Devin Mendelson Honors Pandemic Victims Through Video
Latin School of Chicago alumnus helps honor victims
Clinton, NY (02/18/2021) — It was a pretty great winter-break job for a student of cinema: A Chicago musician hired Devin Mendelson to create videos for a website that remembers victims of the pandemic. As it turned out, his work was widely viewed.
Mendelson is a junior at Hamilton College, double majoring in cinema and media studies, and creative writing. He graduated from Latin School of Chicago.
Mendelson was eager to take on the video challenge. He'd followed the pandemic closely since its earliest days. "And so I wanted to do something about it, something to express how it has impacted people's lives. I'm grateful that it has not [led to] something horrible in my life, but I know that for millions of Americans, it has had a direct impact on them and their loved ones."
His videos are part of wehaveloved.com, a website created by composer and producer Ira Antelis as a musical memorial. Antelis asked Mendelson to create the videos to accompany instrumental songs that Antelis composed.
For the first song, titled "A Moment is All We Have," Mendelson used images and relatively few written words to complement the piece. The result was a video that has had upwards of 250,000 views and counting.
For the second, "A World In Mourning," Antelis asked Mendelson to use words rather than images. A lover of puzzles, Mendelson thought of a Scrabble board. "I've always been good at Scrabble. My dad hasn't beaten me since he taught me how to play," he said. The resulting video of interconnecting white words on a black background is starkly compelling. Mendelson has high expectations that it will exceed the number of views the first video received.
He's hoping his first paying job making a video will be followed by many more. And movies. Mendelson aspires to a career as a director and/or screenwriter. "I always loved shows, and I love creative writing. And I love seeing stories put onto the screen. I really like the relationship between stories that are written and the visualization of said stories on the screen," he said.
Originally founded in 1793 as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy, Hamilton College offers an open curriculum that gives students the freedom to shape their own liberal arts education within a research- and writing-intensive framework. Hamilton enrolls 1,850 students from 49 states and 49 countries. Additional information about the college can be found at www.hamilton.edu.
###
Media Attachments
Hamilton College junior Devin Mendelson created videos for a website that remembers victims of the pandemic.