Students at the University of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay Campus are not unfamiliar with the ocean, but on Friday they were offered another opportunity to deepen their appreciation through the Ocean State of Mind Film Fest in the Coastal Institute Auditorium.
Eight short films from local and international authors were screened, involving themes of interpretive dancing, photographing climate change and dealing with grief by carrying a rock several miles through Easton Bay. That last film, titled “Tuckerman’s Rock,” directed by Kelly L. Riley was the main feature of the night.
The film was inspired by events that Riley’s friend, Damien Ewans, experienced during the summer of 2020. Stuck inside due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ewans escaped the confinement of his house with his friends to Beavertail State Park. While there, he witnessed the tragic drowning of a boy. He was profoundly affected by his passing and kept dwelling on it. Despite his training as a meditation and mindfulness teacher at Stanford University, he found it difficult to manage his mental state after the incident.
Trying to find a way to process this newfound grief, he kept active in his favorite location: the ocean. Ewans decided on a whim to set out and walk a large rock across the bottom of Easton’s Bay. He spent much of his summer dedicated to this task while attempting to reconnect with the ocean and manage his grieving process. Despite his inhibitions, he claimed that new possibilities “emerge one breath at a time.”
During this journey, he also reconnected with old friend Riley, a filmmaker who attended Rhode Island School of Design in the 1990s. After the screening, Ewens described Riley as a story hunter.
“He just leaned in and told me ‘I think there’s a story worth telling here,’” Ewens said.
Riley and several production assistants from his production company High Proof Films went out into the bay with Ewans to film the process, according to Riley.
“It was a collaboration and a good opportunity to just be in the water,” Riley said. “It felt really good because it was different than making something for a client—something made together, enjoyed together.”
After the film was edited and finalized, the two toted it to various film festivals across the country. The film was selected for showing at the Boston Independent Film Festival and won the Best Documentary Short award at the Sea Film Festival and the Block Island Film Festival in 2024. Additionally, it was screened at the 25th annual San Diego Undersea Film Exhibition, where many of its own works were also shown at the Ocean State of Mind Film Fest.
Riley and Ewans also organized the event, describing the audience turnout as “really pleasant.” Riley was amazed how many people RSVP’d, as it was a free public event. They expressed their gratitude to the Coastal Institute for allowing them the space necessary to put such an event on and the 401 Tech Bridge and the RISE-UP program for sponsoring the event. They indicated interest in making the event an annual occurrence, stressing the importance of coming to a space and enjoying the subject matter in an “unbroken, connective way.”
While the film “Tuckerman’s Rock” is not currently online for public viewing, it will come to other local and national festivals in the future, according to Riley and Ewans. More of Riley’s work can be found on High Proof Films’ website. Riley is currently pursuing personal and commercial filmmaking, while Ewans continues his work for his company Ocean State of Mind, which provides health and wellness services, prioritizing stress management and deepening one’s connection with nature. Follow their journey on their website , Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.