Whether she’s planning the next film club event or posting on The Vortex’s Instagram, junior Skylar Nelsen keeps herself busy with many clubs across campus, forming bonds with a variety of different people. 

Above all, Nelsen loves to showcase these relationships on the silver screen.

On top of being a double major — film and creative writing — Nelsen is president of the film club, social media manager of The Vortex, treasurer of the creative writing club, a peer coach at Student Success and an advocate for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Out of all of the clubs that Nelsen joined, the film club was the first.

“I wasn’t planning on really getting involved in any clubs or anything my first year, because I kind of just wanted to settle into going to college,” Nelsen said. “But I was so terrified of not knowing anyone in my major, I was like, ‘Oh okay, I’ll get a film club. I’ll check out the first meeting.’ And so I went and I enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed all the people there.”

Nelsen went on the run for the club’s social media position later that semester. Although she didn’t secure the spot, it didn’t stop her from running again soon after. At the end of her freshman year she ran once again for the social media position — as well as secretary. To her surprise, not long after nominations closed, film club president and alumni Emma Barrett asked Nelsen if she would be interested in running for vice president. After putting herself into the running for a third position, Nelsen secured the vice presidency.

Nelsen said that Barrett “helped establish a foundation” which she has been able to build off of with a variety of new events. This spring semester alone the club will hold four film screenings, an Oscars watch party, a trivia night and more.

Nelsen said that while Barrett had established the club “for film majors, film minors and filmmakers,” she wanted it to become more widely accessible.

“I’ve tried to branch out to make it more broad for film watchers and lovers in general. So like the movie nights, the trivia night, the Oscars watch party, those are things you don’t need to be a film major or minor or a filmmaker to enjoy,” Nelsen said.

Nelsen said she was born into a family of storytellers.

“I love writing. I love telling stories,” she said. “My friends will say I’m a talker. I’ve always been told by my parents that I’m a storyteller. My dad likes to say I can make a 10-minute grocery trip into the most awesome two-hour adventure to listen to.”

Nelsen said, “My mom’s also been a storyteller. And my papa, he was the king of it. He’s on top. He would tell the wackiest stories. He met Elvis in a random restaurant in Memphis. He got off a Freedom Rider bus right before it was attacked. He had the craziest stories, and he would also come up with the coolest stories. There’s a briefcase at my house that’s just filled with his poems, writings, short stories.”

Nelsen’s relationship with her Pawpaw was the inspiration for her award-nominated short film “Two of a Kind.”

“The relationship in that film was really focusing on the grandfather and a granddaughter kind of bonding and being kind of the black sheep of their families, and also just like playing poker with some of Pawpaw’s poker buddies,” Nelsen said.

Another one of Nelsen’s films, “Blueberry Muffins,” focuses on her relationship with her father. The short shows a young woman — played by Nelsen — making muffins by herself and with her dad in the past, the film cutting back and forth between both experiences.

Another love that Nelsen shares with her father is soccer.

“I love soccer,” she said. “My parents told me that I could kick a soccer ball before I could walk. I’ve always played soccer. My dad was my soccer coach. Like, best coach ever. He coached my older brothers. My older brothers’ friends still call him coach, even though they’re 30.”

Nelsen said, “Being able to have that unique relationship I think just made us closer as a dad and daughter, and then especially in the past year. My mom’s been doing travel nursing stints where she’s been gone — she did one for like six months. And so she wasn’t here for six months. So I only had my dad. So I feel like even in the past year, I’ve gotten especially closer with him because he was there and he needed a friend, I needed a parent so we needed to see each other in person.”

Nelsen believes that she drew much of her creative passions from her mother, who would often take her to the movies as a child.

Nelsen said, “She will paint, she will write. She does interpretive dance. You go on her Facebook right now, there’s some of those videos with like 10k views.”

“Her visual storytelling is dance and painting or drawing. Mine is film. It’s still a visual medium. We just kind of went different ways,” she said.