I found this film surfing YouTube and chose to feature it for Black History month because a college student used the medium of film to learn and teach others about an important figure in (Quaker) history. Below is a note from the director.
Andy:
Well, my name is Alex Steele, and I live in Portland, Oregon. I am in my Senior year of my undergraduate degree in English literature. I attend Portland State University. I am an aspiring professor of English literature. My hobbies include reading novels, writing fiction, playing music with friends (I am mainly interested in the guitar), film, American and foreign culture, travel, videogames as art, and I am currently learning how to cook. The short film on Rustin was for a class a few years ago focused on the transition and transgression of American politics and literature from the civil war through the civil rights movement. I had never heard of Bayard Rustin until my professor mentioned his name in a lecture one night. I was astounded how such an influential and powerful figure had largely been overlooked. Our assignment was simply to create a short biography of a major figure of the civil rights movement--preferably one who was lesser known--using any medium we felt worked best. Having a little background interest and practice in film production and editing (a hobby I picked up when I was quite young as a Middle School-aspiring skateboard film director), I worked the Rustin narrative that I had researched into the short documentary film. I am glad so many people have had the chance to watch my small project, and that Rustin's name and story can continue to spread and influence others positively. He was a remarkable man.
We are pleased to announce that REPORTERO will premiere at the MUSEUM OF MEMORY AND TOLERANCE in Mexico City on Feb. 15th as part of AMBULANTE, an innovative documentary festival that tours 12 Mexican cities in over 140 venues. The film, which was recently mentioned in The New York Times, will also ...
The Bridge Film Festival is happy to announce the first Judges' Choice Awards show. The show will be streamed live, 2PM (EST) Tuesday April 24, 2012, and presented in the Walton Center auditorium on the George School campus as one of the Friends Council on Education's 80th anniversary events. All Bridge Film Festival filmmakers, faculty, and parents are invited to attend. Admission is free.
For the past three years films have been submitted and judged on-line by our distinguished judges. The results were announced on-line. This year, the BFF is producing its own "Academy Awards," simply called the Judges' Choice Awards. The top three films in each category (Narrative, Documentary, Public Service Announcement, and New Media) will be nominated for an award, and scenes from each will be screened at the event. Additionally, the coveted "Spirit of the Festival" award will go to the entry that best reflects the mission of the festival.
In early November, I gave a talk about how Quaker testimonies influence the Bridge Film Festival, to an all-school assembly at Oakwood Friends School, Poughkeepsie, NY. The entire student body (5th-12th grade) and faculty were gathered in their Meeting House. I brought my laptop with a slide presentation and past Bridge Film Festival videos to screen. I was invited by OFS Art Teacher / BFF contactRandi Chalfin and by Community Outreach Coordinator Julie Okoniewski. Oakwood Friends School is a relatively small, mostly boarding school with a student body that is has a high percentage of Asian students (mostly Chinese.)
Presenting in the Meeting House
The diversity of the student body was going to pose a new challenge for me with regards to the Quaker concepts I wanted to feature and how I was going to communicate them. The teaching of Quaker philosophy in thirty minutes time would be difficult enough; to add to the challenge, many of the students were not fluent in English and didn't share my geographic and cultural background. Randi asked if I would like to have a translator with me for the presentation. I declined for the sake of practicality, given the limited time frame. I struggled with the planning this presentation. After finishing my preparations, I was fairly certain it wouldn't work on several levels: too much Quaker religion at the top, translating Quaker philosophy for people who speak English as a second language, and then ending with a possibly inappropriate film selection that might insult... well, everyone.
It was a sunny, cool, crisp day, with the trees wearing their vibrant autumn colors, as I arrived on campus. I met Julie, who led me to the Meeting House and helped with the set-up for the presentation. Looking around the room, I sensed an old familiar energy of a Meeting House that immediately put me at ease. After setting up and testing the equipment, Julie took me on a tour of the school.
The assembly began promptly at 10:05 with the student body class president asking for silence. He then asked Randi to introduce me. After Randi's kind introduction, I began the presentation by asking for silence again and sat in a chair until the room was still. Standing, I began again with a quote from David Hinshaw's "Rufus Jones, Master Quaker" (G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York):
"The core of the Quaker belief is the Inner Light--that intuition of the presence of God which enables the individual to learn how to discover and realize what is evil for him and by avoiding it to bring himself into harmony with the universal spirit."
