I teach an introductory K-12 digital filmmaking class (entitled “Lights, Camera, Learning!”) for a non-profit arts organization in Shreveport, LA called The Robinson Film Center. We’re a two-screen art house theater, but we also teach media literacy and youth media production. During the Spring ’07 semester, I was teaching three days a week at Booker T. Washington High School, a struggling school located in one of Shreveport’s most underserved communities. In cooperation with the school’s telecommunications teacher, Mrs. Katrina Gilliam, I helped 21 students learn to write, shoot, and edit short digital video projects on their own and in groups. The Robinson Film Center’s goal in teaching these classes is to teach students the power of film as a storytelling medium while equipping them to tell their own stories, whether true or imagined. The culmination of the class was the completion of an 11-minute film entitled “All Things Come to Light,” a drama about teen pregnancy and the importance of friends and family. In the film, a student ignores the advice of her friends and sneaks out to see an older man. When she learns that she is pregnant, she has to depend on the friends who she ignored to help put the pieces back together and face new challenges.
During the creation of this film, different students took the lead in different areas. Some excelled in lighting, some excelled in acting, writing or cinematography. In the end, we created one of the highest-quality student films I have ever seen. Only after the completion of the class did I learn that the story told in the film was a true story. I used grant funds to replicate the DVD through Disc Makers. Since I didn’t need 1,000 copies for myself, I gave lots of copies to the school and the students involved, and then placed an article in the local newspaper about the DVDs being available for free. We’ve given away more than 600 copies, and those copies have gone to some interesting places – to the Mayor’s office, to the DVD catalogs of local libraries, to summer camps, church groups, teen counseling centers, and more. You can also watch the film online at www.lightscameralearning.org.
In this case, I feel we made a great film and then – for once – the students were able to participate in the most important part of the equation, which is getting the film seen. I hope that I’m able to do similar programs in the future.
