Community Invited to Tune In to Paul Revere Film Festival

By LILY TINOCO | Reporter

With campus still closed, Paul Revere Charter Middle School will be hosting its sixth annual Student Film Festival virtually on Friday, June 5.

The festival was launched six years ago by Palisadian Lisa Robins to offer students a creative outlet—and it has since taken off. Robins has worked in the entertainment industry and passed on the torch to Debbie Sachs, Sage Grandy and Susan Fitzer when her daughters left Revere, and they have carried it since then.

Any Revere student is welcome to submit a film for consideration under its range of film categories, which include animation/claymation, live action short film, music video, documentary, public service announcement and commercial.

The Film Festival is usually celebrated Hollywood-style, with a red carpet, popcorn, candy and a huge raffle, but this year, the festival has gone virtual.

“The kids, and everybody else, were definitely disappointed not to have the event be live this year,” Sachs said to the Palisadian-Post, “but after pushing the date and realizing our only option was online, I think the kids were happy to know their films would still be shown. And this gives everyone the opportunity to join and watch together. It’s really nice to have something to look forward to these days, and that’s exactly how the kids felt when they heard we were moving online.”

Professionals from the entertainment industry will be watching and scoring the films, determining third, second and first place winners in each category.

This year’s judges will be David Booth Gardner, Fred Coury, Susan Fitzer, Sharre Jacoby, Jeff Judah, Thomas Mizer, Denisse Oliva, James Ryan, Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin.

The link to the Film Festival will be available promptly at 6 p.m. this Friday on the Paul Revere website. All of the winners will be announced after the screening.

“We hope that everyone will join us, the films are incredible and we are so amazed and proud of our filmmakers,” Sachs said. “They put so much work into their films.

“The festival has continued to grow over the years and the level of talent continues to blow our mind each year.”

The link will be posted and available at paulrevermiddleschool.com.