Image Credit: IFC Films
When actor Josh Radnor visited his alma mater in spring 2010, he was struck with a realization that hits many 30-somethings returning to their colleges – that the current students walking paths and studying in the same halls he had about 15 years prior looked so young.
“It was just this startling moment when I realized that I was nearly twice as old as the students there,” Radnor said of visiting Kenyon College to screen his directorial debut, happythankyoumoreplease. “It was really strange because my memories of college are so vivid. I felt like I was just there yesterday, and suddenly I was looking at these students saying, ‘We weren’t this young when we were here in school.’”
The How I Met Your Mother star then took that sentiment and turned it into an audience favorite film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Liberal Arts, Radnor’s second directorial endeavor, premiered at the Utah festival in January and began rolling out in theaters this weekend. (You can watch the trailer here.)
Liberal Arts, which Radnor also wrote and stars in, was shot at Kenyon College and in its surrounding village of Gambier, Ohio. Making the film gave Radnor the opportunity to both revisit his alma mater for the summer 2011 shoot (where the film crew stayed in student housing and ate in the dining hall, and current students filled several roles in the production and as extras) and also to delve into themes of nostalgia and change and what happens next after four years of a liberal arts education. READ FULL STORY »
