Thanks to ‘Stranger Things,’ the Duffer Brothers are twin stars of Chapman University’s film school

Michael Kowalski, a professor at Chapman University's film school, was in Beirut earlier this year, conducting a workshop on sound design for Lebanese film students, when it struck him just how brightly shines the stardom of Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of Netflix's smash hit “Stranger Things” and 2007 graduates of the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.

“I mention the Duffer Brothers and then thought, ‘People in Lebanon aren't watching “Stranger Things,” ‘ ” said Kowalski, who also serves as the Dodge College's associate dean of academic affairs. “And I was wrong. They were all very excited.”

So he pulled up a streaming copy of “Eater,” the short horror film the Duffers made as their senior thesis project, and “one of the strongest student films we'd made,” he says. And in a classroom in Beirut, some 7,447 miles, give or take, from Chapman University in Orange, he led a discussion about the early work of these twin brothers who, more than any other Dodge alumni, are genuine pop culture phenoms today.

The 33-year-old Duffers are not easy to track down, and while everyone talks about how friendly and nice they are in person, we've yet to make that connection. But Kowalski, who's known them since they were precocious 19-year-olds, graciously agreed to talk about them by proxy, discussing their early promise and achievements at Chapman, the ways in which they've succeeded since graduation, and the impact their success has had on Dodge College, where a Duffer Brothers master class in early November sold out almost immediately.

Kowalski laughed when he heard we'd not managed to connect with them for this story. “Sometimes they respond to my emails and sometimes they don't,” he said.

Nothing personal, he said, more that the Duffer Brothers work as hard as anyone around, and with the success of “Stranger Things,” whose second season arrived in October – soon followed by Netflix's no-brainer of a decision to order season three – they're in constant motion.

“The people that were there who knew them, faculty, I think we all knew they were talented,” Kowalski said. “They were a team, and that always helps – they complement each other well. And they had certain skill sets that we felt would lead to success in the film industry.”