I explained that Quaker testimonies, regardless of whether you live across the street or on the other side of the planet, consists of universal values that can be used as sign posts to help guide one in the search for truth. I asked the gathering if anyone knew what Quaker testimonies the acronym SPICES referred to. Several students raised their hands and one correctly rattled off, "Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship." I then displayed a graphic on the projector screen with the words translated into Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. Though the room was already quiet, once the slide was displayed I noticed a deeper concentration level set in.
I further explain how the Bridge Film Festival encourages filmmakers to tell stories that demonstrate these values in action. The gathering viewed five award winning BFF public service announcements as examples of what the festival is looking for. The PSAs were technically superior, with clear messages that could be easily related to specific testimonies.
So far, so good. The audience laughed in the right places and were respectful of the PSAs. I began the introduction of the presentation's featured film by describing its failings. The production hadn't won a Judges' Choice award like the previous PSAs; in fact, the BFF judges scored the film's technical quality and content very low. I said there were some audio problems and holes in the story, but that I selected the film because in its own crude way, its underlying message might resonate with the Oakwood Friends School community. I screened for them the Olney Friends School BFF 2011 entry of"Frustrating Flatulence".
The film begins with a quotation followed by a scene with two Asian students, boyfriend and girlfriend, looking at a computer. At this point, I again felt the concentration level of the room was elevated. These were the first Asian "actors" to be featured on the screen this day. As the scene continues, an "American" student walks into the room looking to borrow a pencil and casually farts in front of the couple. The students get into an angry argument about his behavior. The audience laughed nervously at this part.
Later in the film, the Asian male student has difficulty explaining to the Head Master why he got into a fight over another similar event. Contagious laughter was generated from a single shot of the student with head down in the office, as the students in the audience were able to identify with the issues involved. But then after the Head Master hands out his punishment, he, too, casually farts in front of the student. The student then shouts the only line of dialogue in Chinese in the film. The Chinese students in the audience exploded with laughter and everyone else began laughing too at the sheer joy of moment. It was the single greatest reaction to a BFF film I have witnessed in 12 years. There was a subtitle in English that read, "Why are you doing this? What kind of airplane are you making?" Though something may have been lost in translation, (not only of this scene but perhaps my presentation too), I do believe the underlying truth of the difficulties inherent in bringing community together from such diverse cultures was clear to this audience. The success of this screening was due to the audience being able to identify with characters and situations presented. My hope is that from this communal experience the Oakwood Friends School community will feel supported in their efforts in, as the BFF mission statement states, "providing a forum for dialog, learning, and exchange of ideas of commonality and diversity."
Tandem Friends School hosted their 2010 – 2011 Bridge Film Festival Screening on May 16th, 2011, during the school day. Two hundred students and forty teachers attended. The event asked for those attending to bring a dollar or two to give to Peace Winds (an international organization providing aid to the Japanese tsunami victims.) The event raised $500 for Peace Winds. The screening provided the Tandem community an opportunity to celebrate their own BFF film submissions, the BFF winners and many of the other schools’ submissions. The screening also premiered a film created by the 7th grade documenting a spring service project, Honk for Japan. It was a fantastic event for the TFS community, reminding us of our connection to other Quaker schools and to the world.
One of the goals of the BFF is to communicate our students' messages of concern to as large an audience as possible. The first thing to do is make a good film and enter it into the festival. That's the hard part. The next thing is to give the film the best chance to be found and viewed on the internet by enhancing the videos' metadata. This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and it's pretty simple to do.
Title: Title your project carefully. If possible, use a KEY word or words that describe the content. These key words are used by people via search engines to find your video. Please add the BFF category after title.
Description: Write a brief description of the film using short simple sentences. Please include the information that the film is an entry and BFF Finalist and add http://www.bridgefilmfestival.org/ in the description. By adding http:// to a URL in the description, it becomes a live link.
Tags: It's very important to add KEY words and phrases about your film here. Place commas after phrases. Please cut and paste these keywords into your tags, then add more if you like. "Bridge Film Festival" "Brooklyn Friends School" "Friends Council on Education" "film festival" international spices simplicity peace integrity community equality stewardship values nonprofit charity Friends Quaker "student film festival"
Video Thumbnail: Choose the most interesting looking thumbnail (still image) to represent your film.
