Sundance Institute 2003 Reel Studio: Young Filmmakers Program

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My media arts program at SAY Sí was one of 14 programs nation-wide to be selected to participate in this year's program. This years Reel Studio program featured many exciting things including numerous festival film screenings, question and answer sessions with filmmakers, a digital center tour, and workshops led by experienced professional filmmakers.

I took 5 of my students to Park City, Utah in January to attend the program. We spent 5 days screening films, talking with filmmakers about their work, meeting students from all around the country, and experiencing the Sundance Film Festival.

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We saw some really great films and met some incredibly talented people. The thing that struck me was how like us they were. Most of the people we met are not big hollywood stars. Rather they were filmmakers working hard, making interesting and beautiful films and making a living at it.

The films that made the biggest impact on me:
An Injury To One by Travis Wilkerson. This was a beautiful documentary about workers, the environment and corporate greed in Butte, Montana. The thing about this film that blew me away was simply how beautiful and carefully put together it was. The other thing about it is Travis Wilkerson put this together by himself on his computer, at home.

Pieces of April by Peter Hedges. This film had great characters that were fun to watch. The thing that's interesting about this film was that it seemed like even though Peter Hedges was well known as a writer ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and "About A Boy") it was pretty difficult to get the opportunity to direct this film. I think it was mainly due to it not being typical hollywood fare. The bright side of this is that it is possible to get films made that aren't mainstream. Note: Peter Hedges just got nominated for an Academy Award for his writing on About A Boy.

Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity by Mina Shum. This was literally magical. It had a great cast and great acting. Mindy Ho (12 years old) was amazing as the lead. We went to see this because we read that it used magical realism to tell a story about a community of Chinese-Canadians. Since we (SAY Sí) made a film, using magical realism, about our Mexican-American community we thought it was right up our alley.

The Beat by Brandon Sonnier. We didn't actually get to see this film but we met Brandon and some of the cast. They are really talented and inspiring. Brandon is 20 years old with a feature film in the Sundance Film Festival! When students asked how he got to make this film he said he "just really wanted to make it." He got the money by "just asking."

All in all it was the trip of a lifetime. I'm loaded up with more ideas than I know what to do with. I'm excited about getting to work on them.

Sundance Film Festival
Reel Studio