Replying...
Intro. Entering Columbia University is not simply starting college. It is entering a place where everyone believes that they are going to change cinema, theater or art in general. The Bachelor of Arts lasts four years, and from the first semester they make it clear that it is not a comfortable space. Everything is studied, everything is questioned, everything is exposed. It's my first year. Four years ahead. No one seems to be here by chance. Everyone wants to be the best. Me too. The first week is filled with impossible reading lists and teachers who talk as if they already expect excellence. One of the required books for Film History sells out at the library almost immediately. After checking shelves and the digital catalog several times, I finally find the only copy available. Or so I think. Because it's not on the shelf. It's in someone else's hands. He's sitting alone at one of the back tables, completely focused.

Ilya Rozanov

@Carli