Concordia University’s Communication Studies Department is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and its unique place in Canadian history and education. On this homecoming weekend, former student and film maker, Nicola Zavaglia will be screening his film on the department, and the gifted professors and teachers behind its creation.
ListenOpened in 1965, as Communication Arts, at Montreal’s Loyola College, it was the first department of its kind in Canada. According to Nicola Zavaglia, the powers that be in Rome recognized that these developments known as mass media, needed to be studied, observed and a new workforce had to be trained to work in them.
“I wish I had had those professors. I wish I had the chance to have them as my teachers.”
It was Father Jack O’Brien, a Jesuit who answered the call, beginning with the selection of the staff, and the creation of courses that stood the test of time for many years. The department left most people who graduated from it, numbering nearly 5,000 now, feeling very special and grateful.
After many years away from the department, Nicola Zavaglia took on the assignment of documenting the place and the people. He encounters these wise men and women at later stages in their lives, and the humanity is all the more evident.
Named, ‘Journey to Ithaca’, after Cavafy‘s famous poem about the life-well-lived, Zavaglia’s film will be part of the celebration tomorrow afternoon, with a screening scheduled in the afternoon. Zavaglia says the most moving comment he’s heard from those who’ve seen the recently completed film, is “I wish I had had those professors. I wish I had the chance to have them as my teachers.”
Today in the department, the current cohort of students got to hear Rene Balcer speak. An alumni, and good friend of Zavaglia’s, Rene Balcer is one of several big success stories to come out of the department. He spent over 20 years as a writer, director, and producer in the Law & Order TV franchise in the United States.
Nicola Zavaglia hopes this anniversary year is both one of renewal and continuity. Most of the original teachers have died, but for their former students, visiting the new building that houses the department now, the experience will be bitter-sweet.
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