Paul Revere Charter Middle Schools’ fifth annual Film Festival brought the best and brightest filmmaking students to the forefront on Friday, March 22.
The festival screened 37 films from seven different categories, including live action, horror, animation and documentary.
Organized by the Film Festival Committee, which includes Vice Principal Justin Koretz, teacher Jon Hyman, and parents Susan Fitzer, Sage Grandy and Debbie Sachs, the event proved to be its biggest success yet.
With a massive raffle table set with gift baskets composed of movie-themed goods, free popcorn and free merchandise for every participant, the middle school festival may have been the hottest ticket in town.
Judges were composed of 11 real-world professionals in the film industry who were not allowed to have children competing in the festival.
“The reason I got involved was because my younger son who is graduating Pali Elementary [and will be enrolling into Paul Revere] has been making movies since he was tiny,” said Sachs, a co-chair for the film festival.
She described an animation film named “The Shallow” written, directed and animated by Sydney Geiger, of a chalkboard rendition of Romeo and Juliet, that struck a chord with the audience.
“It was so emotional and filled with heart that people were crying and applauding at the film festival,” she said. The idea for the story had come from her son Sammy and Annabelle Grandy.
First place prizes went to films like “Overload!” a documentary on teen stress and the need for more resources written and directed by Eva Milan Engel and Nicole Chang.
“Don’t Do Forknife,” a film about an adopted baby whose life takes a turn for the worse after playing the video game Fortnite, directed by Leon Akhavan and Ari Moore, won first place in the Live Action category.
Sachs said many parents approached her after the festival to express gratitude for providing an outlet that their otherwise shy and closed-off children were able to thrive in.
“You can tell some of these kids put so much effort and thought into it and for me, that’s why I do it, I do it for those kids to have that opportunity and that’s why my co-chairs do it as well,” Sachs said.
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