The Ghetto Film School
Last night I watched the The Ghetto Film School Festival at the Apple Store and I had a blast.
There were short films made by kids from 9th grade and bellow who attend the School.
The technical quality and the story-telling ability was excellent, obviously influenced by their access to a LOT of television. There were even a couple of movies with special effects. After each movie, the director would come up to the podium to thank their parents (usually) and take a question. These were really young kids, which only made the movies shown more impressive.
The one troubling - or telling - fact was that on all but one of the movies the theme was revenge - against the bully, the guy that stole the expensive sneaker, the girl that tried to get someone's boyfriend.
Revenge that involved physical violence.
Sometimes they would gang up on the 'enemy'. In a few movies they would just drink the 'magic potion' that made them 'superkid'.
Obviously, and admirably, the School gave them total freedom of expression.
And the catharsis that went on... Kids on the audience AND their parents (and even I) were hysterical when the underdog beat up the bad wolf (in one film, the bad guy wore a fur trimmed hooded parka).
Freud would have had a field day.
The kids were beaming! And THAT made me happy.
BTW, the one movie that was not about revenge - and the ONLY romantic one - was about 2 kids attempt to courtship but they were so shy and awkward that every time they tried, they PHYSICALLY HURT each other...
I LOVE KIDS.
There were short films made by kids from 9th grade and bellow who attend the School.
The technical quality and the story-telling ability was excellent, obviously influenced by their access to a LOT of television. There were even a couple of movies with special effects. After each movie, the director would come up to the podium to thank their parents (usually) and take a question. These were really young kids, which only made the movies shown more impressive.
The one troubling - or telling - fact was that on all but one of the movies the theme was revenge - against the bully, the guy that stole the expensive sneaker, the girl that tried to get someone's boyfriend.
Revenge that involved physical violence.
Sometimes they would gang up on the 'enemy'. In a few movies they would just drink the 'magic potion' that made them 'superkid'.
Obviously, and admirably, the School gave them total freedom of expression.
And the catharsis that went on... Kids on the audience AND their parents (and even I) were hysterical when the underdog beat up the bad wolf (in one film, the bad guy wore a fur trimmed hooded parka).
Freud would have had a field day.
The kids were beaming! And THAT made me happy.
BTW, the one movie that was not about revenge - and the ONLY romantic one - was about 2 kids attempt to courtship but they were so shy and awkward that every time they tried, they PHYSICALLY HURT each other...
I LOVE KIDS.
