John Brown University senior Boaz Camp finished his final season with the Golden Eagles Men’s Basketball Team this spring, ending with an appearance in the first round of the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament. For his senior season, Camp averaged 2.1 points per game and 2.3 rebounds per game on 62.2% shooting from the field in 29 appearances. He also started the final home game of his career against Wayland Baptist, helping the Golden Eagles to a 75-72 overtime victory.

Camp grew up in Tulsa, Okla., and started playing basketball at the age of 8, when his parents first let him pick up a ball.

“I’d say I started playing just because the game seemed fun. It just intrigued me. The intensity, the pace changes, the skill involved,” Camp said.

However, his journey was not so straightforward. Camp battled injuries throughout his playing career and kept fighting.

“In seventh grade, I stretched my ligament so bad I was out for the rest of the season. I missed seventh-grade year, missed eighth-grade year. I had knee pain and I had to get arthroscopic surgery on both knees. And then my ninth-grade year, actually preseason scrimmages around that time, I had a crazy burn accident, and I caught on fire and I was out the whole year,” Camp said.

Camp was able to bounce back from those injuries and played from his sophomore year in high school to his senior year for Regent Preparatory Academy, averaging 15 points and nine rebounds per game. Despite his success in high school, Camp didn’t initially plan on continuing his career in college. However, his high school coaches pushed him to pursue playing after high school and he ended up at JBU.

Shortly after joining the Golden Eagles, Camp experienced a steep jump in competition from the high school level to the college level.

“It’s not even the same game, to be honest with you. I think every level you step up it’s a different sport entirely,” Camp said. “I think even small college basketball like [JBU], I mean, you can’t even set a high school and a college player side by side because one, the physical development with time for obvious reasons, and I feel like a lot of small college basketball athletes have a bulldog mentality there. It just puts high school players in the rear-view mirror. It’s not even close.”

Despite the tough learning curve to the increased speed of the game, Camp stayed tough and continued to improve his basketball IQ. Apart from on the court, in his time with the team Camp developed quality relationships with many members of the squad.

“I couldn’t speak highly enough of the whole team. I think it’s full of really solid dudes. Everybody’s figuring life out as it goes, and it is just cool to walk alongside that. My favorite memories have just got to be hanging out with the guys, going and getting food, post-game, hotels, there always good memories,” Camp said.

Though his time with the basketball team is over, Camp plans to pursue his MBA at John Brown through the 4+1 program provided by the Soderquist College of Business. After this, he is interested in pursuing a career in wealth management, or some area of finance. Through his time at JBU, Camp has learned many important things he plans to apply to his future life and relationship with God.

“Basketball, in particular, has built a reliance on identity in Christ. Basketball has also built a reliance on the concept from Matthew 6:33 and 34: to just seek first the kingdom of heaven and the rest will be answered. And don’t worry about tomorrow, because with performance anxiety, with athletics, there’s a lot there to unpack,” Camp said.

Going forward in life, Camp hopes to continue his basketball journey through other less competitive channels.

“I’m going to miss the really competitive aspect; I’m going to miss being in the locker room and just lacing up. Shoot down the road, I could see myself coaching my kids down the road. I could see myself just playing summer ball, just kind of messing around, getting shots up with friends. That’s all fun,” Camp said.

Camp plans to continue to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven while surrounding himself with other life-giving people as he moves on from JBU Basketball, yet his impact on and off the court will be well remembered.

“The summer before my freshman year, I was really nervous about transitioning into life at JBU. Boaz Camp reached out to me over the summer and essentially told me he was excited I was joining the team and looked forward to getting to know me. It was a simple gesture, but it made a massive impact on my outlook for school. Over the course of the year, Boaz continued to encourage me and everyone else on the team. He is a true leader and I am grateful for the opportunity to get to play alongside him,” former basketball teammate and John Brown sophomore Nash Wessels said.

Photo courtesy of Aidan Blanton

After many years staying mostly out of the spotlight, Lady Gaga is arguably making one of the most impactful comebacks the music industry has seen in a while. The release of her newest album, "Mayhem," which features tracks like “Abracadabra” and “Zombieboy,” culminated in a loud and controversial performance this year, wowing concert-goers and sparking discourse throughout the internet. The groundbreaking spectacle was featured at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, referred to colloquially as just "Coachella," held across two consecutive weekends in April (April 11-13 and 18-20).

