Filmmaking grad Karim Fatkhutdinov shapes the world around him, one design at a time

Karim Fatkhutdinov has always been fascinated by the power of physical spaces. Growing up in Guangzhou, China, he spent hours riding the subway just for fun, watching the city evolve around him through constant innovation and development. And as the city evolved, so did Fatkhutdinov’s curiosity about urban design.  

“I loved being in a city with that infrastructure,” he remembers. “Living in a big city is a special privilege; in big cities, experimentation is embedded.” That same fascination led him to the production design concentration in UNCSA’s School of Filmmaking, and is carrying him into his next chapter in Chicago, where he’ll join Agency EA’s creative team as a spatial designer. 

For Fatkhutdinov, it all comes back to the same question: how do you tell a story through a physical space? 

Concept Art 

Born in Turkey and raised in China, Fatkhutdinov discovered UNCSA through word of mouth and research. “I heard good things about the program, that filmmaking was very hands-on and professional,” he says. He learned that School of Filmmaking students gain experience in every role and graduate ready for the industry. Plus, UNCSA was surprisingly affordable.  

The production design program quickly caught his attention for its strong technical rigor and creative range. From conceiving the look of a film to bringing it to life, he became immersed in every step of production, learning a myriad of skills. “Even if you end up not needing a specific skill directly, learning how everything works is crucial,” he explains.  

The School of Filmmaking’s fast-paced production environment also taught him how to adapt quickly and solve problems creatively. With students constantly moving between projects, productions and roles, no two experiences ever looked exactly the same. “You keep having new challenges thrown at you,” he says. 

His favorite feeling is the moment when it all comes together, when all the sketching, designing, sourcing, building and set-up is complete, and a vision becomes reality. He still remembers the first time he experienced that feeling. As a sophomore, he crewed on the fourth-year film “Born This Way,” helping transform an empty soundstage into a fully realized sitcom set.  

When the set finally came together, and Fatkhutdinov saw the vision realized for the first time, something clicked. “That moment, I felt like ‘this is why I love this,’” he says.  

Location Scouting 

Of course, the road wasn’t always smooth — Fatkhutdinov’s first day at UNCSA was only his second ever in the United States. Going from a major Chinese city to Winston-Salem meant dramatic shifts in infrastructure, pace and culture, and being an international student in general came with its own challenges. But Fatkhutdinov quickly began adapting and seeking opportunities at UNCSA to build community, explore North Carolina and support other students facing similar challenges. 

Over the course of his four years, Fatkhutdinov has served as the vice president, co-president and president of UNCSA’s International Students Association, advocating on behalf of international students and working with university leadership to improve campus processes and support systems. His efforts contributed to several improvements for international students, including bringing banking representatives to campus during orientation, improving processes for internships and off-campus work opportunities and helping advocate for a full-time coordinator for international students. 

He also became involved with ArtistCorps, a UNCSA community engagement initiative which utilizes the skills of current students and recent graduates to provide arts instruction, integration and exposure to school-aged children and seniors in the Winston-Salem community. 

“I was drawn to ArtistCorps early on,” Fatkhutdinov says. “It was a unique opportunity to get exposure to places outside of campus and a really cool way to add an additional layer of experience.” He also found strong parallels between teaching and filmmaking — preparing lesson plans, adapting in real time and learning how to navigate unpredictability felt surprisingly similar to working on a film set, and he felt himself getting more confident through the experience. 

Worldbuilding 

In his junior year, Fatkhutdinov also participated in the Division of Liberal Arts’ first-ever See/a/Change fellowship, an interdisciplinary program connecting the arts, sciences and North Carolina watersheds. It was a unique opportunity to mix different fields together, work closely with students across all conservatories and dive into urban design.  

“Just like Guangzhou’s Tiyu Xilu station, which almost a million people pass through every day, is designed to move crowds through it efficiently while avoiding bottlenecks, I want to seek out ways to make people’s lives easier and more sustainable,” he wrote in the proposal for his final project, “Sprawling Ideas.” Drawing on his experience in set design and modeling, Fatkhutdinov redesigned the Melvin R. Daniels Bridge, a part of Highway 64 that runs through Nags Head, North Carolina.  

His research showed that the current infrastructure is difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to navigate; the model bridge he created had multi-use lanes, safer pedestrian access, stoplights and a bus stop.  

“Perhaps my art is that of creating and responding to environment,” he wrote. “This is our environment — it stops people, spins them around, and propels them forward. It is the purpose behind everything I do.” 

Full Scale 

If there’s one person Fatkhutdinov especially wants to thank before graduating, it’s Tim Kottyan, Filmmaking’s shop supervisor. “He’s taught me so much. Every sizable project I’ve done, Tim has offered guidance. Without him, they wouldn’t have happened.” 

Now, as graduation approaches, Fatkhutdinov finds himself reflecting on the uncertainty that shaped much of his college experience.  “I was never really able to picture this moment,” he says. “Ever since first-year I was freaking out about what the future might hold. That uncertainty was always in the back of my head.” 

Ever since first-year I was freaking out about what the future might hold, that uncertainty was always in the back of my head. But I’m never going to know where I’ll be in the future, and I’ve learned to be OK with uncertainty.

Karim Fatkhutdinov

Over time, though, he learned something important. “I’m never going to know where I’ll be in the future,” he says, “and I’ve learned to be OK with uncertainty.” Armed with skills spanning technical design, visual storytelling and art direction, he feels ready for whatever comes next.  

This June, Fatkhutdinov heads to Chicago, where he’ll begin designing immersive spaces and experiences for audiences to move through and interact with — the same kind of immersive environments that first sparked his imagination as a child riding the subway through Guangzhou. 

After that, the possibilities are wide open.

By Sasha Hartzell

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