Imagine that.
Now that I had an idea, I needed a plan. First, I'd have to cull support from my own school. I was so excited about this idea that on the first day of opening meetings in September I announced my idea and requested committee volunteers. To my dismay and naiveté no one was jumping at the chance to join another committee. I persisted those first days because I knew if I wanted to launch this festival within the school year I would have to act quickly. At this point prospects seemed pretty dim.
On the last day of meetings before the students were to arrive, I was walking past a table at lunchtime and was stopped by Adele Tonge, the Administrative Assistant to the Head of School. Adele looked me in the eye and very quietly said, “I want to be on your team.” I had never heard anyone say that to me before, so I knew at that instant that everything was possible. With Adele’s help we formed the first Bridge Film Festival committee including Middle School teacher Nell Mermin, Admissions counselor Danae Oratatoski, webmaster Anne Garland, 12th grader Chris Richards, 5th Grader Hannah Ensler-Rivel, Adele and myself.
Our first order of business was to submit a grant application to the Friends Council on Education. They awarded us a seed grant of $1,000, and the PAT matched the amount, sufficiently bankrolling our mission.
Thus began the Bridge Film Festival.
This was the first committee I had formed and chaired, and the learning curve was a little steeper than I had anticipated; I led a group of eager, opinionated members and though we weren’t inventing the wheel we were redesigning one. I will not go into all the details of this process, (I’ll save that for the book) but there were many hills and valleys that first year. At one point when everything seemed to be going wrong and I was down about the whole process I received a hand written note in my mailbox from Hannah the 5th grader stating that she felt her voice was “not being heard” in the meetings. How ironic that one of the student committee members felt her voice wasn’t being heard in a meeting about a film festival dedicated to giving voice to students. I spoke with Hannah and assured her that she was a very important member of the team and that her voice would be heard. I made certain of that by asking her to co-chair the festival with me. Things started coming together after that.
The main requirement for entry into the Festival has always been to make movies that demonstrate Quaker values in action. As I like to say, "No message, no movie." I learned that it's easier to motivate students to produce quality work when they believe in the message being communicated. Initially there were two categories, narrative and documentary (several years later a public service announcement category was added). That first year we had 10 entries from 6 schools, and the screenings happened in the evening for the public and a panel of judges. After screenings the judges went to deliberate while the audience had refreshments. I also ran a trivia game show onstage until the Judges returned with their award choices and critiques for every entry. I recall that the Judges came onstage and one of them whispered to me, “We have a tie.”
I whispered back, “We don’t have enough trophies,” and made them choose a single winner.
Past festival judges have included filmmakers, educators, activists and Quakers including: Rev. James Parks Morton of the Interfaith Center of New York, Stanley Crouch of the New York Daily News, Irene McHenrey of the friends Council on Education and Dr. Patricia Schall, my high school film teacher to name a few.
The first year of the festival we convinced a celebrity to be the festival's Honorary Chair, on paper anyway, and we followed that up the second year with another big name but neither could attend in person because of their busy schedules. Many students were disappointed that they didn’t make an appearance so we decided only to advertise guests who could be there in person, and to call them Featured Filmmakers. They show clips from their work, then come onstage for a brief interview and a Q&A with the audience. Past Featured Filmmakers have included directors: Eric Johola, Bernardo Ruiz, Peter Hedges, Shola Lynch, Charles Sturridge and actresses: Carmen Ejogo, Anika Noni Rose and S. Epatha Merkersen.
The planning for this year's 10th anniversary festival began well before the 9th annual festival. I thought it would be great to symbolize the concept of the "bridge” by having the 10th Bridge Film Festival across the water where the Quaker religion began. I contacted Ackworth School, one of the oldest active Friends schools in England, founded in 1779. Their students had had work screened in two previous Bridge Film Festivals here at BFS, so I asked if they would be interested in hosting. There was considerable interest from the Ackworth filmclub and their faculty advisers so the entire student club and two teachers came to Brooklyn for the 9th festival to see how things were run.
The decision to hold the festival in Great Britain posed many new challenges, the details of which I will leave for my aforementioned heart-wrenching memoir. Suffice it to say the result of this international collaboration made the festival go green and catapulted us into the digital age. We created a website with all the information, entry forms and judges' feedback. We also created a YouTube channel where all the entries, Bridge Film Festival videonews segments and Quaker thought videos could be viewed by the entire world giving greater voice to the entrants. For the festival itself, Ackworth School was a gracious host, rolling out the red carpet, offering overnight accommodations, truly wonderful meals including two high teas, and a tour of the city of York. This year we had 28 entries from 14 schools and 5 countries.
I was discussing the festival with a student recently and when he realized I had been doing this for 10 years he asked, "Don't you get bored?"
I thought for a moment and answered, "No, I don't because the festival is always changing and evolving in unexpected ways."
What will the future bring?
Every year after the festival I have a letdown and a feeling relief. I seriously consider the question of whether I should trudge on bravely with the event. After a short while I recharge and recommit my efforts. This year I truly thought this 10-year mark might be the end, but instead I feel energized and I am sprouting with new possibilities and ideas.
One hope is that I can offer all of the Friends Schools and Meetings in the world the opportunity to download the finalist entries and build their own DVDs for presentation. Imagine 50 Schools and 50 Meetings each having their own annual Bridge Film Festival screenings. They all could charge admission and donate the funds to one cause every year, utilizing the power of the Friends network.
Perhaps we could have a collective goal of rebuilding just one house in New Orleans.
Imagine that.
There have been many people over the years who have worked tirelessly to make this event possible, including the student filmmakers and their advisors, but it is the consistent support of Brooklyn Friends School's faculty and staff that has made the difference year in and year out, most notably that from Adele Tonge, Linda Shockley, Maggie King, Kerri Richardson, Lisa Deo and Dr. Michael Nill.