When Polly Chesnokova ’24 was a first-year student and new to Dartmouth, they reached out to the Media Production Group to inquire about an internship.

What followed was a four-year collaboration that taught Chesnokova about the art of film and gave MPG, which is part of the Office of Communications, a talented student to work with.

Chesnokova, who is from Ukraine, went on to share in the Sudler Prize in the Arts and also found a “strong connection” between their cultural past and the creation of Ukrainian films.

“That’s where I find my purpose,” says Chesnokova, who made a short film related to the Holodomor, the Soviet-led starvation of Ukraine in the early 1930s.

The film was a key component of Chesnokova’s Senior Fellowship.

Signe Taylor, a senior producer at MPG who served as a mentor to Chesnokova, turned the camera on the graduating student this spring for a look behind the video curtain.