Pioneer Middle School student produced video wins award at world's largest youth film festival

Pioneer Middle School student produced video wins award at world's largest youth film festival
Pioneer Middle School Explorers teacher Dan Calzaretta and students Brian Mott and Nate Brewer reported to the school board last night on their documentary "Black Door Art Gallery" which recently won the audience award in the National Film Festival for Talented Youth.

Student Malcolm Gabbard was also a partner in the production of the video, but was not able to attend last night's meeting.

The "Black Door Art Gallery" is about the local art gallery located in Walla Walla above Tallman's 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 and received an award," said Dan Calzaretta, Pioneer Middle School Explorers and Humanities teacher. "These students were by far the youngest in attendance. Most of the participants were in college."

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 was held April 28 to May 1 in Seattle.

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