Kamloops students earn awards for film festival submissions

“I’m feeling pretty good,” said teacher Terri Anne Wilson. “I’m very, very proud of them obviously.” Wilson has been teaching her class the basics of filmmaking.

“(They are) having to learn all about editing and the language that goes with shot lists and how we cover story, what different shots mean, and basically learning the literacy of film,” she said.

Her students took their ideas, created scripts and brought them to life.

One of those films was a stop motion public service announcement call Out of Bounds. The film was produced by Jacob Blair and Matteo Cacaci.

“We’d just been snowboarding a lot and skiing, and just making back-country jumps, and we really got into it for a while,” Blair said, “so we just decided, why not make a movie about it?”

“We went through a lot of stress making it, and a lot of stuff,” Cacaci said, “but at the end it came out and it was really good and I really enjoyed making it.”

The film was one of five that were screened at the KISS event of the Kamloops Film Festival.

“We got the Audience Choice Award and the PSA award, which is really exciting,” Blair said. Those awards are now on display in a school trophy case, next to another major award from the Film Festival.

Letters Home won the KAC Youth Prize.

“Letters Home is a film all about letters back and forth to the front during World War I and the fact that before cell phones and before instant communication there was the letter,” Wilson said. “It was a way to sort of highlight what’s starting to become a little bit of a murky remembrance around World War I for a lot of young people.”

Three other student-made films were also screened at the festival, eliciting laughter and applause.

The greatest reward for the students, however, was developing a new skill.

“I just hope that other people will give this a try and not be afraid, especially other educators,” Wilson said. “If you can find a way to get technology into their hands, even if you’re not comfortable with it, just to let them try because we should never underestimate what young people are possibly capable of when we create the playground for them to give it a try.”

WATCH: Out of Bounds

WATCH: Blue Crystal Project Music Video

WATCH: Sick Best Friends

WATCH: Kill

WATCH: Letters Home

by Jill Sperling

Kamloops students earn awards for film festival submissions

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