On Nov. 8, the WTAMU Department of Communication screened “Fast Talk,” a documentary, at the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Recital Hall.

After the movie screening, a discussion panel followed, consisting of Charles Mallard, an Amarillo-area attorney; Bethany Beck, a Communication graduate student; Tyler Sweeney, a senior Broadcasting major and Dr. Trudy Hanson, head of the Department of Communication. Dr. Leigh Browning, associate professor of Mass Communication, moderated the panel.

“Fast Talk” director and producer Debra Tolchinsky also participated in the discussion panel. It was her first time visiting Texas and WT.“It’s been fun, I’ve had a great time here,” said Tolchinsky.

Tolchinsky has had her film exhibited internationally and has earned multiple awards.

“Going around the world and feeling the aspect of making takes you to another world,” said Tolchinsky. “It’s great and I feel honored to meet great new people.”

The inspiration behind this film was the fact that Tolchinsky has a fear of public speaking.

“I knew Northwestern University had a great debate team,” Tolchinsky said. “And I knew the coach was an interesting person.”

Tolchinsky said she thought that the students seemed engaged and Dr. Browning agreed.

“I think they did enjoy it,” said Browning. “I think they understood and appreciated it. I believe they can really relate to it.”

Browning said Tolchinsky’s film had a great balance between filmmaking and debate.

“She had a great perspective on the debating team,” Browning said. “I had known that the film was in post-production and had been following it ever since. The debate world is connected and I had been anticipating its release.”

Patrick Scheuchzer, an Ad Management major and Swiss native, enjoyed the film and liked how he could see the difference between the people here and from Switzerland.

“It’s impressive to see how people are,” he said. “You could see how they really wanted to win the awards [that the speech team competed for.]