The Cougar Chronicle Staff
On May 10, the Visual and Performing Arts Department will host its eighth annual CSUSM Student Media Festival, celebrating the work of students filmmakers on campus. Here’s a look at one of the films vying for an official entry slot in the competition.
“Memories Remain” by Alekzandrea Reyes
A week after she turned 21 two years ago, CSUSM senior Alekzandrea Reyes was pulled over for driving under the influence. She walked away from the scene unharmed, but the DUI experience had a profound impact on her life.
The communications major said she was lucky to have escaped injury in the incident, but many other drivers her age aren’t so lucky. Her experience inspired a film documentary that she submitted this week to the 2013 CSUSM Student Media Festival.
“Working on this film was really inspiring for me and really difficult at the same time,” said Reyes, a San Diego resident. “I chose to make a documentary about drunk driving and the severity of what could happen. I wanted to send out a message to those who think they are invincible; just like I did.”
The 11-minute documentary doesn’t chronicle Reyes’ own experience but that of two young Ramona men who were involved in a DUI crash in March 2010.
Ryan Michael Cupples, 24, was the passenger in a car being driven by a close friend. His friend, “Bryan,” was traveling at a high rate of speed on San Vicente Road, lost control of his car and crashed into a tree and boulder. Bryan suffered serious head injuries but survived. Cupples died several hours after the accident.
Reyes’ documentary features a moving on-camera interview with Cupples’ mother, Lura, and an off-camera interview with Bryan, who prefers to remain anonymous. He has no memory of the accident but recounts his experience of learning about Cupples’ death several weeks later when he emerged from a coma.
He says that he’s still surprised that the Cupples family will even speak with him, though he can see in their faces that the pain of their loss is just as fresh now as it was three years ago.
“How do you still talk to someone when you know what they’ve done. They’ve ripped your family apart and have taken their son’s life away from them,” he said.
Reyes said she found Bryan and Lura through Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which she contacted when she decided to film a documentary on drunk driving.
“I immediately wanted to do my project on this story because we always hear about these tragedies from the point of view of the person who lost someone close to them. Rarely do we ever get to hear from the offender themselves.”
She hopes that young people who watch her film will think twice before getting behind the wheel after drinking, but she knows it’s a long shot. Reyes said she knew better when she got behind the wheel, but it didn’t stop her two years ago.
“I was with my best friend who was supposed to be my designated driver, but instead she ended up drinking more than me. I knew I shouldn’t have driven home but against my better judgment, I got behind the wheel,” she said. “I never thought something like that would ever happen to me and neither did Bryan.”
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