Lady Gaga's performance unfolded in four distinct acts, all centered around an opera theme and incorporating gothic-era imagery. Her set opened with a dramatic rendition of "Bloody Mary" and closed with fan-favorite "Bad Romance." Paired with complex scenography, multiple outfit changes and intricate choreographies, Gaga's performance was cited as one of the most memorable at the festival by attendees.

Her "Mayhem"-themed set featured towering structures, a full band and more than two dozen dancers, creating what she described as an "opera house in the desert." The gothic backdrop complete with gargoyles and angels, along with her showstopping red dress during "Bloody Mary," created visuals so intense that some viewers compared it to a "satanic ritual."

“Lady Gaga performed a satanic ritual during Coachella. She's wearing a blood-red dress while singing "Bloody Mary" & chanting "Like Jesus said, I'm gonna dance, dance, dance." This whole performance is filled with dark & disturbing symbolism,” one user on X, formerly Twitter, said.

However, dismissing the performance as merely shocking or controversial misses the artistic depth Gaga brought to the desert. Critics have noted that "Mayhem" plays more like shadow work on a grand scale, channeling themes reminiscent of classic operas like Faust or Salome. Some are already comparing the artistic significance of Gaga's "Mayhem" performance to Beyoncé's landmark "Homecoming" set in 2018, establishing it as potentially one of the greatest Coachella performances of all time.

"Lady Gaga just gave a masterclass in pop performance at Coachella. Mic failure and all. Very few people can touch this level of artistry," commented one user on the Bluesky platform.

"I really hope Gaga does a special that preserves this show. Like Beyoncé did with Homecoming. This is something that begs to be watched again and again. #Coachella" said another.

Gaga wasn't the only memorable performer of the festival. The lineup featured a wide range of acclaimed artists, including brat-summer-sensation Charli XCX, Megan Thee Stallion and Missy Elliott. Lady Gaga, Green Day and Post Malone headlined Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Up-and-coming indie artists such as The Marías and Clairo also had spots on the star-studded stages. South Korean icons JENNIE and LISA, both members of the group BLACKPINK, were also given the opportunity to showcase their respective solo careers.

A notable act of the nights was breakthrough artist Benson Boone, best-known for his TikTok-famous track "Beautiful Things." He electrified the stage with his trademark backflips and powerful vocals while dressed in an eye-catching ensemble. The pinnacle of the performance featured Boone covering Queen's iconic "Bohemian Rhapsody," with the legendary Brian May—the band's guitarist—joining the 22-year-old singer on stage for a nostalgic and bone-chilling rendition of the song.

In the second weekend of the festival, though May could not physically accompany Boone's show, a cardboard replica took his spot on stage, serving as a humorous and heartwarming way of commemorating May's presence the previous week.

"This show is by far and easily the biggest production I have ever been a part of… I am so proud to have been a part of this show. @brianmayforreal I have no words. You are easily one of the most legendary musicians of all time and I cannot thank you enough for coming out," Boone wrote on Instagram.

The festival also became a platform for political expression. Acclaimed punk-rock veterans Green Day delivered a much-awaited and applauded performance during both weekends, weaving political commentary throughout their energetic set. The band, known for their anti-establishment anthems since the 1990s, made a statement by altering lyrics in "Jesus of Suburbia" to draw parallels between suburban pain and the suffering of children in Gaza. This subtle yet impactful change resonated with many attendees who appreciated the band taking a stand.

"Nice to hear Green Day speaking out against fascism. This Coachella crop has been rather timid about making statements about the current political winds," one user on Bluesky said.

Various other performances stood out among the plethora of artists showcased on both weekends. Clairo began her weekend-one set with a speech from Senator Bernie Sanders encouraging Gen Z political engagement. The Marías showcased their acclaimed album "Submarine," with singer Maria Zardoya demonstrating remarkable stage presence. Missy Elliott also delivered a star-studded performance alongside guests like Queen Latifah, while Ed Sheeran surprised weekend two attendees by drawing a massive crowd with just his loop pedal and guitar before joining Post Malone on stage.

As the two-weekend musical extravaganza came to a close, Coachella 2025 has once again proven why it remains arguably one of the biggest music festivals in the world. This year's edition successfully balanced commercially successful mainstream acts with emerging artists and political statements, showcasing the artistry and diversity that can be achieved within the musical landscape. From extravagant performances to heartfelt commemorations, it is undeniable that both performers and attendees will remember the night of Coachella 2025 for years to come.

