Photo by Maeve Macsorely

WRITTEN BY SPENCER WINDES

A lot of universities house academic publishing entities. Here at the U, there is the “Hinckley Journal of Politics” and “Quarterly West”, even the “Journal of Dark Sky Studies.” What’s rarer are journals that focus on undergraduate students — though, here at the U, there is “Range.” But now, housed in the Department of Film & Media Arts, is something truly singular: “Film Matters,” a journal not only for undergraduate students, but by undergraduate students.

“We feel that society benefits from engaging young voices,” said “Film Matters” Co-Editor-in-Chief Liza Palmer. “My co-editor-in-chief (and partner-in-crime) Tim Palmer and I always praise the enthusiasm and innovation of these young scholars.”

From Liza Palmer’s vision, she and Tim Palmer have built a magazine that embodies these values. It began when they were at the University of North Carolina – Wilmington, where they ran the Frank Capra Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Film Scholarship. “It got a lot of interest,” said Tim Palmer. “This showed to us that there was a gap in opportunities for undergraduates, an ability for them to share their work.” Liza wanted to expand on this, and had the idea to create an undergraduate film scholarship magazine.

Liza Palmer (left) andTim Palmer (right). Photos courtesy of the Palmers.

The Palmers took this idea to Masoud Yazdani, then chair of Intellect Press (where “Film Matters” print editions are published), emphasizing their “points about all of the great emerging voices who had no platform to speak,” Tim said, and they decided to start a magazine to create that platform.

The title comes from a concept Tim Palmer has coined in his research: “media citizenship.” The term implies “that images and sounds inform your engagement with the world, that your vantage point should be empowered by knowledge of media in all its global diversity,” said Palmer. “Hence: ‘Film matters.’”

“Film Matters” has grown and evolved as the Palmers have maintained an openness that has brought in collaborators and adapted to provide new opportunities. The magazine has established relationships with Georgia Tech, Chapman University, Queen Mary University of London, Bilkent University in Türkiye, and other institutions of higher education around the world. “Film Matters” moved to the University of Utah in 2025 after Tim Palmer joined the U as Professor and Chair of the Department of Film & Media Arts.

“This represents an enormous fresh-start opportunity, and we are [considering] ways the journal, and everyone connected to it, can benefit from the new berth, at an ambitious world-class university, in a major global hub of film and media culture,” the journal published in a statement at the time.

It’s the students who benefit the most, as they get to be directly involved in the publication of the “Film Matters” magazine.

U Film students join the magazine by enrolling in FILM 3920: Producing the Undergraduate Film Magazine. The students in the course become the editorial board for one of the magazine’s two annual issues. (The other issue and online content are run by editorial boards at different universities supported by faculty on the “Film Matters” advisory board).

The primary task for students in the course, says Liza Palmer, is to manage the peer review for their issue of “Film Matters.”

“They read through the external submissions ‘Film Matters’ receives as a result of our open calls for papers, ultimately deciding which essays are accepted or rejected.”

While that may sound straightforward, the course treats the peer review process very seriously. “We like to have all our submitting authors walk away from this process with constructive feedback as to how to develop their writing for a broader audience,” said Liza Palmer. “This is an important duty that the students exercise.”

The students prepare for this duty through the FILM 3920 course. The course covers professional communication, writing skills, publication ethics, plagiarism, AI, copyright, privacy, and data security. Additionally, the magazine offers internships over the summer for students to gain additional professional experience.

“These are real-world, transferable skills that will benefit any workplace,” said Liza Palmer. “Indeed, knowing how to give and receive constructive feedback in a collegial manner is an underappreciated art, one that sets students apart for increasingly competitive graduate school slots.” Liza Palmer notes that the ability to give a good peer review is an especially attractive skill for potential graduate students. The “Chronicle of Higher Education” has called it “the scholarly skill almost no one is teaching.”

“Film Matters” also goes beyond traditional scholarly writing. “We have students experimenting in a range of forms, from video essays for our website to poem responses to films,” said Liza Palmer. They also look for other opportunities for students, such as giving them books or films to review, or arranging for press passes to film festivals.

For student Soohwan Lee, being on the “Film Matters” editorial board has expanded her horizons. “I’ve really enjoyed seeing how diverse student film scholarship can be,” she said. “Everyone brings different interests, backgrounds, and perspectives, and being part of a journal that highlights those voices has been inspiring.”

Lee aspires to work in film marketing, distribution, or film festival programming, and feels that her experience in the course made her better prepared for her career — and upended some of her expectations. “I’ve been surprised by how collaborative the editorial process is. I expected a lot of individual work, but instead, I found that shaping an issue of a journal requires constant communication — discussing ideas, giving thoughtful feedback, and making decisions as a team.”

These soft skills go right back into the ethos of “Film Matters" which is to create a place that celebrates students and educators, and gives them a platform to speak. “Both Liza and I came from challenging points of origin, starting environments that didn't encourage us to speak or be heard,” said Tim Palmer. “We know the toll that takes. So ’Film Matters’ has above all been designed to remedy that, to get non-traditional people onto the record, to give them a place to explore their ideas and send them out into the world.”

And while “Film Matters” is most definitely a magazine — you can subscribe and get your own copy! — it’s also a larger project that will certainly become a point of pride at the University of Utah.

“‘Film Matters’ is much more than the sum of its parts,” says Tim Palmer. “Like Hitchcock, who — it is said, perhaps apocryphally — planned so meticulously in preproduction that he lost interest in the actual film, each issue of ‘Film Matters’ is almost a by-product, for me, of a much grander project. The final product, a true labor of love from all who will it into being, is the priceless experience these young authors and editors gain.”