From September 17–20, 2026, 12 JCU students and alumni traveled to the northern Italian city of Trento to attend the 2026 Religion Today Film Festival, as part of their internship with So Fare Films, an independent production house founded by JCU Professor Jenn Lindsay. The festival marked the premiere of Animananda, a 20-minute short documentary produced by So Fare Films in collaboration with JCU students.
Animananda
Animananda, directed by Professor Jenn Lindsay, is a series of interviews with people from different religious backgrounds who discuss the religious traditions they inherited. Lindsay described the project as “an exploration of how we make meaning through spirituality". The film’s title comes from the words anima, derived from Latin (breath, soul), and ananda from Sanskrit (bliss, realization).
The inspiration for the documentary was drawn from philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the concept of the “Three Metamorphoses,” which he uses to illustrate the three stages of life as camel, lion, and child. The camel is burdened with the weight of traditions, rituals, and unquestioned belief. The lion resists these regulations by gaining awareness, pushing back, and questioning the very systems that shaped its faith. Finally, the child emerges with innocence and playful energy, and it is capable of creating meaning and freedom. Animananda reveals how these stages in metamorphosis coexist within us by asking what it means to inherit a worldview, question it, transform it, and continue evolving.
Religion Today Film Festival
Religion Today Film Festival was launched in 1997 as the first international, traveling festival of religious cinema and designed to promote a culture of peace and dialogue between individuals, people, faiths, and cultures. This year, Religion Today reached more than 2,000 students through its educational activities, while more than 1,000 people attended screenings and events in cinemas and theaters.
During the festival, students attended not only film screenings but also masterclasses, cultural events, and social gatherings, meeting filmmakers, actors, festival organizers, and audiences from different backgrounds. It was an opportunity to experience what happens around a film once it leaves the hands of its creators and enters a festival setting. The combination of screenings and encounters contributed to what JCU production intern Matrena Uvarova described as feeling “like being part of a big family.”
One of the key contributors to Animananda is JCU student Nathan Flores, who is the documentary’s composer, sound designer, and co-writer. Reflecting on his creative process, he explained: “I usually find my creative projects quite challenging, but as the film's composer, sound designer, and one of its screenwriters, I enjoyed the process more than I struggled with it. Composing the score felt like an exploration; it was about translating the atmosphere of the Three Metamorphoses, the narrators, and the animation into sound, rather than simply meeting deadlines.”
For Nathan, the most rewarding part of the experience was the opportunity to create something meaningful. “What was most rewarding was creating something that we believe will create a positive impact on how we see diversity. Going to the Religion Today Film Festival in Trento and seeing how many people appreciated the film was the cherry on top of this process.” He added, “I believe we created a film in which anyone can recognize themselves, regardless of their religion.”
After working on the documentary, watching it as an audience created a completely different experience for the So Fare Films team. “I loved watching Animananda being screened as it allowed us to share our work directly with an audience,” said Catalina Perez Fernandez, a JCU student who worked on the film’s production design.
Why Film Festivals Still Matter
That experience also raised a broader question: what does a film festival offer that watching a film online cannot? Matrena commented on the value of the community surrounding film: “Smaller festivals like Religion Today are a symbol of love towards art and provide a place where filmmakers can meet, share their work, and spend time immersed in cinema.”
For Nathan, the answer is human connection. “There is a different energy when things are in person,” he said. "When a film is watched online, it can be easy to separate the finished product from the people who created it. At a festival, those people are in the room. The audience can ask them questions, hear their stories, and see their excitement about their work.”
“For So Fare Films and JCU students, the trip to Trento was more than attending a festival. It was an opportunity to experience cinema as a shared process, especially one that continues long after a film has been finished,” director Jenn Lindsay said.
