The EDSS media studies class is going where no Waterloo Region high school class has gone before – they’re launching their own student-run film festival.
![EDSS students Connor Ehrlich, Rylee Fleming, Nicola Grogan and Hannah Charlton launched plans for a student-run film festival, titled Fresh Focus, on Oct. 19 and are looking for teenager-directed films about social issues. [Whitney Neilson / The Observer]](https://www.observerxtra.com/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/post_news_festival.jpg)
The event, titled Fresh Focus, is open to students from across the school board with an interest in filmmaking. All submitted films must centre around one or more social issues from a teenage perspective. The festival will be held at Dallas Nightclub in Kitchener on January 11.
Tom O’Connor, media studies teacher, said this is the first year they’re trying their hand at a film festival.
“Media class in the past was starting to get a little stale so I needed to mix it up,” O’Connor said. “It may blow up in our face, but at the same time you learn as much from an event like that as you do from an event that’s a success.”
He took the class to a Toronto International Film Festival viewing in September to get an idea of what it takes to put together a festival. The students are responsible for everything from marketing the event to attracting sponsors. The class is divided into publicity, press, marketing, logistics, sponsorship, event managers, the hostess and film groups.
“Hopefully it will raise the standard of the films that are made at school and give them a place to be seen other than on a YouTube channel or Facebook,” O’Connor said.
Nicola Grogan said they’re going to be exploring topics like bullying in school, sexuality, and feminism. She hopes the films will cover a range of issues to show the audience their point of view as teenagers.
“The teenage perspective can be seen by some people as childish and dramatic, but with your help we would like to make it something that people can listen to and respect.”
Grogan said they’re loosely basing the festival off of TIFF after looking at how they market the festival, but they also looked at different film fests around the world.
Dallas Nightclub, the Elmira Food Basics and McCain Foods are the sponsors so far. Dallas has given the class their venue and staff free of charge for the event. They’ll be using some of the Selections brand products from Food Basics in return for their sponsorship. Grogan said since Food Basics is new in Elmira it has been looking for ways to get its name out in the community.
Since they only have two hours there’s a limit to how many films they can show, but they’d still like to receive as many submissions as possible. The class will then judge them and decide which to showcase.
“I know our class is going to be submitting some, preferably some from the rest of our school, some from the other schools in the school board, K-W area maybe,” Grogan said.
Now they’re working on how to sell tickets, designing the tickets, creating a logo and marketing the event to attract as many people as possible.
“I’m okay with public speaking but going up to it, the idea of speaking to a group of people it’s just kind of stressful for me,” Grogan said. “I’m okay once I’m there and once I’m up there.”
She said she chose media studies as an elective because she had heard it was fun and O’Connor was a good teacher,
“I was excited to have more of a look at other people’s perspective on how they perceive the media and how it can be turned and twisted into other forms,” Grogan said.
Tickets are $5 for students 12 and over and seniors, $7 for adults, and $10 for a family of five.
Hannah Charlton said they looked at the ticket prices of their school play to determine what theirs should be. Children are welcome, but there will be a disclosure on the tickets explaining the sensitive nature of some films.
“There are going to be some iffy things that parents may not want their children to see,” Charlton said.
As to why they’re holding it at a bar, Grogan said they thought it would be a more mature place to have it, instead of a movie theatre, which could make the festival seem juvenile.
“Here we can have a more mature setting with a more mature audience, along with the fact it is a unique setting,” Grogan said.
To submit a film, or for more information, email the class at freshfocusfestival@gmail.com.
