Previous Jefferson Award winners team to create youth filmmaking program in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO -- A pair of past Jefferson Awards winners recently partnered to open new doors in filmmaking for San Francisco kids in the Western Addition.
Arabella DeLucco and Adrian Williams show young celebrities how to pose for photographers on the red carpet. The superstars are children ages 6 to 11 who are anxious to showcase their very first short films.
Williams and DeLucco collaborated on the venture. For five weeks, about a dozen students learned the basics of filmmaking from DeLucco's WeXL Boundless Self-Discovery Program.
"It's not really about filmmaking. It's about self-discovery through the creative process," DeLucco said.
Most of the kids come from Williams' 17-year-old nonprofit, the Village Project SF.
Normally, Williams helps the children with homework and literacy support. But they jumped at the chance to learn to make their own movies for free.
"If you can dream it, you can have it. It's just a matter of organization, setting goals, then reaching your goals," said Williams
The premiere is a big deal. DeLucco and Williams lead the children and their families in a procession to the Little Roxie Theater.
Armed with free popcorn and soda, they pack the theater to see themselves and their work on the big screen. Their movies range from a photographic history of San Francisco to lessons in creating animation to a couple of scary movies.
The young filmmakers beam with pride watching what they created using the lessons industry professionals taught them in screenwriting, camera operation, editing and animation.
9-year-old Aloni Fields is inspired. She thinks she might want to be a filmmaker one day.
"Because it seems very fun. And you can learn a lot of stuff," Fields said.
The students and their parents aren't the only ones viewing the finished product for the first time. It's Williams' first look as well.
"That just reinforces my whole perspective that you give them an opportunity, and they will perform. So I'm pleased as pie. I love it. I loved it." Williams said.
So did DeLucco.
"Kids have an opportunity to be free, to explore, this is what we really want to show them, the self-discovery through filmmaking," she said.
In fact, DeLucco and Williams are considering teaming up for a sequel to the program so that more students can gain the confidence in knowing that they, too, can explore and excel in something new.
In addition to those two previous Jefferson Award winners, other partners in the program included St. Cyprians Episcopal Church, where the lessons were held, and the Oakland-based start-up thisspace.
DeLucco said she needs to raise $10,000 in funding to do another youth program.
