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WEEK of MAY 20, 2002
@BFS! archives

2002 Bridge Film Festival A Rousing Success

DELAWARE VALLEY FRIENDS & GREENWOOD FRIENDS AWARDED GRAND PRIZES

The Tribeca Film Festival wasn’t the only film fest in town last weekend!

On Saturday, May 11, the third annual Bridge Film Festival opened with breakfast and filmmaking workshops attended by students and/or faculty from eight Quaker schools along the East Coast, Iowa and England. In attendance for the workshops and the evening screenings were the Ackworth School (West Yorkshire, England), Delaware Valley Friends (DE), The George School (PA), Greenwood Friends School (PA), Scattergood Friends School (IA), Westtown School (PA) and Wilmington Friends (DE). (Visa problems kept the contingent from Brummana High School in Lebannon from attending but they sent a lovely letter of support in advance of the festival.)

“Our festival invites teachers and students to combine ideas with technical now-how. When students have something important to communicate, they’ll be motivated to learn the technical skills necessary to communicate the message. It’s wonderful to have a forum for sharing the inspired results of those ideas,” says festival founder and coordinator Andy Cohen.

To complement the screenings, morning and afternoon workshops (with a pizza lunch) were a successful first-time addition to the festival offerings. Independent director and screenwriter Eric Juhola taught a workshop on The Narrative Film. The BFS community remembers Juhola from his work with BFS students in creating the national campaign of PSAs on tolerance for the Southern Poverty Law Center. Media-maker and writer Bernardo Ruiz taught a workshop on The Documentary Film.

Susan Stone of Greenwood Friends wrote to Bridge Film festival coordinator Andy Cohen after the festival, “Andy, how do you do it! It just gets better and better! It is always a wonderful and inspiring experience for us, but the workshops and the dinner with the judges were a terrific idea. Our kids got to rub elbows with other kids, professional filmmakers and to use equipment they don’t have access to at our school. The kids and Sue Rockwood and I learned so much from the workshop leaders and from the remarks of the judges. We don’t have anyone on staff with any particular expertise in film and so we try to figure it out as we go along with the kids.

Stone added, “The workshops were extremely interesting and helpful. I was so impressed with how positive and encouraging the presenters were as well as how knowledgeable. In fact I am always impressed with how welcoming and friendly everyone is at Brooklyn Friends - even under the pressure of putting on a big international event! Congratulations to you and all those who made the Brooklyn Bridge Festival another resounding success.”

Following a short break, the young filmmakers gathered for a pre-screening dinner in the library. Then it was time for the screenings.

Judges for 2002 included Richard D. Pepperman (Professor of Film, School of the Visual Arts), Carmelo Pirrone (Vice President, Advertising & Publicity, Sony Pictures Classics), Tarik Remtulla (Program Assistant, Quaker United Nations Office) and Sarah Sweeney-Denham (Associate Director, Programs & Publications, Friends Council on Education). An important part of the judging process, each year, is for the judges to provide immediate and honest feedback about the film directly to each filmmaker.

Judge Sarah Sweeney-Denham wrote of her experience: “Thank you for allowing me the honor of serving as a judge for the 2002 Bridge Film Festival. This is such a wonderful event, which is just as much a celebration of the process, commitment and achievements of the student filmmakers as it is of the finished products themselves.”

She adds, “I also appreciated the experience, care and insights of the other judges. Judging these films was an interesting process and our different viewpoints were very valuable. Thank you for giving the students at Friends schools this forum to express their understandings of Quaker values. I look forward to hearing about your future plans for transcontinental collaboration, and more!”

The first half of the evening screened:
• One Wish, Documentary by Elizabeth Titman and Alexander Rockwood, Greenwood Friends Middle School
• Writer’s Walk, Narrative by Andrew Stone and Megan Midgette, The George School • Light in Darkness, Documentary by Maura Macfeat, Lara Hamdan, Amanda Hunt, Jen Mulligan and Alex Quinn, Delaware Valley Friends School
• The Black Pearl, Drama by Lafayette Villada, Scattergood Friends School
• Memories, Drama by Joanne Bou-Jawad, George Chouity, Salah El Bizri, Nizar Fakih, Yara Gedeon, Sandra Hassan, Kassem Jouni, Serge Kirdikian, Nicole Naime and Ziad Nasr, Brummana High School, Lebanon

Following an intermission, the following films were screened:
• Guest, Documentary by RISE (Resolutions of Issues of Students of Ethnicity), Moses Brown School
• Life, As A Meetinghouse, Narrative by Zach Warsavage and John Katz, The George School
• The Quaker Oats, Animation by David Rouse and John Tucker, Greenwood Friends Middle School
• The New Kid, Fiction by Alex Quinn, Delaware Valley Friends School
• Autumn in New York, Documentary by Garrett Bradley, Brooklyn Friends School
• A Tale of Two Cities, Docu-drama by Ackworth School, West Yorkshire, England

During the 40-minute intermission for the judges’ deliberation, Eric Juhola showed his film “Size Matters,” about a weight loss camp for kids. The film premiered at the Brattle Theatre in Boston and went on to appear at the Los Angeles Film International Film festival and the First Run Film Festival, picking up “best of” awards in producing, original score and sound recording. After the screening, Juhola took to the stage for a Q & A with the audience.

The Grand Prizes were awarded to “One Wish,” a documentary by Elizabeth Titman and Alexander Rockwood from Greenwood Friends Middle School and to Delaware Valley Friends School for “The New Kid,” a fiction by Alex Quinn.

The judges scored films based on the following criteria:
• Cinematography—Composition, lighting and camera movement
• Creativity—Directing, acting, editing, design , writing
• Message—Quaker ideals of equality, non-violence, simplicity and community
• Narrative—How well does the video hold your attention?
• Originality

The 2002 Bridge Film Festival closed late Saturday night with great fanfare. Special thanks are due to:
• Tony Soll, who acted as chauffeur for the Ackworth guests, and Tina Bowen who took guests on a road trip to Coney Island in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
• Sponsorships from PAT Mini-grants and the Martin Moore Visiting Artists & Scholars Committee.
• Rachel Braver, Dana Catherine, Sharon Kennedy and Karen & Michael Mitchell for hosting visiting guests.
• Student technicians for the workshops: Jasmin Singleton and Ian Olasov.
• Student technical crew for the screening: Jeremy Bloom and Chelsea Connor (and tech advisor Tina Bowen).
• Festival assistants: Rachel Braver and Sarah Natoli.
• Senior Class and Advisors Lyubov Obertnaya and Vladimir Malukoff for the refreshments.

See lots more Film Festival photos.

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