Weston High School Well Represented at WYFF

Several students from Weston High School submitted entries to the Westport Youth Film Festival that were created during their course work in the school's Advanced Videography program.

During the school year, students in grades 10 to 12 use this program to develop skill in the writing and production of high-quality media projects and become acquainted with the aspects of production that create value.

"We create films as a class project," explained Brandon Dietzman, a junior at Weston High. "All the projects are collaborative. The whole point is to learn every aspect of filmmaking — directing, camera operation, acting – everything."

Dietzman, 16,  worked with Max Minkowitz and Nick Richter in the making of a music video, titled I Like Cereal. "We picked a song that we all liked from the movie Ping Pong Playa and created a video around it," he explained.

He anticipates that the Westport Youth Film Festival will be a valuable venue in getting feedback on this film. "This is exactly what we were looking for," he said. "We have gotten comments from Team WYFF and we are looking forward to getting a response from the festival audience."

Andrew Nakas'  It's Right Behind You is in the Westport Youth Film Festival's experimental competition. As a collaboration with Max Minkowitz, Andrew Schwartz and Robin Willis, the 40-second stop-motion film depicts a teenager getting attacked by a rope. "There is a lot open to interpretation," Nakas said. "The sound effects in this film are crucial."

Nakas, 16, is an avid skier and a filmmaking enthusiast, who enjoys combining his two interests. "Last year I submitted a skiing video to WYFF, titled Skiing From My Head," he explained. "I started making films when I was in sixth grade and I intend to go to school for film at Montana State University. I hope to ultimately film skiing movies and videos."

Nakas, a senior, also has been involved with Trojan Television, the school's television production group. "I work on seasonal episodes, such as 'Winter is Here' and 'Spring is Here,'" he said.

Nakas also worked as director of photography for The Complex, which also will be shown during the festival. The Complex, by Alex Fjellberg Swerdlowe of Weston, recently won an award for Best Film for Young Filmmakers at the Kent Film Festival in Kent, Conn.

ABOUT WYFF

Now under the leadership of Weston High School students Katie Hacala, a senior, and Matthew Kalmans, a junior, WYFF debuts this weekend to return for its 7th annual festival since 2004. It continues to distinguish itself as the only youth film festival in the world run for high school students, by high school students. WYFF is the sole high school film festival in the U.S. that is not affiliated with a school. It is a youth-run program of the Westport Arts Center. 

Previously only held on the Saturday before Mother's Day, this year WYFF will be extended over two days, Friday and Saturday, May 7th and 8th, in downtown Westport.  Friday's programming will begin at 7:00 pm in Westport Town Hall, and feature two special presentations.  The first will be four films made by Connecticut high school students with a grant from Connecticut Project for the Constitution, an organization that enlisted teens to create movies that demonstrate the relevance and importance of the U.S. Constitution in young adult lives.  The second part of the evening will feature eight movies from "Peace it Together", a British Columbia film program centered around teaching Canadian, Palestinian, and Israeli youth to promote peace through dialogue, filmmaking, and multimedia. Films from this program were shown at WYFF '07 and attracted 250 viewers, making it the most popular program that has ever been featured at the festival.

On Saturday, May 8th, WYFF will kick off at 10:00 am and show 65 student films from all over the world in both Westport Town Hall and Toquet Hall.  The screening venues may be separated by Main Street, but WYFF's presence will be seen all over the downtown area with musical performances from local high school bands, free popcorn and soda at Oscar's Delicatessen, and WYFF volunteers stationed outside of stores selling t-shirts and dispensing event guides.  At 4:00pm, Alex Fjellberg Swerdlowe, a Weston High School junior, will officially premiere his award-winning short film The Complex in Toquet Hall, immediately followed by founder Chris Casey's premiere of his web series The Roy Orbison Project, the production of which involved more than five Team WYFF alumni.  Casey will be graduating from New York University later this spring.  To conclude the WYFF weekend, an Award Ceremony will be held at 6:00pm, where 11 awards donated by Tiffany & Co. will be bestowed upon nine lucky filmmakers and two outstanding community leaders who have been monumental in helping WYFF this past year.