When Monroe University student Shavoy Alcock was asked to create a short documentary for a class project, he quickly thought about one man’s story he wanted to tell.
The subject was Tyrone Grant, an artist Alcock had met years earlier through an arts internship in New York City. While the two were never especially close, a conversation they shared at an art showcase stayed with Alcock long after it ended.
“That day was when we really had an actual conversation about him, his life story, and who he is,” Alcock says.
That conversation would eventually inspire Tyrone, a five-and-a-half-minute documentary that has earned recognition at film festivals across North America and brought unexpected attention to Monroe University’s new and growing entertainment media program.
The film won Best Student Documentary at the Toronto Short Film Festival and Best Documentary Short at the Los Angeles Film Awards. It was also selected for screening at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival and the New York International Film Festival. Most recently, the project earned a Silver Award in the student category at the Telly Awards.
At the center of the documentary is Grant, whose life story is marked by hardship, perseverance, and personal transformation. Through candid interviews, Grant reflects on growing up on the streets of New York City, experiencing multiple incarcerations at Rikers Island, and losing his mother at a young age. The documentary follows how he ultimately found purpose through art and rebuilt his life within New York City’s creative community.
For Alcock, the film was never about awards or festival recognition. When the opportunity came to create a documentary, he knew Grant’s experiences deserved a larger audience.
Entertainment Media Studies at Monroe University
The project was developed as part of Monroe University’s Business of Entertainment I course. In it, students are tasked with producing capstone projects that allow them to apply the skills they learn throughout the semester while exploring real-world storytelling.
Dorothy Toran, Monroe University’s executive director of entertainment media and strategic initiatives, says the assignment challenged students to find meaningful stories and tell them with authenticity.
Despite having limited filmmaking experience, the students embraced the challenge.
“It was great because we were all new to the entertainment media space,” Alcock says. “The class was very beginner-friendly, and it really brought us together.”
The biggest obstacle, he says, was learning how to coordinate schedules and responsibilities while balancing the demands of college life.
“For us, scheduling was probably the hardest part,” Alcock says. “In college, and especially in the entertainment media business, you have to have a specific schedule. You have to hold it to a high standard.”
Unexpected Success
Once the documentary was completed, the students showed it to Grant before submitting it to any festivals. His reaction confirmed they had accomplished what they set out to do.
According to Alcock, Grant had previously been encouraged by friends and colleagues to document his life story but remained skeptical that anyone would be interested.
“He thought, ‘It’s just me. It’s just my life,'” Alcock says. “But when we made the film and showed him what his story could mean to people, he was really grateful to be a part of it.”
The professors of the course entered the documentary into several festivals hoping it might gain modest recognition among student competitions.
Instead, it quickly found success on a much larger stage.
Toran, a veteran showrunner and executive producer with more than three decades of experience in the entertainment industry, says the response exceeded everyone’s expectations.
“We were hopeful that maybe there would be a student film festival here or there that would acknowledge it,” she says. “What happened was the opposite. There were so many festivals that embraced the film and found it worthy of professional-level recognition, so it was pretty incredible.”
While the accolades have been exciting, Toran believes the film’s success stems from its emotional authenticity.
“We knew the film was good,” she says. “We knew it was beautifully told.”
She credits Alcock’s approach to storytelling as a major reason audiences connected with the documentary.
“Shavoy was really focused on humanizing Tyrone and making people see that he’s a man who has had a complicated life and is really in his next chapter,” Toran says.
A New Program With Big Potential
The film’s recognition is especially notable given how new Monroe University’s entertainment media program is.
The program initially launched as a minor within Monroe’s School of Business and Accounting. Tyrone emerged during the program’s first semester. Since then, Monroe, which has local outposts in New Rochelle and the Bronx, has expanded the program offerings.
Earlier this year, New York State approved an associate degree in entertainment media at Monroe University. Plans for a bachelor’s degree are currently underway.
Toran says the program’s growth reflects both student interest and Monroe University’s commitment to expanding opportunities in the media and entertainment industries. Because many Monroe students are first-generation college students and people of color, the program also helps to diversify the next generation of storytellers entering the field.
Many of the program’s instructors are active professionals who bring current industry experience directly into the classroom. Students take courses in business, cinematography, editing, sports broadcasting, and other areas of media production while working on hands-on projects.
“Our students are absolutely getting practical, hands-on experience every single day,” Toran says.
The university has also invested in a state-of-the-art studio space equipped with professional lighting, LED screens, podcasting equipment, and production technology.
For Alcock, the experience has done more than teach filmmaking skills. It has helped him discover a future career path.
Before enrolling at Monroe, he was uncertain about which direction he wanted his life to take after high school. Although he had always enjoyed watching short films online, he never imagined himself becoming a filmmaker.
That changed once he entered the entertainment media program.
“Doing this program has really helped me find a new passion and a new sense of living,” Alcock says.
The success of Tyrone has only reinforced that feeling.
“Entertainment media and being a director seems to be what I want to do now,” Alcock says, “because of the success I’ve gotten from the film and because of the community I have around me now.”
While the documentary’s awards continue to accumulate, both Alcock and Toran view the project as proof that compelling stories can come from unexpected places.
For Alcock, one lesson from Grant’s journey stands above the rest.
“Find your passion,” he says. “Find something that you’re good at and stick with it and work on it and enhance your craft.”
It is a lesson that transformed Grant’s life through art. It is also one that appears to be shaping the future of a young filmmaker whose first documentary has already made an impression far beyond the classroom.
Film Credits
Tyrone was created by a team of Monroe University students and faculty mentors.
Director: Shavoy Alcock
Producer: Zackary Padilla
Camera Operator: Ezekiel Ashiagbor
Audio: Liv Coleman
Editor: Darrin Tarulli
Executive Producers: Dorothy Toran and Jacob Huddleston
Subject: Tyrone Grant
Next Steps
To learn more about Monroe University’s entertainment media program, visit its website here.
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