Penn State Laureate plans to explore commonwealth through a documentary lens

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the 2025-26 Penn State Laureate, filmmaker and associate professor Pearl Gluck is traveling across the commonwealth to share her films and examine how storytelling lives within communities — not only in places, but through the people who care for them: archivists, artists, educators, librarians, museum guides and local historians who serve as keepers of cultural memory.

Gluck’s spring schedule includes visits to 18 Commonwealth Campuses, as well as visits to other community locations. A full schedule is available online. In addition, audiences may follow along through her vlog series, “On Location with the Laureate,” which documents the discoveries along the way.

“Today’s world needs reminders about what it means to be human — to create and express, to feel and experience, to live and to suffer. And to experience it all as individuals an in community,” said Alan Rieck, Penn State’s associate vice provost and associate dean for undergraduate education. “The Penn State Laureate brings these reminders across the commonwealth and invites everyone to remember the wonder of humanity.”

Over the past seven years, filmmakers from around the globe have gathered in the Nittany Valley for the annual Centre Film Festival — and several films shared at the festival have gone on to receive recognition at the Academy Awards. Now, in her role as laureate, Gluck is extending those conversations beyond Centre County, engaging students, artists and community members across Pennsylvania in dialogue about film, history and the power of personal narrative.

Among the stops on her visits is the iconic Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville — home of Blobfest and the historic venue featured in the cult classic “The Blob” (1958), which was filmed in and around the town. Other destinations highlight Pennsylvania’s layered histories, from the Coal & Coke Heritage Center on the Penn State Fayette campus — where conversations around labor, migration and memory intersect with contemporary storytelling — to special collections housed within Penn State University Libraries across the commonwealth, where archives and rare materials hold hidden narratives waiting to be rediscovered.

Gluck’s travels will also take her to historic synagogues, Underground Railroad landmarks and other sites shaped by migration and resilience — places where stories of faith, freedom and belonging continue to resonate through the people who care for them today. Her visits will also highlight cultural moments that connect Pennsylvania to broader artistic legacies — from literary ties to John Updike and the vibrant visual language of Keith Haring to the mythic echoes of the "Sundance Kid."

Closer to home, Gluck will visit the site of the 1949 Aaronsburg Day of Tolerance — an event that drew 30,000 attendees and featured the Penn State Blue Band alongside Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ralph J. Bunche and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, briefly placing rural Centre County at the center of a national conversation on tolerance and democracy.

“To me, serving as the Penn State Laureate is a profound honor and an opportunity to listen,” Gluck said. “As I travel through the commonwealth and its campuses, I’m interested not only in the landmark itself, but also in the people who keep its stories alive — the small details that hold big histories. For me, storytelling is an artistic expression that, at its heart, is a civic practice. I believe that when we listen to the caretakers of memory, we strengthen the fabric of our communities.”

Film screenings, teaching and student collaboration

As part of her Laureate visits, Gluck is sharing her films as catalysts for conversation, creative reflection and professional skill-building. At the Colonial Theatre, she will screen her short film “Summer” (2018) alongside the Centre Film Festival "Best of the Fest" selection “The Librarians” (2025), pairing personal storytelling with urgent contemporary debates around intellectual freedom and access to knowledge.

At Penn State Brandywine, Gluck will present “The Turn Out” (2020) to students in human development and family studies courses, exploring how film can illuminate complex conversations around identity, agency and community. Across multiple campuses, she is also leading workshops on storytelling as a transferable professional skill — helping students translate personal narrative into compelling cover letters, résumés and career pathways.

Additional engagements include collaborations with a student film club at Penn State York, whose members visited the Centre Film Festival last fall, and a visit to Penn State Great Valley, where Gluck will discuss films such as “Divan” (2004), “Castles in the Sky” (2024) and locally produced “Stars and Bars” (2026) from her broader body of work — examining how personal history, autobiography and documentary research inform activism and social impact through film.

“Film is obviously a powerful medium for telling inspiring stories, and Pearl’s passion for film and storytelling will come through during her visits,” said Matt Jordan, head of the Department of Film Production and Media Studies. “Her role as laureate also provides another level of engagement and visibility for our film production major and the amazing work of our faculty and students.”

A full schedule of Gluck’s presentations and may be found on her Penn State Laureate website. Throughout the journey, students from the College of Information Sciences and Technology and the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications are collaborating with Gluck to produce a vlog series, “On Location with the Laureate,” capturing the places she visits and the voices that bring them to life.

Community members are invited to help shape future stops by suggesting unique locations and local storytellers by emailing Gluck at pearl@psu.edu or sending a direct message on Instagram @OnLocationWithTheLaureate.