hope that collaboration can continue to grow beyond my time here with activists who are doing the work in New Haven. Because I know that there’s a lot of Wesleyan students who want to get involved with projects like this but sometimes don’t know the correct avenues. I hope that the DDC can also be a hub for that kind of social justice content and work to continue to exist, along with students doing their own personal projects.

A: Can you tell me a little bit more about what else you’ve been involved with during your time here on campus?

EK: Between the senior thesis films, which happen often in the fall, I’ve done artist spotlights through film and short videos. I’m also the captain of the club soccer team, which takes up a good amount of my time. It’s a really fun way to play soccer at a competitive level, but also have it be fun and casual with a community of people who like to socialize together. It’s kind of the perfect balance for someone like me who has been an athlete but never wanted to do a varsity sport. Doing club has allowed me to branch out and explore all these other interests of mine. I’ve had such a great experience doing club sports, and now to be a leader of a club sport—it’s awesome to be meeting freshmen and sophomores and hopefully being a mentor for them as well.

I guess one other thing—maybe you could connect this to what I was saying earlier about my Spanish and film interest—but I got a summer grant this past summer, because in the fall when I was abroad, I went to Seville, and my old soccer coach lives in Seville, and does a lot of work with refugee soccer players there. I was interested in telling the story, because not a lot of people know about the refugee situation in Spain, and Spain is one of the European countries that’s taking the most refugees. So I applied for this grant and got to be in Seville this summer, making a short documentary about the refugee experience there, and specifically one refugee, Alpha, who left his country of Liberia when he was 13 and walked 6000 miles over the course of six years, by himself, trying to find a place that felt safe and secure, and where he could build a life for himself. He traveled through Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar and made it to Spain when he was 19.

He was this prodigy of a soccer player when he was a kid. It’s a story of inspiration because when he made it to Spain, he was able to rekindle his love of soccer and rebuild a community there around soccer, and now is a mentor to these other refugees, who are younger and coming and wanting to play soccer. He is helping create this new refugee soccer team called El Sol there. Alpha and I spent a ton of time together this summer, filming him and just hanging out and playing soccer together. It was kind of the perfect combination of my interests in film and social justice or social impact work in Spanish and in soccer. Wesleyan was the thing that allowed me to do that. I’m so grateful that I was able to get that grant and have that opportunity. I’m in the process of editing that documentary right now. But it’s sort of on the back burner as I finish my thesis stuff.

A: As your Wesleyan career is coming to an end, what are you looking forward to in the future? What’s next for Eliot Kimball?

EK: I hope to be able to continue the work I’ve done with the wrongful convictions in New Haven. And there’s some possibilities that maybe someone would want a feature film made about the wrongful convictions in New Haven and the corruption on a larger scale. So there’s a possibility that I would be in New Haven after I graduate working on that, which is a pretty amazing opportunity and experience. I also applied to the Fulbright Program [to teach] English in Argentina and I’m waiting to hear back from that. But I hope to be living in a Spanish-speaking country…potentially teaching English or doing some filmmaking-related opportunity. My hope is that I can continue to expand on both [of] those interests and do some sort of adventure after I graduate.

A: Looking back, what advice would you give to underclassmen about your experience at Wesleyan and about being here? 

EK: I would say from my experience, you definitely get what you put into this experience at Wesleyan. I would just say dive into as many new experiences as you possibly can. If you’re not finding the experiences that you want, try to make your own experiences. For me, that means as a sophomore film major where I wasn’t able to make any film stuff, I really wanted to make a music video. I assembled a crew and we made this music video. It wasn’t about the music video itself but it was about the act of creating something and collaborating with other people. I met all these new friends through that experience and many of them are now working on my thesis.

I think my most valuable experiences at Wesleyan have been outside of the classroom, honestly. I think that what sets Wesleyan apart from a lot of other schools is that there’s a lot of people here who want to work on things, who want to make stuff, who want to be involved with things other than academics. I would definitely do as much of that as you possibly can. It’s the best way to get to know people and make friends and also have a better sense of what you want to do and what you like doing.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Lia Franklin can be reached at lfranklin@wesleyan.edu.

Vasilia Yordanova can be reached at vyordanova@wesleyan.edu.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Maleek’s name. The article has been updated.