Photo courtesy of Alexandra Castillo.

Interviews, while maybe not everyone’s favorite form of storytelling, are ideally about capturing and authentically representing truth. A few weeks ago, my friend Tyler Simpson, a senior film major at John Brown University, asked for help with a photography project. He needed a model to help him replicate photos for an assignment, doing his best to imitate the original with lighting and position. The entire process was fascinating to be a part of, getting to see how a slight turn of the wrist could alter the image and either succeed or fail to imitate the photographer’s goal. This led into a conversation about his thought process with interviews, how there’s a similarity in presenting the truth of what you have to work with, while also pursuing your end goal for the project. His insights inspired me to interview him. This is the conversation.

Q&A

Do you see similarities between directing a photography model and directing an interviewee?

I think there’s always a form of directing for anything where you’re trying to tell someone a story. It’s like what we’re doing right now, whether an article interview, a TV interview, anything like that, it’s like… building rapid relationships. Trying to build on this sense of trust.

What is a “rapid relationship”?

Any time you take a photo of someone or interview them, you are attempting to represent their story. And they have to be willing to trust you as the interviewer to represent their story well in order to be open with you. You may show up day-of for an interview, and you’ve never met these people before. All you have is a prompt and a direction you need to go. You might not even care that much about it, if it’s just something you’re hired to do, but you all the sudden have this responsibility to connect with that person in a way that makes you seem trustworthy. And from a Christian perspective, you want to truly be trustworthy, not just appear that way. You want to show up and be someone they can instantly trust and share their stories with.

How much direction do you usually give to your interviewees?

You definitely want to go in already knowing the answers you’re gonna get before you even ask. You go in knowing a lot about them, about their business, about their story, and they know nothing about you. And if you ask the wrong questions, that can be very prodding. It can offend people and make them feel like they’re being bated to say the wrong thing. I’ve worked on interviews where they’re almost giving the interviewee the words to say, which can be fine if it’s a more corporate story and not someone’s personal story. But when there’s this idea of feeding your interviewee a perfect line to vomit, I don’t think that’s authentic nonfiction work. It’s not their words anymore. It should be your goal to draw their story out.

What does the process of drawing their story out look like for you?

Before I sit down to interview someone, I get the story in mind, and I have questions that I’ve studied on—and I have all of this because of what I’ve already learned from them. So my goal when I sit down with the camera is not to ask a question and get an answer, but to start a conversation. And the only way you can have a conversation with somebody is whenever you trust them, when there’s this sense of relationship with this person. Some people can tell their story easily. Others, you may ask what they think of something, and they’ll just say, ‘Fine, good,’ and they just leave it at that. But everyone can talk, they can talk about their story if they’re in the right setting, if they feel like they can share it openly.

Are there factors you’ve noticed that can change that vulnerable setting for people?

The tension of a camera definitely changes that for people. You see a camera turned on and that will always change the outcome. People are aware that they’re being recorded, and they act differently. Not to say everyone acts up for the camera or that cameras always make people uncomfortable, but the knowing that it’s there changes something. I think the best way for capturing what you need in the most authentic story, and the best for what is Christlike, even, is to build a trusting relationship with the interviewee as quickly as possible, so they feel like they’re being appreciated for their story, and you can feel like you’re able to actually connect with them on a personal level. The interviewer can feel like it’s just a project, but if you can actually come in wanting to connect with the people you’re about to interview, that makes a huge difference.

What differences have you noticed in your interviews when you try to connect with people more intentionally?

It makes the difference between the shoots I’ve been to. When all I’m doing is capturing an ad for a company, that can be very cold. And a lot of times, interviews for those are less, ‘What’s your story?’ and more, ‘What does your product do?’ That's harder for people a lot of times because they have to sit down and think, ‘I need to make sure I say all the right things, because those are the core pieces of my company,’ and they have to formulate that into a sentence. All of a sudden they're trying to make what they say perfect. But if you just get someone to tell their own story, it makes a huge difference. If you can connect beforehand with them, it can feel a lot more like a conversation with just a camera to the side instead of a conversation with the camera. I've definitely been on shoots where the person's having a conversation with the camera, and it's never comfortable for anybody.

Does that same intentionality with your interviewee come out with how you use a camera?

