National filmmakers, journalists, video game creators and more flocked to McMinnville Nov. 9 and 11.
Some pretty extraordinary things happened on Linfield University’s McMinnville campus Nov. 9 and 11 during the inaugural NW Media Fest: Entertainment, News and Gaming.
It’s not every day that you get to hear the inside story of how Oregon’s largest newspaper covers the election … while that election is still happening. Yet Therese Bottomly, executive editor and vice president of content for The Oregonian/OregonLive, was on campus Wednesday as part of the first-ever NW Media Fest, sharing insights even as her team was back in Portland crunching voter results.
That evening, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Kurkjian, having flown in from Boston, held an audience rapt with tales of being a founder of the famed Boston Globe ‘Spotlight’ team, and about the biggest art heist in U.S. history — and how he got to the bottom on the case in his definitive book, “Master Thieves.”
Friday found celebrity chef Susan Feniger and her partner Liz Lachman, an Emmy Award-winning composer and filmmaker, discussing everything from how to find the best street food in Laos to ways Lachman used cheerful music to instill psychological dread in soap opera audiences. Later that same day, entertainment and video game writers Liz Albl (Ghost of Tsushima; Far Cry 4 and 5; Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag) and Anne Toole (Assassin’s Creed: Curse of the Pharoahs; “Lizzie Bennet Diaries”, “Stargate SG-1”) unpacked the nature of storytelling, and how they are able to straddle the worlds of TV, video games and comics.
“It was incredible to see a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, documentarian, Emmy-winning songwriter, a celebrity chef and not one but two incredibly successful female game creators,” Cindy (Macho) Johnson ‘81 said. “You just don’t see that kind of firepower in the same place at the same time.”
“They were all so generous and engaging — it was thrilling,” added her husband Neville, also an entertainment attorney. The couple first envisioned the event, then used their vast connections within the entertainment industry to bring luminaries to McMinnville to connect directly with Linfield students.
In addition to the larger public events, students engaged directly with the guest speakers in a variety of smaller settings – from casual meals to tabletop conversations and a storytelling workshop.
“I spoke to an anthropology major who intends to write video games, and this event allowed him to ask questions directly to people at the top of their game in the field he wants to go into,” said Kevin Curry, assistant professor and event organizer. “Because of Linfield’s size he didn’t just raise his hand during a presentation — he got to chat with them afterward, and they invited him to reach out and stay in touch.”
Several of the events were exclusively for students and the Linfield community, including a presentation from Kurkjian on how two men managed to make off with an estimated half billion dollars in artwork from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; a conversation between Bottomly and Kurkjian on how public records requests strengthen the entire community; and a storytelling workshop from Albl and Toole where they unpacked how techniques differ across media.
Wednesday’s journalism portion of the event was sponsored by the Bladine family, publishers of the News-Register and long-time supporters of both Linfield and the greater McMinnville area; two generations — publisher Jeb Bladine and editor Ossie Bladine — were on-hand for the day’s activities. Support also came from Clackamas Federal Credit Union (CFCU), which will soon open its first branch in McMinnville.
For her part, the Johnsons hope this is the first of many NW Media Fests to come.
“This is the beginning of something sensational,” Neville said.
“We’re going to put Linfield on the map as the university in Oregon that welcomes this kind of creativity,” Cindy concluded.
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NW Media Fest was presented with the generosity of Cindy (Macho) ‘81 and Neville Johnson as well as the Bladine family and organized by the Department of Journalism and Media Studies in partnership with the Office of University Advancement.
