Twenty-nine film students from Jasper County High School (JCHS) attended the Macon Film Festival as an inspiring start to a new year of filmmaking. They watched eight short films ranging from two to 20 minutes produced by college student filmmakers from the United States and Germany. Following the screening, the students participated in a Q&A session with four of the filmmakers.
Third-year JCHS Film student Brooklyn Dalton was struck by one director’s comment that “if you want to film something bad enough, you’ll figure out a way to achieve it.” Dalton reflected that “the experience made [her]even more motivated and inspired to work in the film industry.”
JCHS English and dramatic writing teacher Luke McFarland observed that interacting with the filmmakers “really put the humanity behind what happens on the screen. Seeing real people talk about really making a film gives students a fire—-that’s why we take such trips.”
The students also visited the Center for Collaborative Journalism at Mercer Univer-sity where they toured the Macon Telegraph newsroom and the radio station 89.7 WMUM-FM at Georgia Public Broadcasting. They went behind-the-scenes and put on a mock production at the student-run TV station at WMUB. See more here.
