"Making films takes blind faith," said Doug Block '75, a New York City-based documentary filmmaker and producer whose Emmy-nominated and Emmy-winning works have been featured by HBO, PBS and the Sundance Film Festival. "You kinda know the odds and jump off the cliff anyway, hoping you don't hit the pavement with a splat," said Block.

Block joined filmmakers Ryan Silbert '02, Prashant Bhargava '94 and Mayuran Tiruchelvam on a panel for "Cornell in Tinseltown: The Young Filmmakers Series" at the Cornell Club April 29 in New York City. The event featured a brief screening of the filmmakers' works and a discussion of how each leveraged their vision, education and entrepreneurial talent to make films in a culture saturated by media produced with digital technology and distributed by cell phones and computers.

"There were 10,279 films submitted to the Sundance Film Festival last year," said event moderator Kaiser Wahab '96, an entertainment lawyer who assists "idea" clients, ranging from authors to software firms. That figure is a 10-fold increase over previous years, said Wahab, yet "only 118 features made it into the festival." With so many films, Wahab asked the panelists why they believed their films could beat the odds and find an audience.

"You don't make a movie to get into Sundance," said Silbert, producer of "God of Love," Academy Award-winner for Best Short Film (Live Action) in 2011. "You make a movie to tell a story."

Silbert, who majored in applied economics and management in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and attended graduate film school at New York University, said, "'God of Love' was rejected by every film festival." However, because his film was completed during school, it won recognition from the Student Academy Awards, which automatically qualified it for the professional academy. He said academy members tended to be more familiar with the Frank Capra-esque style of his film than festival programmers were. "We found our audience," said Silbert.

While recalling the obstacles they encountered while producing their films, the filmmakers stressed the importance of having faith in their work. "Films take time," said Tiruchelvam, Silbert's creative partner. "You can't operate from a place of fear. Master Yoda says fear leads to the dark side of the force."

Perhaps no one demonstrated a stronger belief in his work than Bhargava, who started out as a graffiti artist, graduated from Cornell as a computer science major, then studied theatrical directing at The Actors Studio in New York. "I began making my film seven years ago," said Bhargava, referring to his first feature film, "The Kite" (His short "Sangam" premiered at Sundance, garnering several awards). Now 38, Bhargava acknowledged he had "put a lot of things on hold to make the film, like a relationship, career, money and home."

During production of the film, a tragic accident nearly ended any chance of Bhargava finishing. Feeling hopeless, Bhargava said one of his lead actors approached him and whispered something he needed to hear. "Don't worry," she said. "God is going to make it happen."

"The Kite" was selected from 5,400 films submitted to this year's Berlin Film Festival. It was also accepted by the Tribeca Film Festival.

Cornell in Tinseltown was organized by Cornellians in Entertainment, the New York-based sister organization to Cornell in Hollywood; the Cornell Asian Alumni Association; and the Cornell Club-NY Speakers Committee.

John Mikytuck '90 is a freelance journalist, writer and producer in New York City.