Discussing the new film series class for youth, from left, YMCA Teen Center Director George Marsden, Fuller Lodge Art Center Class Coordinator Erin Scott, PAC 8 Executive Director Jean Gindreau-Davison, Fuller Lodge Marketing and Outreach Coordinator Kyrene Sehorn and Instructor David Daniel. Photo by Kirsten Laskey/ladailypost.com
By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
The pandemic has made local organizations think creatively about how to best serve the community, especially young people. As a result, the Youth Activity Center, Fuller Lodge Art Center, YMCA Teen Center and PAC 8 have joined forces to produce a new opportunity for youth.
The four organizations are offering a two-week film class Monday July 12 through Friday July 23. The first week will focus on screenwriting and video production and the second week will address acting, filming and editing. The short films the kids create will be presented at 6 p.m., July 28 at the Teen Center.
To mark the occasion a gala is being held complete with a red carpet runway.
The classes are free, and participants can register at https://fullerlodgeartcenter.com/summer-art-camp/. Children ages 13-18 years old are invited to take the class. While not required, it is encouraged that students attend the full two weeks. Registration will be open until the classes are full.
Instructor David Daniel said this a great opportunity for young people because they experience taking an idea for a story and developing it all the way through to a completed short film.
“We will be able to give them the skills and tangible results they can see and be able to say I did this,” Daniel said. “It will help them become creators in our society.”
He added that students should take the classes seriously and not have their films be “nothing but silliness”. Still, young kids don’t have to make a short film about a Czech woman dying of tuberculosis while a tomato rots on her bedside table, he joked.
YMCA Teen Center Director George Marsden explained that the idea to offer the film classes arose last year; with COVID in full force there was a lot of discussion about what could be done for kids. He added that there was a desire to include middle school students.
“We wanted to include them because they need something to do as well,” Marsden said, adding that the four organizations offered virtual classes that were successful, which got everyone’s wheels turning on what else they could do.
“We had great success and then we started scheming,” Marsden said.
Having all four organizations collaborating is a new experience, PAC 8 Executive Director Jean Gindreau-Davison said.
“This is just a cool opportunity,” she said. “This is something new and different. This is something we haven’t done before.”
Gindreau-Davison added that she is looking forward to seeing what this collaboration brings next. There is hope to expand the film classes to be held not just during the students’ summer break but for their winter and spring breaks, too, she said.
Daniel added that the group also would like to extend the classes to the senior centers.
“I think it would be cool to see this become a part of what makes Los Alamos special and unique,” he said.
The sky is the limit, Marsden said.
“Four major groups are coming together to do something innovative,” he said. “We’re going to run with it.”
Fuller Lodge Art Center Marketing and Outreach Coordinator Kyrene Sehorn said collaboration is key.
“A lot of groups have similar goals but in coming together it allows us to break barriers and create cohesion in the community,” she said. “It creates these connections and makes it possible to move forward in the future.”
Fuller Lodge Art Center Class Coordinator Erin Scott agreed, pointing out that nothing exists in a vacuum.
“Collaboration is one of the most powerful ways to create any art,” she said.
