Q&A with William Walker

William Walker has just completed his undergraduate education as a Cinema Studies Institute student and will be furthering his education when he begins his MA in Cinema Studies this Fall at Innis College, U of T. He is the recipient of multiple scholarships including the Mark and Lorraine Weisdorf Scholarship, the Nathan Taylor Scholarship, and the 2012 Atom Egoyan Cinema Studies Scholarship. His passion for film extends beyond his studies to his work experience. William is currently completing an internship with TIFF and hopes to gain more experience within the realm of cinema.

Tell us about yourself and about your experiences as a Cinema Studies student.

William: I’m a 21 year-old Cinema Studies and English Major currently finishing up my fourth year of undergraduate studies.

Above all, my experience in the Cinema Studies Institute(CSI) has been a wide-ranging one, involving everything from the radical feminism of Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen’s experimental Riddles of the Sphinx (1979) to the equally complex manipulations of onscreen space offered up by Johnnie To’s crime thriller PTU (2003). In pushing me to examine more closely and be more critical of the films I watch, my time as a CSI student has greatly improved my ability to coherently assess the image-making logic, all too often taken for granted, upon which our society has increasingly come to rely.

Any particular individual at Innis College or in your program who has had a significant impact on you? Any notable courses that have inspired you?

William: Taking Film History and Cult Cinemas with Rob King was a particular pleasure, as was Chinese Cinemas with Bart Testa. I am especially fond of the courses which have allowed me to engage more fully with the world beyond the University, like Critical Writing on Film with Jason Anderson, critic for Eye Weekly and The Toronto Star, and the internship I am currently completing with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the Film Programmes department.

Why did you choose to student Cinema Studies at Innis College, U of T?

William: I have been obsessed with movies for about as long as I can remember, and the Cinema Studies Institute just seemed like a natural fit. Toronto’s vibrant film culture, in tandem with the vast swath of titles which have become available through home video and various other channels in recent years, really makes this the ideal time/place to be a cinema lover.

Tell us about the Mark and Lorraine Weisdorf Family Scholarship. Did you apply, or were you nominated? How does it feel to be recognized?

William: The Mark and Lorraine Weisdorf Family Scholarship came as a complete surprise to me. I had applied for the Nathan Taylor Scholarship, and knew I would be receiving that, but the Weisdorf Scholarship was much unexpected indeed. The recognition is much appreciated, though it is no exaggeration to say that the privilege of being able to study films is a considerable reward in itself.

You recently found out that you will be receiving the 2012 Atom Egoyan Cinema Studies Scholarship. Congratulations! What was your reaction?

William: Aside from the prestige and monetary implications of receiving the award, I am very excited to be associated in even this small way with the name of a director whose work I so much admire. Mr. Egoyan’s sublime run of films from Next of Kin (1984) through The Sweet Hereafter (1997) is virtually unparalleled in the history of Canadian feature output, and the considerable recent financial success of Chloe (2009) has revealed him to be a director with equal parts business and artistic savvy. To be mentioned in the same breath as one of Canada’s foremost living artists is a great honour indeed.

What has been the highlight of your undergraduate education?

William: I think that the highlight was the sheer diversity of subject matter I was able to tackle. As a Cinema Studies/English double major, I took courses as wide-ranging as East Asian History, The Beatles, Renaissance Narrative, and Cult Cinema, to name just a few. U of T is a large school, no question, and the experience was occasionally a bit alienating as a result, but any such disappointments were more than made up for by the considerable variety of subject matter I managed to survey during my tenure as an undergraduate. I believe that one of my biggest strengths as a student is my curiosity, and as an undergraduate student, U of T provided me with no few opportunities to expand my intellectual horizons.

You are graduating this June. What are your plans post-graduation?

William?: I will be pursuing a Master’s degree in Cinema Studies this upcoming academic year, and after that I hope to do some travelling before narrowing down the precise field of film I would like to/can find work in, whether it be as librarian, critic, archivist, programmer, or some combination thereof.

What are you most looking forward to when you start your MA in Cinema Studies?

William: I am probably most excited about having the guaranteed opportunity to serve as an undergraduate Teachers’ Assistant (TA). Though the prospect makes me more than a little nervous, I think it will be a valuable way of building upon my own undergraduate experience, in which research and writing, rather than the more social aspects of campus life, were very much my focus. Along with the MA program’s admirably restricted enrolment size, among numerous other virtues, it should be an exciting year indeed.