Community Corner

It's Showtime at WYFF 2010

Day 2 of the film festival begins Saturday.

At the opening night of the Westport Youth Film Festival Friday, student rights, free speech and promoting peace were among the topics presented in this year's films.

Under the leadership of Weston High School students Katie Hacala and Matthew Kalmans, WYFF returned to Westport 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

The first were four films shown Friday were 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. 

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Some of the films focused on President Barack Obama's student address and whether he had the right to interrupt the students' school day. Others focused on whether school administrators could control student speech after school hours.

After the film showings, Weston First Selectwoman Gayle Weinstein addressed the crowd. 

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"It's important to get involved, speak your mind and find your passion to advocate for what you believe in," she said. 

The second part of the evening featured eight movies from "Peace it Together," a British Columbia film program centered around teaching Canadian, Palestinian and Israeli youths 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, WYFF continues at 10 a.m. to show 65 student films from all over the world in both Westport Town Hall and Toquet Hall. The festival runs until 6 p.m.

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 p.m., Alex Fjellberg Swerdlowe of Weston will show 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 Awards Ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. 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.


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