UC professor's project is labor of love

University of Cincinnati art professor Ryan Mulligan could have been teaching classes this summer. But an idea struck while driving through his old neighborhood of Walnut Hills one day this spring.

He called a friend, Walnut Hills resident and nonprofit director Annie Bolling. They came together in May at Bolling's The Gallery Project, a small group at first, and made a plan for a film festival starring the residents of Walnut Hills and East Walnut Hills. They called their project Hilltop Stories.

Over the course of the summer, Mulligan and his volunteer film crews have shot 10 short films. It all comes together on Aug. 15, at neighborhood movie night in a parking lot off Woodburn Avenue.

Among the films: A re-enactment of the first date of a couple married 54 years, a dancing flash mob at the neighborhood Kroger to celebrate one of the store's employees, one silent film, and documentary-style dog-on-the-street interviews.

Along the way, Mulligan, 32, now of Blue Ash, has pulled in more than 100 Walnut Hills and East Walnut Hills residents, students, former students, friends, professional filmmakers, actors, dancers and friends of all those people to his growing project.

"I've met more people doing this project than in the six years I lived in Walnut Hills," Mulligan says.

A big idea, personal promise

Why did Mulligan do all this, with a huge investment of his own time, on a budget of zero dollars? Because he believes that by meeting our neighbors, we'll create a stronger social fabric, a better world.

"There are not enough moments to need a cup of sugar," Mulligan says.

To Mulligan this idea is more than some grand idea. It has its roots in something far more personal, far closer to home.

Mulligan's son, Hobbs, with wife Kathryn Castle, was diagnosed with autism about two years ago. Hobbs' life will be good, Mulligan says, not because of any college degree but because of the people he will have in his life.

Social fabric: Creating bonds among neighbors

Along the way, Mulligan has put his ideas into action, spinning his web and gathering people from all parts of his life, and the neighborhood, to help with the project.

Sam Meador is an artist and teacher who worked with Mulligan to create the Hero Design Company, now part of ArtWorks. Meador rejoined him for Hilltop Stories. If Mulligan is dreamer-in-chief of the project, Meador is doer-in-chief. Meador has done everything from building a wheelchair ramp so a neighbor could join in a night of story-sharing to creating a beautiful map of the neighborhood that plots where everyone involved in the project lives.

Dan Joyner also became part of Mulligan's team. Joyner, East Walnut Hills resident, community builder and consultant, was attracted by the project's goal of creating a stronger "social fabric" in his neighborhood. Before Mulligan and Meador jumped too far ahead, Joyner offered some important direction: They needed to resist using their own ideas about what kinds of stories to tell, and let the neighbors' own stories emerge. Joyner helped Mulligan and Meador craft sincere invitations to neighbors and facilitated a night of story-sharing.

Samantha Messer is a graduate student who was a student in Mulligan's first-ever class at UC. Early on a Sunday morning in July, she's at DeSales Fountain, assisting with the making of Hilltop Stories' silent film. "It's been a good project to have in my life," Messer says.

During the shooting of that silent film, Mulligan pushes the filmmakers to get something that shows some genuine connection between the film's two characters, a park visitor and park worker who try to find a way to communicate, even though one of them is deaf.

It's that connection that Mulligan wants to make – over and over again – not just on set, but all through the neighborhood, all through Cincinnati, and then some. This film festival is his start.

Several days later, Mulligan quotes Walt Disney: "You can design, and dream, and build the most wonderful place on the world, but it takes people to make it a reality."

If you go

What: Hilltop Stories Film Festival Premier. Seven short films, starring neighbors from Walnut Hills and East Walnut Hills.

When: Aug. 15, 9-10:30 p.m., after Walk on Woodburn (6-9 p.m.)

Where: DeSales Corner public parking lot, at 2800 Woodburn Ave. north of Madison Road between Myrtle and Clayton streets.

Information:www.facebook.com/hilltopstories. Bring lawn chairs.

About The Gallery Project

Executive Director Annie Bolling has partnered with Ryan Mulligan on Hilltop Stories, in part to help launch The Gallery Project at 2718 Woodburn Ave. The Gallery Project is a nonprofit, community-centered gallery dedicated to supporting teens through an after-school, art-making, creativity-nuturing program; home to community-building projects, and exhibition space for outsider, live, and upcoming artists. It will be open during Walk on Woodburn.

For information, visit www.facebook.com/thegalleryproj, or contact Bolling at annie@thegalleryproject.net or 513-235-4008.