Tim Reavis, an alum with a bachelor’s in psychology, watched a video of his life flash before his eyes Feb. 20 at the digital media lab in the D.H. Hill Library. Reavis has relived these moments many times before, through introspective poetic reflection and spoken word performances, but for the first time he saw the rendition of his life from an outside perspective.

With the cinematographic help of business alum Josh Bielick and Nick Sailer, a senior in industrial design, Reavis retold his childhood struggles in a five-minute film, The Strong One, and it has gained international attention.

With only a week of film production allotted this past February, the trio traveled between Raleigh and Durham creating a short film for the 2012 Campus MovieFest. Reavis wrote the script, Bielick was the cinematographer and Sailer directed. During the early morning hours of Feb. 20, the team finished a rough cut.

The final product, The Strong One, won Campus MovieFest’s Audience Choice Award and the international award for best picture and best director. In May, the annual Cannes Film Festival in France also showed their film as part of its Short Film Corner. Thousands of audiences and movie lovers have seen The Strong One either at Hollywood, Cannes, online, in Campus MovieFest’s newsletters or while flying on Virgin America airline as part of the in-flight movie package. 

Although the team did not have time to review the film until two days before it was due, Reavis said he was pleased with the next-to-no budget independent film.

“I remember sitting there and of course it blew my expectations,” Reavis said.

Reavis was not the only one impressed with the film. Because of the positive responses to their work, the trio had the opportunity to travel with Campus MovieFest to Hollywood where they presented their film in front of almost 1,000 other student filmmakers.

Reavis said some of the most rewarding comments harp on the honesty of the poetry and the presentation of common childhood struggles., On the surface, The Strong One is about a boy who wanted to ride a brontosaurus through Durham, while the deeper meaning addresses difficult events Reavis experienced in his childhood. 

“Eventually, the dinosaur came to be a re-visitation of some scenes in my past in growing up… it kind of became a way for me to reconcile those situations,” Reavis said.

In the film, a young Reavis deals with a childhood crush, sketchy neighborhoods and his parents’ divorce. These were all events Reavis experienced as a boy.

“[The film] is about revisiting those scenes that make you feel weak or make you feel inadequate as a kid or make you feel scared,” Reavis said. “It was cathartic for me, and it was therapeutic for me. I think that that’s all that anyone who does any creative endeavor can ask for-to be able to take some of the bad things that have happened to you and see something beautiful come out of it, something that helps others.”

According to Bielick, Reavis’s honest writing is what helps audiences relate to the character and is what elevated to film to the work of art that earned national recognition.

“It can only truly be art if you are being completely open,” Bielick said. “Otherwise it’s going to be invented and people are going to be like, ‘this is pretentious. I can’t connect with it because I know you didn’t connect with it.'”

Dan Costa, a founder and president of Campus MovieFest, said the success of The Strong One exemplifies what Campus MovieFest is all about.

“Our goal, since day one, has been to provide the opportunity for students to share their stories with the world,” Costa said. “We think The Strong One is an amazing story, backed by really fantastic filmmaking.”

Bielick said he is happy there is still an audience for films like The Strong One.

“I think it’s a beautiful story of how art still has relevance to people,” Bielick said. “I’ve seen some stuff like locally about some scholarships and funds for those who want to achieve something artistic are no longer available and I just get in the dumps… I think seeing people respond to [the film], emotionally responding and financially responding, it just shows that there is art to be appreciated and that people still value it a lot. There is an opportunity for people to create and there is an opportunity for people to support creators.”