John Jay College Of Criminal Justice | The City University of New York

   

Paul Kelly, an Assistant Registrar at John Jay, is making a name for himself on the silver screen. His latest short film, “My Day,” recently won the Award of Excellence in the Accolade Competition, La Jolla, CA, and the film’s co-star, veteran actress Judith Roberts, won the competition’s award for Leading Actress.

On January 19, “My Day” will be shown along with the work of other Queens filmmakers at the grand reopening of the Queens Museum. It has also been accepted as an Official Selection in the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival in February.

Kelly directed and produced the film, and co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Brenner, head of Video Production for John Jay’s Office of Marketing and Development. Roberts’s performance in the film was honored last year with Best Actress awards at the Queens World Film Festival and the Long Island International Film Expo.

A founding member of the Village Playwrights and the Queens Theatre Playwriting Group, Kelly cites Paddy Chayefsky, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of “Marty,” “The Hospital” and “Network,” as one of his chief influences. “I am a great admirer of his work, said Kelly. “For him, dialogue took precedence over action — a screenwriting style that is much more appealing to me and far superior to quick-cut music-montage action screenplays.”

Roberts will be featured in the upcoming second season of the Netflix series, “Orange Is the New Black,” which is due to air in spring 2014.