Pioneer Middle School student produced video accepted to world's largest film festival

Pioneer Middle School student produced video accepted to world's largest film festival

The National Film Festival for Talented Youth recently announced the "Black Door Art Gallery" video produced by Pioneer Middle School students Brian Mott, Malcolm Gabbard and Nate Brewer has been accepted in the documentary category.

The "Black Door Art Gallery" is about the local art gallery located in Walla Walla above Tallmans Drug Store and its proprietor Gerald Matthews. The movie is about seven minutes long.

The National Film Festival for Talented Youth is the largest youth film festival in the world: www.nffty.org. This year nearly 700 films were submitted in all genres; only seven were accepted in the documentary category.

"I am amazed that in the very first year we have entered films into the NFFTY competition, these students had their film selected," said Dan Calzaretta, Pioneer Middle School Explorers and Humanities teacher. "This is a long term project that takes commitment to the subject matter, to your co-film makers, and to your vision for the film."

According to Calzaretta, the students made documentaries last year for C-SPAN, but he and the students were not interested in this year's topic so they searched for other opportunities and found the National Film Festival for Talented Youth.

"The students put in between 10 to 15 hours of work for every one minute of finished film," Calzaretta said. "They did all the work from start to finish. This says a lot about their dedication to the project and to each other. It also shows that when we provide students with opportunities for relevant, rigorous, and real world projects they will amaze us with what they can do."

The National Film Festival for Talented Youth is April 28 to May 1 in Seattle. The students' film will be shown Sunday, May 1.

Brian Mott: Parents Mimi and Kevin Mott
Malcolm Gabbard: Parents Jean Tobin and Brian Gabbard
Nate Brewer: Parents Tanya and Bert Brewer