GARDEN GROVE : Sixth-Grade Videos Win First Place

For Claudia Dominguez, 13, going to see movies is fun, but she’d rather be making them.

Claudia has just completed a yearlong after-school program aimed at teaching sixth-grade students how to write, direct, film, produce and act in their own movies. And recently, two shorts created by Claudia and her peers at Mitchell Elementary School have won various honors statewide.

“It keeps you really busy and you have lots of fun,” Claudia said of the film group known as Video Busters. “It’s something I always wanted to do. I want to be an actress or a movie star.”

One of their dramas, called “A Skeleton in Her Closet,” promoted AIDS education and compassion for those with the disease. On June 11 and 12, that video won first-place drama awards from the Los Angeles Student Film Institute and the State Media Festival.

Their comedy called “Revenge of the Nerd” won first place for comedy from the State Media Festival as well.

“It’s great for developing self-esteem and I think they really learn what it takes to put together a TV production,” said teacher Marlene McConville, who founded the program 12 years ago.

“They start with nothing and end up with an award-winning production and I think that’s important for them.”

The program’s $700 annual budget, which comes from T-shirt sales, goes mainly to pay for maintenance and repair of video equipment. Run by four teachers who volunteer their time, the program will be open to a new group of sixth-grade students when school reopens this fall.

Both of the students’ award-winning videos run about six minutes and deal with the topic of acceptance. In the AIDS drama, a girl is shunned by her peers when they discover that she has the disease. Only after she dies do they realize how badly they treated her and call for AIDS education and compassion for those who carry the AIDS virus.

The comedy tells the story of a nerd whose lack of social skills makes him an outcast. He wears green plastic glasses and speaks oddly. In one scene, the school bell rings and he says: “That must be the summons which terminates recess. It behooves me to return to class.”

His bizarre speech and nonconformity prompt ridicule and make him the target of pranks and abuse. In one scene, his head is dunked into a toilet. However, after he spends the summer lifting weights and taking vitamins, he gains acceptance by facing down a school bully.

Haley Williams, 12, said the best part of the experience was collaborating with her peers to see her ideas come alive on a video screen.

She added, “You feel privileged because not many other people our age have done the things we’ve done.”