QuakerQuaker

Primitive Christianity Revived, Again

Talk About Race

Talk About Race and The non competitive (only for exhibition) Bridge Film Festival Category

Dr. Jon DeGraff, BFS history teacher, and I recently collaborated on an Upper School student podcasting project. Inspired by the content and passion of the students' work I decided to use one of the soundtracks to make an "animated" video with a cloud-based program Brooklyn Friends has a subscription to, Go-Animate4Schools.

Initially, I was making the animation as an example for students of the possibility of taking their projects to another level by enhancing the message by giving additional context with animated images. Perhaps because Dr. King's day is upon us I was intrigued by the student author's opening line, "Today I am here to talk about everybody's favorite subject, race." After discussion with Jumoke the student author and his teacher Jon, they gave permission to publish the video and enter it in the Bridge Film Festival as a non-competitive (for exhibition only) entry.

Unlike most student film festivals, the Bridge Film Festival encourages faculty participation. At minimum the festival requires a faculty advisor or meeting clerk to certify that the film has met the requirements of the Festival. At maximum is a little harder to define. Pedagogically we believe in the principle of scaffolding , "... a process in which teachers model or demonstrate the problem-solving process, then step back and offer support as needed." The expectation is that the younger the filmmaker, the more help is required.

From the festival's inception it has received inquiries about clarification of this nebulous rule. I explain to the advisor what the rules are and leave it up to the wisdom of the faculty advisor to discern what to do.

The issue came to a head in 2011 with the entry "Circle of Friends" from Westbury Friends School" . Before production began, I received a call from head of school Gerri Faivre. She explained, It was to be the words and images of their students but it would be professionally produced. She asked if it could be included in the festival, but not considered for an award. Because the message of the film was so on target with the mission of the festival, it was accepted and the non-competitve category was born.

Two years ago I was surfing the net for films about Quakerism and chanced upon a "lip dub" from Friends' School Lisburn with, (and get this) 453,403 views and counting. I contacted the school's principal Elizabeth Dickson and asked her how it was made. It turns out to be a school-wide project with substantial student involvement. She felt comfortable with it being included as a non-competitive entry.

Please contact the Bridge Film Festival if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

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