{"id":458577,"date":"2026-09-09T20:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458577\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T20:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:32:08","slug":"cal-state-la-professor-stephen-rothmans-effortless-perfection-earns-film-festival-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458577\/","title":{"rendered":"Cal State LA Professor Stephen Rothman\u2019s \u2018Effortless Perfection\u2019 earns film festival recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Effortless Perfection, a short film directed by Cal State LA\u00a0Theatre\u00a0Professor Stephen Rothman, is earning recognition on the film festival circuit.\u00a0The film has received seven laurels from six film festivals. It\u00a0was\u00a0screened on\u00a0May 11 at the Big Apple Film Festival in New York\u00a0City,\u00a0and\u00a0is\u00a0scheduled\u00a0for\u00a0a Sept.\u00a014 screening at the\u00a0historic\u00a0TCL\u00a0Chinese Theatre\u00a0in\u00a0Hollywood as part of the\u00a0Indiewood Film Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Written by Rothman\u2019s longtime friend David Wasson,\u00a0Effortless Perfection\u00a0centers on an encounter between a man in his mid-70s and a woman in her 40s who meet under dangerous circumstances. Much of the film unfolds during a conversation between the two on a park bench as they form an unexpected connection that\u00a0ultimately changes\u00a0them both.<\/p>\n

Rothman said the relationship at the center of the film resonated with him because of his work as an educator.\u00a0He saw similarities between\u00a0how\u00a0the two characters affect\u00a0each other,\u00a0and\u00a0how\u00a0professors\u00a0and students influence each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI affect these lives, and they go on to do their thing,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cI continue to do mine, but something happened, and I\u2019m affected by them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film was produced for approximately $20,000. Rothman said part of his motivation for making the\u00a0film\u00a0was to\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0to students in Cal State LA\u2019s Master of Fine Arts in Television, Film, and Theatre program that producing quality work does not necessarily require a large budget.<\/p>\n

Rothman said the film was also an opportunity to put into practice what he teaches in the classroom and\u00a0to\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0what filmmakers can\u00a0accomplish\u00a0with limited resources.<\/p>\n

The film was shot in New York City under Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild of America contracts. Filming in Queens presented challenges, including\u00a0school bells, children, and airplanes\u00a0from\u00a0nearby LaGuardia Airport. Changing weather and lighting conditions also affected the lengthy park sequence.<\/p>\n

Rothman credited the film\u2019s cast and\u00a0crew\u00a0with overcoming those challenges. He said the experience reinforced the importance of assembling talented collaborators when working with limited resources.<\/p>\n

The experience also reinforced another lesson Rothman emphasizes with his students:\u00a0Even\u00a0strong cinematography and performances cannot compensate for a story that\u00a0fails to\u00a0connect with an audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could get the greatest shots in the world,\u201d Rothman said. \u201cBut if the words don\u2019t take you somewhere in a special way, you don\u2019t have a film.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rothman spent much of his professional television career directing multicamera\u00a0sitcoms\u00a0before joining Cal State LA, where teaching has become a central part of his work. His career\u00a0has\u00a0included extensive work in theatre, including a Cal State LA and Deaf West Theatre co-production of David Mamet\u2019s\u00a0American Buffalo.<\/p>\n

As he has grown older, Rothman said his approach to his career has shifted from pursuing the next professional milestone to focusing on the experience of creating meaningful work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0doing the work. I love the work,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Rothman.<\/p>\n

That perspective made the response to\u00a0Effortless Perfection\u00a0particularly unexpected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s blowing my mind,\u201d Rothman said of the film\u2019s festival recognition.<\/p>\n

Rothman said he hopes audiences\u00a0ultimately connect\u00a0with\u00a0the humanity\u00a0at the center of the film and its portrayal of two people who come from\u00a0different backgrounds\u00a0but recognize when\u00a0the other\u00a0person\u00a0needs help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should all be there for each other, no matter what the cultural background is, no matter where we\u2019re coming from,\u201d Rothman said.<\/p>\n

*Please note that this release is also published on the\u00a0Cal State LA College of Arts and Letters webpage<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Effortless Perfection, a short film directed by Cal State LA\u00a0Theatre\u00a0Professor Stephen Rothman, is earning recognition on the film…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-458577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}