Lights, camera, action! Sacramento State alumnus and former football player Ryan Coogler has made it big by writing, producing, directing and composing the music for a film that was chosen to be in The Delta Fly-In Movie Competition. This competition is a special contest co-sponsored by the Tribeca Film Festival and Delta Air Lines.

From thousands of entries, Coogler’s film was selected as one of five finalists to be viewed and rated by people on the Tribeca Film Festival website. Viewers’ rankings will determine the winning film, which will then be featured at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

Coogler submitted his film to the Tribeca Film Festival, which anyone with a film may enter. He had no idea the Delta Fly-In Movie Competition would be looking over the 2000-plus submissions and selecting five finalists.

His six-minute short is titled “Locks,” which refers to the hairstyles of people he knew growing up. Coogler got his inspiration from growing up in his hometown of North Oakland.

“The area where I’m from, the Bay Area, a lot of people wear their hair in that particular style (dreadlocks),” Coogler said..

Another theme in Coogler’s work is cancer, something he felt compelled to make a film about.

“Cancer is something that has touched my family quite a bit, I have lost a lot of relatives to it,” Coogler said “At the time I was making the film, my aunt, who passed away about a month ago, was just diagnosed with lung cancer.”

Coogler’s film differs from the other finalists because it contains no dialogue. There’s background noise and music, but there isn’t any conversation that drives the film.

Coolger said he is overwhelmed and proud.

“It still hasn’t really set in, and I still haven’t really realized the impact. It’s so crazy,” he said.

Fellow Sac State student JP Villa, junior theater major, was excited to hear about a Sac State alumnus’s quick progress in the world of film.

“It’s great to see a Sac State alum doing so well in the arts. Sacramento offers nothing for the arts so it’s nice to see that someone can do so well being so fresh from college,” Villa said.

Coogler is continuing his education as a graduate student at the University of Southern California School for Cinematic Arts. He graduated from Sac State in December 2007 with a degree in business. Just because Coogler was a business major, does not mean his film interest started after he left Sac State. In fact, his interest in film began before he even arrived at Sac State.

Prior to studying at Sac State, Coogler was a student at St. Mary’s College.

“I had a professor at St. Mary’s College. Her name was Rosemary Graham; she was an English teacher and she read a paper I wrote for creative writing and said I had visual writing. She recommended that I go to Hollywood and write screenplays,” Coogler said.

Coogler had never considered writing screen plays before that moment. When he arrived at Sac State, Coogler was further inspired by theatre and dance professor Roberto Pomo, who taught two film classes he took.

Pomo knew from having Coogler in class that he had a tremendous cinematic gift. Coogler stood out to Pomo.

“Ryan is an outstanding talent and I fully expect him to become a major contributor to the world of cinema. He is gifted, smart, armed with a thorough work ethic and a voluminous artistic and humanistic vision,” Pomo said.

Pomo said he could see Coogler’s talent in his critical way of thinking about classroom projects and situations.

“Ryan has always had an outstanding directorial eye, therefore his sense of visual aesthetics was always very keen,” he said.

For Pomo, Coogler’s film is just the type of work he would expect him to create.

“It’s Ryan Coogler to a T. He led the audience into the world of this character; we don’t know where this character is heading, but when we get to the end…we realize the humanity Ryan Coogler has,” he said.

Pomo, like Graham, said Coogler had a natural writing style for film.

“He was born to make films,” he said.

In comparing Sac State to USC, Coogler has found that the life he’s living now isn’t much different from the one he was leading playing football for Sac State.

“It’s real(ly) similar to being a student-athlete.

It’s like I’ve switched football for films and everything else stayed the same,” he said.

However, film keeps him busier than ever and his entire world revolves around it. He not only studies it in school, but devotes all his free time to film projects outside school.

“I sleep less now than I did when I was playing ball,” Coogler said.

Jacqueline Irwin is a communication studies professor who works with the football team as a mentor. Irwin has known Coogler since he started at Sac State and has always seen great potential in him.

“Success on the football field and success in life are fairly cyclical of one another. He was a really strong leader, he really has a good work ethic, too,” she said.

Irwin also went to art school as an undergraduate, so she knows what it takes to make it as an artist.

“He is so dedicated and he has the ability to translate his work ethic into his craft,” Irwin said.

Nora Aboali, senior theater major, is an actress and director and said she is inspired by Coogler’s accomplishment.

“I think it is phenomenal that a young guy from Sac State has made such an impact on the film world at such an early point in his career. For me, as an actress and director, this is very inspiring and it makes me excited to get out into the world and be a performance artist,” Aboali said.

Coogler said he aspires to set up his own production company in the Bay Area. He is actually in the process of doing just that right now, but it is a little difficult with school. Coogler hopes to one day distribute his films nationwide.

“I want to make films that people remember, films that stick with people, films that people talk about after they show them,” Coogler said.

To see Coogler’s film as well as the other finalists visit www.delta.com/marketing/flyinmovies/index.jsp. Voting ends April 12.

Cozette Roberts can be reached at [email protected]