Telecom Professor Wins First Place at Worldfest for Screenplay

by Julie Carlson
Christopher J. Hansen, assistant professor of communications studies at Baylor University, won a platinum award for best original screenplay for a drama at Worldfest 2005 in Houston. Worldfest International Film Festival, now in its 38th year, is one of the three oldest film festivals in North America.
"This award was very gratifying," Hansen said. "It's a little bit of affirmation and inspiration that keeps you going when you're trying to get films made and get screenplays sold, which is of course the ultimate goal."
Hansen's screenplay, "Filming Faustus," tells the story of a Broadway writer/director/star in 1939 who gets invited to Hollywood to turn his avant-garde stage version of the play "Doctor Faustus" into a film. The Faustus story is an Elizabethan-era play that involves Faustus making a deal with the devil for power and knowledge, but in the end finding himself damned and unable to do anything about it. In Hansen's script, the main character lives out the Faustus story in Hollywood while trying to make his film, making a deal with someone who may or may not be the devil.
Hansen joined the Baylor faculty in 2004. He earned his bachelor's degree from Lee University in Tennessee and master's degrees in arts and fine arts at Regent University in Virginia.
For more information, contact Hansen at 710-1621.