Student Filmmakers Show Their Talents At Tribeca Teaches

2012-06-14

Last night at the Director’s Guild Association New York Theater, 14 projects from eight schools were showcased as part of our Youth Education program’s Tribeca Teaches series.

See all 14 shorts

Celebrating student-made media, Tribeca Teaches highlights the work of students involved in its in-school and afterschool residencies, which has now expanded to Los Angeles.

The evening began with a reception for the students while inside the theater some took to an impromptu free style session. Tribeca Youth director Vee Bravo played master of ceremonies as he introduced TFI co-founder Robert De Niro who welcomed the students and offered to answer any questions. One girl asked when he began acting. “I started at 10, doing it after school,” said De Niro. Another student asked what advice he would give them in becoming filmmakers. “Just keep doing it,” he answered. “Don’t stop if you love it. I continue to do it because I love it.” Then a student calmly asked, “What movies have you done?” With a chuckle De Niro replied, “I was going to ask if any of you knew who I was.” The 14 shorts ranged from comedy to drama, narrative to documentary, but all had a maturity to them that were way beyond the student's years. Some like The Instigator and Cyber Bullying PSA, looked at violence and intimidation that can go on in school. While others like The Bed-Stuy and A Brighter Side of the Bronx shed light on the beauty of areas in New York City that aren’t popular to visit. And then there are those that highlight identity like Tomboy, which looks at a girl who is most comfortable dressed down and throwing a football; Free To Be, a reveling spotlight on two students who have come out as being gay; and I Have a Father…But I Don’t, a personal look at students who’ve lost their fathers in very different ways.

“The students at Bronx Prep quickly realized that the majority of them had one thing in common: absent fathers,” says I Have A Father teaching artist Jessica Ann Peavy. “From death to abandonment, students relay their anger, confusion, and amazing ability to be resilient in their quest to move forward without their fathers.” Another moving work was Raymone, which looks at a high school student who was once a gang member and now a talented dancer who does after-school programs for middle schoolers.

“This project actually began about a year ago when Raymone was briefly interviewed for a documentary that the students at CAMBA 269 made about the issue of gang violence in their neighborhood of East Flatbush,” says Raymone teaching artist David Felix-Sutcliff. “During the course of that interview, it became clear that Raymone had a bigger story to tell. The students have a huge amount of respect for him and were honored to be given the opportunity to interview him about his life. This pre-existing relationship was crucial and gave students the opportunity to practice and develop their skills as interviewers since we were able to film him at length on several occasions. Throughout the project, I asked the students to evaluate the depth of our material, both in terms of the visual quality of our footage, as well as the quality of our interview questions, and the quality of Raymone’s answers. The students grasped the idea very easily and routinely rose to the challenge of seeking out opportunities for the film to take an extra step. I'm proud to say that, in nearly ten years of working as a youth media educator, it’s one of the strongest pieces I’ve produced with a class.” Raymone was on hand, and at the end of the Q&A following the screening of the shorts, he showed off his dance moves to the crowd.

However, the biggest reaction was for The Doll, a horror made by the CAMBA 271 middle school that tells the storyof a disembodied mannequin head that torments the hallways of their school. With a mix of Sam Raimi-like originality and the camp of William Castle, this one will please any horror enthusiast.