A lot of time you see the subject looking slightly off, not directly at the camera, so you can sit there and talk to them, and the camera feels like it's a secondary thing. Generally, for an interview, that offset style is widely accepted. As a viewer—this is kind of switching topics a little bit—but as a viewer, you sit there and watch from the camera's perspective, and it feels like you're sitting in on this conversation. Not like they're talking to you, but you're sitting in on this conversation. Because usually, you don't want the subject to be talking directly to you. When it feels like they're having a conversation that you can listen to passively, I think it also increases how comfortable people are with it.

Do you usually use only one camera for your interviews?

Having a second camera lets you do things like capture wide angles to see whole-body actions. A closer camera gets more of their emotion from their face. So, for an edit for one of my projects, it's super wide where you can see all the way from the bottom of their feet to the top of the shop as they're sitting. But then on that second angle, we came in super low, shooting up with like a frame that's [gestures just below his shoulders] here and up. So it's this really tight, almost intimate frame where you're feeling like you're close to them. That's part of the reason you have two cameras, too, is just to get you close, because it's a lot more than just what they say. If the interview is going well, if you're really having a conversation, eventually their personality is going to come out, even if they're uncomfortable on camera.

How would you say your Christian faith influences how you go about trying to connect with your interviewees?

One thing I’ve thought lot about is, how am I living out the Great Commission as a filmmaker making stories that have nothing to do with the gospel? The more I think about it, the more I read Jesus' life and the New Testament, the more it feels like it’s all about the relationships we form. And that's every relationship we form, not just the ‘meaningful’ ones or the big ones. It's not just your coworkers; it's everyone you interact with. So if you treat somebody as just a means to an end, that's not Christlike. Now, there is a level of practicality where you only have so much time on a shoot. You still want to try to connect with them, but there's this weird barrier of professionalism. But especially if you're doing a documentary that you want them to be a subject in, I think it's incredibly important to make it feel like you value their time. You value their story. It’s as much a heart condition as it’s something you convey.”

How much influence do you, as the interviewer, have over how the interview goes?

I think that's less of a question of how much influence we do have and how much we should have. Because you have people who have a vision going into it that are going to pull out the lines and moments that fit their vision. And that’s why there’s a contract, to protect directors so they can do that. Because sometimes you see documentaries where the goal is to call out something that's being brushed under the rug, that's being done illegally. But that's a whole different scenario.

What does attempting to present the truth in your interview look like for you?

There's a whole conversation about, ‘What is documentary? What should documentary be? Is a narrative story just based on real events that tell your viewers what to think about something? Or is it just presenting the story that's there, and letting your viewers decide what that means?’ And one thing I’ve heard is, ‘Sometimes, people just want to be told what to think.’

Do you agree that people just want to be told what to think?

I've thought about that a lot. I think people do want to be told what to think. They don't want to think about the truth. But I don't believe in the slightest that that's how we ought to make documentaries. In film, you can manipulate emotions. That's just a fact. But if you're manipulating in such a way that you're presenting a story that tells a person how to feel about it, how to think about it, that's propaganda, not documentary.

How do you balance what message you’d like to communicate with what’s captured in your interviews?

It’s true that you bring your values into anything you watch, and it's hard because what's on my mind right now is a documentary about cars. It's not like there's a heavy value that would be pushed one way or another for this. On the flip side, one of the projects that the freshmen are editing right now is a documentary about life after Hurricane Ike in Galveston, Texas. There’s actual weight to that. And that's the type of thing that you can make manipulative and inauthentic, where your whole film is saying, ‘This is wrong.’ Or you can take the pieces of their story to say it the way they mean it. Not making these value statements like, ‘This shouldn't happen like this,’ but just presenting what is happening. Then the viewers can take it and do what they will with it.

How do you present the facts you find while trying to get your unique message across?

When you just present the facts, the viewers have to do something with the truth, and that shows you where your values are too. You hear about that hurricane and how the community is struggling to recover from it, and that can lead to a lot of thoughts and responses. But if you just turn it into an opportunity to say, ‘Look, they're in a bad situation,’ and that becomes the point of your documentary, then that becomes what your whole edit's about—even if that's not necessarily what your interviewees would say. I guess it's a matter of ‘Are you saying what your subject said, or are you saying what you want to say?’ And that's the heart of it. It's saying, ‘This is what this person thinks, in their words.’ That's the beauty of documentary. But when you start saying, ‘This is what I think, look at all the people that agree with me,’ that's a different thing entirely. So, to the best of your ability, you want to capture truth. You want to present this truth to people and let them think on it for themselves.

Photo courtesy of Ruby Winn