By Liz DeFluri

A group of recent Virginia Commonwealth University graduates will premiere their documentary shorts this weekend at the Washington West Film Festival in Northern Virginia.

At 1:30 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 10, the five shorts will be screened at the Look Dine-In Cinemas at Reston Town Center during a session of the Oct. 9-13 festival. The films were created as part of VCU assistant professor Robert Milazzo's yearlong capstone project class - (CAP)SULE: New Voices in VA ­- through the Richard T. Robinson School of Communication, part of the College of Humanities and Sciences.

Each former student - 20 in total - pitched an idea, and the class chose five concepts to make into films. They worked in groups of three to five to shoot, produce, direct and edit the films that will be screened at the festival: "After Class," "Eyes On Me," "Film Team," "Undercurrent" and "What It Takes." The overarching theme of the films is "When No One's Watching."

Milazzo developed (CAP)SULE so his fourth-year students could achieve professional success and have public-facing appointments during their final year at VCU. The first cohort graduated this year.

"I feel like part of my responsibility as an educator is to build a happening," Milazzo said. "I know that students at this point in their training are thinking about the future, and I wanted to build things into it that I feel are important to them and to give them more agency. They're seniors and have earned this moment."

To enhance the collaborative element of the projects, Milazzo reached out to graduate composers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Berklee College of Music in Boston, who developed custom scores for each film.

"Sometimes I don't think undergraduates realize that other graduates feel the same way, and there's a great community there," Milazzo said. "It's really been a group hug, and something we don't have the opportunity to do a lot."

Nellie Suleymanian, a mass communications major and August 2026 graduate who co-directed and co-produced "After Class," said she never typically looked to spotlight her work, but the (CAP)SULE class encouraged her to do so.

"This is the biggest opportunity I've ever had and something I feel like I can be really proud of," Suleymanian said. "It has also emboldened me to think that people really do care about the work you make and the things you care about."

Milazzo stressed that his course and the festival screening aren't "student showcases," but rather a presentation of early-career filmmakers - the "new voices" of the course title - who are developing professional work for a wide, real-world audience.

"I want people to know that these documentaries are made in Richmond by VCU students, but it's bigger in a sense; it's expansive," Milazzo said. "Yes, they're based in Richmond, but certain things are evergreen no matter where you live."

In addition to the Washington West Film Festival screening, "What It Takes," directed by Caroline Crain and produced by Luke Headley, and "Undercurrent," directed by Bella Thakkar and produced by Ella Balzano, will be shown at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville in late October.

"In a way, it's a taste of the real world," Milazzo said of the premieres, "but in a way that you should enter the real world: with esteem, accomplishment, with something to talk about and something you love."