This Wednesday, I took my students
on their first field trip of the year. We went to the New
Orleans Film Festival to watch 3 educational screenings. The students then
had a chance to meet the director and the actors involved with the film. The
most inspirational documentary was “Sparkle”, directed by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar.
This movie was about Sheri “Sparkle”
Williams, who has been a star dancer with the legendary Dayton Contemporary
Dance Company for nearly 40 years – a record virtually unheard of in the
professional dance community. (NOFS.org) Sheri suffered from an injury that stopped her from dancing for over 8
months. This documentary was a story of personal and professional failures and
triumph.
I
actually got a chance to talk with Sheri Williams, and director, Julia after
the screening. Julia is sending me a copy of the film and I am so excited to
share with my classes to write a summary of the short documentary as an
assignment. She could tell that I had a passion for filmmaking and was more
than happy to offer assistance in my journey as a budding independent
filmmaker. I love having the opportunity to meet influential people in this
industry. The advice and expertise I have gained from my experiences have been
priceless.
The New Orleans Film Festival was
filled with over 200 movies from directors all over the World. This is the 24th
Annual New Orleans Film Festival, and Moviemaker magazine named the NOFF “Top
25 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee.” (NOFS.org)
I gave my students an assignment to
document the entire trip and take pictures and video of the experience. They
will then import the footage in iMovie and create a video montage of their
footage. The students were so excited to take a field trip and get a day off
from school. Mentorship Academy is
located in Baton Rouge, LA, about an hour from New Orleans. We wanted to stay longer but we had to get
back to the school. Other notable movies include 12 Years a Slave, and The
Whole Gritty City. Ms. Skye MacDonald from the NOSF said that she would come
out to Baton Rouge to show our school the movie “The Whole Gritty City.” This is a
documentary about New Orleans high school marching bands. From watching the
trailer, it seems to be a very good movie.
I will create a post about the
student project coming soon. Have you ever been to a film festival? If so which
film festivals have you been to?
-O. Griffin
References: http://thewholegrittycity.com http://neworleansfilmsociety.org/pages/detail/31/film-festival
No comments:
Post a Comment