A childhood love for performance art led Audrey Buffington ’24, a theatre major and business and film and digital media minor from Greenville, South Carolina, to make a short film about her experience. The film, “Love Letter to SCNPF,” recently earned first place in the AWE College Student Film Competition at the Tryon International Film Festival.
“My dream, as long as I can remember, has been to perform, and I’ve pursued that in every possible way,” Buffington says. “I’ve always been told I have to leave and go somewhere else. Then this festival showed up and said we have opportunities right here.”
Buffington, who has primarily engaged in acting in Wofford Theatre and various fringe productions, decided to step behind the camera and try her hand at telling her own story. Her film, largely inspired by her own life and artistic vision, included many videos from her childhood.
“When I was a kid, I discovered the photo booth program on my family computer,” she says. “That was my first chance to perform, and I filmed myself there. I included those clips in my film, along with footage from this past summer.”
She submitted the film not knowing what to expect. She was surprised when she received a congratulatory text from Yasmin Lee ’23 that let her know her film rose to the top. View the film.
Buffington has started work on another film, which is an even bigger project that has been keeping her occupied. Assisting her with the screenwriting is childhood friend Kevin Connaughton.
“Since I’ve begun working independently, I’ve realized that getting a space somewhere is huge,” Buffington says. “When you participate in theatre in something like Pulp Theatre at Wofford, all your resources and funding are already there. Breaking into the film world is so different, and it’s a new challenge.”