SUMMIT, NJ - On Friday May 8, 2009, over sixty high school students from the surrounding area filed into the Hyde-Watson theatre at Kent Place School to view student-made films.
The event opened with a short film titled "More to Life." The director of the film, which was screened at Sundance in 1999, Paul Morgan was in attendance. Before the student films were screened, Mr. Morgan spoke about the film and held a question and answer session with the students.
The films submitted included a range of genres including documentary and animation. Styles ranged from experimental and abstract to comedy and dramatic. Audience members viewed everything from silent films, to humorous spoofs, to short narrative films.
Kent Place Film Club President, senior Jessica Myers, was the coordinator and host for the evening. Before each film screened, each director had the opportunity to offer a short commentary about their work. There was no formal judging panel, but at the end of the night, audience members voted for their favorite film.
The winning film was entitled "Doors" and was created by Natalie Devoy, Ally Kratochvil, and Marissa Dirisio from Warren Hill Regional High School. The trio of girls was rewarded with a crystal goblet for their efforts; a goblet which is intended to be passed from winner to winner at every annual festival.
The film club is a relatively new club at Kent Place School. It was founded by student Stephanie Guiliano during the 2000-2001 school year. The faculty advisers are school librarian, Mr. John Walz, and Mr. Jim Doherty, math department head. The club is designed to be a fun and casual way for students to share their love of good movies.
Main club activities include film showings and lunch discussions. The group strives to expose members to more obscure selections from independent, foreign, classic, and documentary genres, but sometimes views popular flicks as well. This year, selections for the viewings included The Machinist, Duck Soup, and Confessions of a Superhero.
This year, senior president Jessica Myers, backed by vice presidents Hannah Kaplan and Allison Youngdahl, took on the monumental task of organizing and hosting a film festival featuring all student-made films. The team advertised through flyers and e-mails to many schools across the state and received a large and varied array of submissions.
Myers, who will be attending Princeton University next year, hopes that the film festival will become an annual tradition for Kent Place and the Film Club. "I [have a lot of] hope for the future film festivals. Mostly, I hope they build a community of filmmakers who support each other’s work and maybe inspire more kids to get into filmmaking," said the senior.