Max Kane ’18’s pursuit of excellence extends beyond his impressive tennis court successes to the film industry. Kane, a captain of the men’s tennis team and a film/media studies major, spent last summer in France at the Cannes Film Festival interning for the festival’s American headquarters.
“Being immersed in one of the most prestigious festivals in the world taught me more about the industry than I ever could have learned at home,” Kane says. “I garnered a huge amount of inspiration for upcoming projects that I hope to write and direct.”
At the Roger Ebert Conference Center, Kane was responsible for producing panel talks, film screenings, parties and special events, and assisting with celebrity appearances by Spike Lee, Paul Dano, Karen Allen, Faye Dunaway, Greg Kinnear and Kyle Mooney.
Kane has been passionate about film since his childhood, when his grandparents took him to their local indie film theatre. Now he interns at Lewisburg’s Campus Theatre projecting 35-millimeter films, and assists Professor Eric Faden, English, with research that uses eye-tracking technology to gauge how people watch films. For his senior creative honors thesis, Kane is producing his own original short film.
While deeply engaged in film studies, Kane is also working hard to attain his athletic ambitions. For the last three years the tennis team has reached the Patriot League semifinals. This year Kane wants to clinch the league championship. As a senior captain, Kane also wants to lead the team effectively by using all the skills he’s trained so hard to master in the last 10 years.
Already Kane has made the record book, ranking 15th for single matches won with 51 wins. He’s also ranked 21st for doubles matches won, with 44 wins. Kane is a three-time member of the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll and a two-time International Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete.
Although Kane will put down his racket this spring to conclude his tennis career, he’s already landed his first postgraduation film-related job. Through connections made at Cannes, he’ll work this summer as a co-programming manager at SeriesFest, an international content and TV festival based in Denver, Colo., that showcases episodic pilot projects.
His dream job, he says, would be with A24, a film production company based in New York City. “Ideally, in addition to working at A24, I would love to work on the creative side of film and write and direct my own projects,” Kane says.