Webutuck students’ films hit the silver screen at filmmaking workshop

MILLERTON — Students from the Webutuck Central School District screened their five-minute documentaries at The Moviehouse Thursday, March12, showing off their newly acquired skills to an audience of friends, family and community members.

The films — written, directed, shot and edited by the students themselves with guidance from local filmmakers — were the culmination of a two-day student filmmaking bootcamp held earlier this month.

Nolan Howard, Benjamin Sprague and Holden Slater created short documentaries featuring two well-known Main Street businesses, Candy-O’s and Oblong Books, after learning filmmaking fundamentals and conducting interviews with the business owners.

The students worked over the course of a Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., an impressively short amount of time to write, shoot, edit and produce a complete five-minute documentary.

Local filmmakers Alix Diaconis — a freelance video editor, videographer and photographer based in Millerton — and Brian Gersten, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor, guided the students through the filmmaking process.

“We had a clear game plan,” she said, adding that students and faculty spent around an hour on pre-production, then an hour shooting. “Everything was mapped out ahead of time.”

Diaconis said she was largely hands off with her student.

“He edited the entire film himself.”

Jeremy Boviard, the general manager of The Moviehouse, put into context how impressive the student work was.

“What these students accomplished is really difficult, especially considering they did it in just a handful of hours,” Boviard said. “It speaks not only to their filmmaking potential, but also to the value of putting in the hard work and seeing the rewards of it.”

Ninth grader Nolan Howard, who loved his previous filmmaking bootcamp so much that he returned again, said he was inspired by the direction to create real stories people can relate to. Taking the storytelling element to heart, he decided to infuse a Jurassic Park theme into his documentary.

“It inspired me to create a very interesting storyline from an actual movie and put it into a documentary,” Nolan said.

The students edited on iPads using iMovie.

“It showed me how to be a better filmmaker and learn through trials and tribulations,” he added.

Darrin Butland, who teaches arts and media in Webutuck’s EBIS, said he announces the opportunity to students each year.

“Over the years, quite a few students have stepped up, which is great,” Butland said. “Hopefully this will give our students a spark — that creativity piece — and future projects will come from it.”

Butland said it was a gratifying experience as a teacher.

“Nolan has really come out of his shell over the past two years,” he said. “Seeing him speak tonight was huge for him. The other boys were the same way. Watching that kind of confidence grow through this program means everything.”

Aaron Howard, father of student filmmaker Nolan Howard, said he didn’t get a sneak peek of his son’s film, but he knew it was a five-minute documentary about Oblong Books.

“I thought the film was great,” Howard said. “I loved that Nolan put his own creativity and sense of humor into it, but he still covered the important details of the business.”

Howard said he believes the offering at The Moviehouse is a great opportunity for local students.

“To really open up students’ eyes to what it takes and to gain an appreciation for the entertainment industry — and how much time it takes to make a film — is really excellent,” he said.

Boviard said the event was part of The Moviehouse’s ongoing efforts to expand educational community programming.

“Having students involved in this kind of environment is really exciting,” Boviard said. He added that he enjoyed hearing a Webutuck teacher comment during the Q&A session about the students’ public speaking and her excitement to bring that confidence back into the classroom.

“It’s a great benefit because public speaking is something you might not immediately associate with making a film, but it’s such an important skill,” he said.

Diaconis’ work includes HBO and Magnolia Network’s Beach Cottage Chronicles, projects for ESPN and Vox Media, and award-winning films including the Brooklyn Film Festival Audience Award-winning Are You Glad I’m Here.

Gersten’s work has screened at major festivals and appears on platforms including Netflix, HBO, PBS, Amazon Prime, and Peacock. His editing credits include the acclaimed documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff and Enter the Slipstream.

“I never had an opportunity like this growing up,” Gersten said. “It’s pretty rare for an area like this to offer something like this, especially a free program for middle schoolers. It’s amazing that the Moviehouse is providing this opportunity, and we’re hoping to spread the word.”