LCUSD students shine from behind the camera at Young Director’s Film Festival
For a handful of budding documentarians, the idea that you don’t have to be an adult to change the world became a little truer Sunday, when students enrolled in a Young Director’s class showcased their talents in a film festival.
Hosted by La Cañada nonprofit School-X, the Lanterman Auditorium film festival was the culmination of a 12-week program designed to get students thinking about causes they believe in and using powerful narratives to motivate others toward action.
School-X offers a series of entrepreneurial classes, in which students design and pitch a product or idea and then market it, usually for the benefit of a local charity or community group. Young Directors appeals to would-be filmmakers, according to School-X co-founder and Paradise Canyon Elementary School dad Eric Lin.
“The movies are to advocate for a nonprofit of their selection,” Lin said. “They come out with their movie concepts, identify a nonprofit to work with, then write their scripts.”
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Lastly, students market their films by creating movie posters, which were on full display in the Lanterman lobby Sunday.
For Palm Crest Elementary fifth-grader Ayden Byrnes, the assignment to highlight a local charity working in the community led him straight to the Pasadena Humane Society. His film, “Save the Animals Because You Can,” discusses the many ways, besides adoption, people can get involved.
“If you go to the Pasadena Humane Society, there are a lot of things you can do,” said the young director, listing options from donating needed goods to providing company for the facility’s inhabitants. “You can just go there and help out.”
Mom Terrie Byrnes said her son’s interest in making movies blossomed after he submitted a stop-motion film project for La Cañada Unified School District’s PTA “Reflections” contest in February and has continued to grow through the Young Directors class.
“Being in this class throughout the filmmaking has given him the sense he can have a voice,” she said.
Bags of popcorn were distributed to festival-goers, who watched 15 submissions back to back. Each movie introduced a charity or cause and told audience members how to contribute through a donation or volunteerism.
Paradise Canyon’s Amber Mase interviewed Glendale YWCA officials about their interest in helping to stop bullying and violence and shared how she designed and sold colorful bracelets in a former School-X class, raising $625 for the YWCA.
Caitlin Aguilar, 8, created “Caitlin’s Custom Creations” to raise money for Children’s Hospital, where cousin Max has received life-saving treatments for scoliosis. Mom Kathryn said the skills her daughter is learning today are sure to benefit her in years to come.
For Aguilar, participating in School-X and the Young Directors class provided the perfect opportunity to give back.
“When School-X came into my life, I thought this is the perfect time to help,” she said in her film.
To read the article in Spanish, cick here
Twitter: @SaraCardine
