A junior at Rutgers University will turn to his love of filmmaking to assist in funding his senior thesis.
Charles de Agustin, a double major in philosophy and filmmaking, is currently running a crowdfunding campaign while he is attempting to create a feature-length narrative film that shines a light on the dangers of sexual assault throughout Greek life on college campuses.
The film entitled, “Good Men,” is a narrative thriller about a college freshman who questions his commitment to the fraternity he’s pledging when he discovers that a brother raped his best friend.
“I absolutely love Rutgers and New Brunswick, but I think it goes without saying that no matter where you go in the school, there’s going to be qualms and downsides,” de Agustin said. “Something that has always surrounded me is Greek life and living on this campus specifically. I considered briefly joining Greek life my first semester, but it wasn’t right for me. I’ve always had friends involved and I’ve always been surrounded by it. Something that has been always problematic about those social spaces, and the impact of some of the problems have translated to themes in my creative output.”
de Agustin previously wrote a short film revolving around the same themes earlier in his undergraduate career.
“It was kind of absurd in a sense, but it’s exploring contemporary masculinity, rape culture and cultural appropriation through the lens of Greek life,” he said. “Of course, this is the space that I am focusing on, but the themes I’m focusing on are much more widely applicable. I was proud of that short film, but I was left feeling unfulfilled in a sense. I felt that there was a lot more that I wanted to say about that environment.”
Not many college students have created full feature-length films while studying at school. Most students have extended shorts that run over 20 minutes, but de Agustin wants to have his first feature-length film under his belt by the end of his undergraduate career and has his own ideas on how he will create it.
“I’m not in love with a traditional narrative, Hollywood form of film,” he said. “This is still a loose narrative but it’s kind of forming a character that’s worth following over the course of an extensive period of time.”
de Agustin formed his love for filmmaking early on in life in his pre-teens. Through growing up in Princeton Junction, de Agustin was fortunate enough to express his passion before he even got into high school.
“I’ve been into filmmaking since middle school,” he said. “I was lucky enough to find something that kind of clicked early on. I had this really great teacher, I was given enough freedom to just run wild with the medium. From that point on, I eventually got a little camera as a gift, and I was just always making my own little videos. It felt like the next logical step to pursue it academically. My path right now, is to slowly but surely make more ambitious projects.”
de Agustin refers to this project as very ambitious, not just in a personal way but in an abstract form as well.
“I think this is conceptually ambitious,” he said. “I don’t think there’s been a film to explore these themes in an accessible way for the people who really need to hear the message. One thing that I am really focusing on is that I really don’t want to make a horror film. I think that you need to straddle a very careful line revealing these realities in subtle ways. Sometimes when you show these things in not so blatant ways, you’re going to be shut down and people aren’t going to be receptive to it.”
de Agustin said that the script for “Good Men” was informed by true stories.
“I’m not fabricating obscene lies about these spaces, I’m trying to be as true to them as possible,” he said. “It’s not all rape and murder, of course there are benefits to being involved in that Greek life culture. You have community, support, the professional benefits. But it gets to a certain point where it’s difficult to appreciate the good things. That’s what I’m trying to convey.”
Through de Agustin’s film he wants people to take home something with them after viewing his feature-length narrative.
“I hope what people get out of this film is the themes of sexual assault, that takes priority for me,” he said. “I want the impact to be making sure that other people get a new understanding on the issue. How victims really do cope with the aftermath of an assault, but also the innerworkings of this silence in this culture.”
de Agustin began his crowdfunding campaign on Sept. 17. Though he is only a junior, he would like to make “Good Men” as impactful as possible and that is why he is starting so early on senior thesis project.
“I have just always really enjoyed pushing myself and putting myself outside of comfort zone and being okay with the possibility of falling on my face,” he said. “I just want to keep myself as motivated as possible.”
The film will be relying entirely on NJ cast, crew, resources, and hopefully NJ financing. Learn more and contribute today at bit.ly/goodmenfilm.
