Abington Represents, Wins at Greenfield Film Fez

The stars of the future were out Wednesday, May 4, at the Keswick Theatre, as over 200 student filmmakers, friends, family, teachers and fans packed the house for the 2011 Greenfield Youth Film Festival.

The festival, funded by the Greenfield Foundation, is a months-long process in which students from area high schools think up, create and submit short films. It all culminated on May 4, when the winning films were revealed and premiered.

The festival began three years ago, and has doubled in size every year since.

“The first year, we had five schools; the second year, we had 10 schools; and this year, we had 20 schools participating,” said Jill Greenfield Feldman, administrator for the Greenfield Foundation. “We brought in almost 200 films. “

Abington Senior High School was well represented at the festival, with a number of students entering films.

Esther Katro, a senior at the high school, filmed a documentary called The Other Carpenter, which showcased a program that assists low-income homeowners in the Greater Philadelphia region. 

"I do community service, and I thought, 'Well, instead of just doing it, why don't I film it, so that I can show people what the project is about?’" said Katro. "That way, not only are you helping your community, but now you are showing it to everybody so that people can get involved.”

Abington also took home one of the top awards, as Caitlin King won first place in the narrative/fiction category for her film Electric Popsicles.

There were 188 film submissions in three major categories: narrative, documentary and experimental. Each category had three overall winners, which were each shown at the premiere.

Eight individual honors were handed out for distinguished achievements in cinematography, editing, directing, screenwriting, acting, animation, music and young women in film.

The festival opened with a rapidly paced montage of clips focusing on a mysterious brown package that repeatedly kept changing hands. Originally totaling over one and a half hours in length, the montage was cut to three minutes and 45 seconds in length.

The humorous segment ultimately ended with the brown package at the doorstep of the historic Keswick. The mysterious box contained an Oscar, which belonged to Tammy Tiehel-Stedman, the first guest and presenter for the awards in the narrative category.

Greenfield Feldman explained that the Keswick is an ideal venue, given its prominence and central location in an expanding field of entrants.

"We love the Keswick—it's such a beautiful theater," Greenfield Feldman said. "We feel like it's fairly central because we've expanded to all five counties, and we just hope to always include more schools.”

Guests at the premiere included Dustin Morrow and Keir Politz, both filmmakers and professors at Philadelphia's Temple University; Bob Lowery, the vice president of business development for DIVE; the Visual Effects and Film Finishing division of Shooters Post and Transfer; Steven Trout, the Emmy Award-winning director of the NFL documentary series Hard Knocks; Oscar-winner Tammy Tiehel-Stedman; multiple Emmy-winner Martin Zied and others.

The Greenfield Foundation also hosted a workshop in January at Montgomery County Community College for budding student filmmakers. The workshop, taught by college professors and industry professionals, had two acclaimed guest speakers: Ben Hickernell (director of Lebanon, PA) and Mark Rosenthal (writer, Planet of the Apes, and Mona Lisa Smile).

Bill Greenfield, president of the foundation, said that the film festival fits right in with the mission of the organization.

“The concept we have is to develop specific partnerships, which would do things that would not otherwise happen,” Greenfield said.

The foundation also funds the Goldsmith Prize in investigative journalism at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, provides commissions for art with social impact in Sarasota, FL, and supports the Temple Emergency Action Core, an emergency medical relief organization that started after Hurricane Katrina.

The general public will have a second chance to see the winning films May 10 at the Ambler Theater. A screening of all the winning films will begin at 7 p.m. followed by a talk with the creators.