Inspiring Kids Through Film
Fifth graders at the John M. Marshall Elementary School will soon become some of the South Fork’s youngest filmmakers when the school launches its first film club, inspired by the Hamptons International Film Festival’s screening there earlier this year in which East Hampton Middle School students’ short films were shown and those students made a red-carpet entrance.
Through the film festival’s partnership with the United Nations, local high school students will once again experience a slate of short films made by youth around the world, chosen to provoke thought about issues including human rights, migrant integration, diversity, and acceptance, and will take part in a panel discussion with representatives from the U.N., the International Organization for Migration, and others.
And when middle schoolers from East Hampton, Sag Harbor, and the Ross School pack Guild Hall today for a similar lineup of short films, two will be surprised to learn that their own original work will be screened for their peers.
While the festival has been said to have an impact on fall tourism and the arts community here, leaders from local schools say it has benefited education, too.
“The film festival is a wonderful opportunity for our middle schoolers to be exposed to a major arts and cultural event right in our own backyard, and our teachers find creative ways to play into the festival’s programming,” Charles Soriano, the principal of the East Hampton Middle School, said.
Some of his staff, including Cara Nelson, Rita Greene, and Meg Ryan-Metz, who teach social studies, English, and special education for seventh graders, respectively, have gone all-in when it comes time for the film festival. After last year’s, the teachers combined their classes for two weeks and tasked their students with making their own short films, some of which were later screened at John Marshall. They plan to do it again this year.
The three teachers’ project reads, in part, “We recognize that our youth are powerful agents of social change in a world too often characterized by intolerance and division. . . . Students will have opportunities to share ideas about complex international realities while generating awareness of and inspiration from youth whose lives demand resilience and resourcefulness in the face of struggle.”
The festival’s partnership with the United Nations has been particularly meaningful, according to Elizabeth Reveiz, who heads East Hampton’s English as a new language and bilingual programs.
“It brings [students] closer to the global community and makes them feel that they are not alone in their plights,” Ms. Reveiz said. “Whether it’s basic growing pains or more deeply rooted issues, those few minutes give them a different perspective into the human condition and let them see that we are all more similar than we are different. Hopefully it will also allow them to embrace compassion and have a greater respect for individuality, choice, and culture.”
At John Marshall, Erin Abran and Jamie Tulp, who teach fourth and third grade, respectively, will lead the new film club. They met with Linda Biscardi Fuller, a retired East Hampton teacher who serves on the festival’s board of directors, and Marissa Friedes Cangiolosi, the festival administrator, to ramp up the program. They hope to use LTV resources and ask high school and middle school students to volunteer with the club, which is for fifth graders.
“We are excited to tie it in to what we value in our school: good character,” Ms. Abran said. “We plan on incorporating the idea of how respect is shown across our school into a final presentation at the end of the year — part documentary, part script-story filming — to the school.”
Ms. Fuller said her goal has been to have the film festival “in some way impact the kids’ lives in a creative, artistic way through media literacy.” “You’re going to see inspiration right in the making,” she said.