What are you working on?

ELLERY FUTCH Grade

11

Inaugural Film Festival for Local Teens

After almost a year of planning and thinking through countless details, Ellery Futch, a junior, was poised as she welcomed guests for the inaugural Fairfield County Flix Fest (FFF)—a film festival for teens. More than 100 student filmmakers from all over the area along with their friends and families streamed into the Performing Arts Center on May 6 for an evening of creativity, mingling, and to watch each other’s movies.

“The energy in the room was great,” said Ellery. “It was amazing to have an event where I got to meet so many fellow filmmakers from other schools and we all made connections.”

Last spring, Ellery made a movie that she wanted to submit to a film festival but she couldn’t find one locally that was geared towards teens. At the same time, Ellery, then a sophomore, was thinking about an idea for her Junior Thesis project. A requirement of every 11th grader, the Junior Thesis is a guided, year-long program intended to be a highly personalized, trans- formative experience that, in addition to a written component, can take many forms.

In this series, we highlight students as they are deeply engaged in the process of learning and taking responsibility for their own learning— extending their knowledge and skills and constructing real-world applications.

“I saw a need and wanted to create this opportunity for others like me,” said Ellery. “I pitched the idea of creating a film festival to a couple of teachers, including the thesis coordinator, and they were supportive. My vision from the get-go was to create a sense of community outside of school where young filmmakers could get inspiration from one another.”

The work of actually creating the event required months of research, planning, and hustle. Ellery began by talking to a lot of experts in the field, researching other successful youth film festivals in the country, and asking for advice.

“After all of the research, I made a plan,” said Ellery.

Ellery contacted local schools and filmmakers to solicit submissions, worked with the GCDS Communications Team to market the event, reached out to the alumni community for experts in the field (see sidebar), found a keynote speaker, and handled all the day-of-event logistics.

In the end, there were approximately 60 film submissions from a range of schools, including Greenwich High School, Westhill High School, Sacred Heart Greenwich, Brunswick School, Greenwich Academy, and others. They included short films, documentaries, PSAs, and animation shorts. (See sidebar for winners.)

“She undertook what was, by all accounts, a massive and unwieldy project—literally initiating and producing a film festival for all of Fairfield County,” said Louise Wales, Upper School Visual Arts Teacher and Ellery’s Junior Thesis Advisor. “Every single day, Ellery checked her lists and followed up with stakeholders. She unrelentingly pursued her goals and succeeded. The event was flawless and, to her great credit, was met with enthusiasm from all who participated.”

Ellery’s biggest challenge and area of growth was actively working with people outside the school community. “Connecting with people who are not in my school was a big learning curve because not everyone is nice to you. It was the real world. Things are different and more serious when you are working with adults. I sent emails to judges who have jobs and things to do and they needed to have things on time. There’s a different level of accountability. In the end, I’m responsible. I can’t get an extension.”

While Ellery led the effort, she said she learned quickly that she couldn’t achieve her vision without a team. She was assisted by a group of dedicated volunteers, including her twin sister Annabelle. “I learned a lot about what I can do with the support of a community. I can’t believe how much we were able to achieve when we set our minds to this.”

Ellery, working with school administrators, has worked out a plan that ensures the continuity of the film festival. The Upper School is offering a film class for the first time next school year, and the students in the class will run the festival. As a senior, Ellery will serve as a teaching assistant.

“I remember wanting a film program before the high school was even a high school,” said Ellery. “I’m thrilled that this festival will continue for years to come.”

Flix Fest Guest Speaker David Levien

David Levien told aspiring filmmakers that there are three key ways to enter the business: 1. “Write your way in” and make sure and read “a ton” of scripts. 2. “Shoot your way in” by creating your own projects and make sure and watch lots of

Flix Fest Winners

Best Short Film: “More Than Polish”

By Chiara Collin-D’Augelli,

Mamaroneck

High School

Best Documentary Film:

“It’s About What You Can Do”

By Emily Sedgwick, Sacred Heart

Best PSA: “Algorithm”

By Jhonni Dixon and Advika Dushyanth, Sacred Heart

Best Animation: “Bento Love”

By

Elisa Taylor, Sacred Heart

“I saw a need and wanted to create this opportunity for others like me. I pitched the idea of creating a film festival to a couple of teachers, including the thesis coordinator, and they were supportive. My vision from the get-go was to create a sense of community outside of school where young filmmakers could get inspiration from one another.” —Ellery

Futch

Flix Fest Judges

PETER KALMBACH ’95 has more than 20 years of experience in the feature film industry having served as head of acquisitions for indie art-house distributor October Films. He was an Executive Producer on the acclaimed and award-winning film Revolutionary Road with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. He is currently a full-time screenwriter working with director Ridley Scott producing his newest script.

JON ADLER ’91 has worked in the film industry for over 20 years. Jon founded the production company Adler Films, Inc. He wrote and produced his first feature film Dead Sound, which was featured in numerous film festivals and released in 2020. In 2019, in conjunction with Adler Films, Jon partnered with New York Times bestselling author Ted Bell, and together they formed a new film and television production company, El Dorado Entertainment, which is producing Mr. Bell’s bestselling series of spy/thriller novels, Hawke, as well as his YA bestsellers Nick of Time and Time Pirates

LAURA DENEY ’88 i s an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, who loves to tell hidden stories from around the world, with a focus on culture, environment, and the arts. She has produced and edited dozens of hours of documentary programming for National Geographic, NBC, Netflix, CNN, and PBS, most recently executive producing the docuseries Going From Broke, created by Ashton Kutcher, which empowers young people to get out of student loan debt. She runs her production company Flicker Filmworks with her husband and partner Mustafa Bhagat in New Paltz, NY.

JAY SCULLY recently filmed the role of Dr. Hal Brenan in the upcoming independent feature, MidCentury, directed by the great Sonja O’Hara, with Stephen Lang, Bruce Dern, and Shane West. He has cast over 50 feature films and television shows and worked extensively on set as an acting teacher and coach. He spent much of the pandemic writing The Screen Actors’ Guide to Auditioning movies. 3. “Work your way in” through a production company or agency, for example. Beyond that, he advised: “The most important thing is to tap into your creativity and find a voice that is unique, a voice that only you have.”

WENDY STAPLETON ’92 is a Greenwich native who is the founder and chairman of the Greenwich International Film Festival. For the past 10 years, Wendy has worked tirelessly raising money for multiple non-profits and sits on many of their boards. She’s been a member of UNICEF’s Next Generation Board and was formerly the chair of the Greenwich chapter.

Mr. Levien, the FFF guest speaker, is a screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Showtime’s Billions, along with Brian Koppelman. Over the past two decades, Mr. Levien has created an influential and diverse body of work in both film and television. Some of his most noteworthy credits include Ocean’s Thirteen, Rounders, Solitary Man, The Illusionist, Runaway Jury, Tilt, and ESPN’s 30 for 30 (This Is What They Want ) for which he won a Sports Emmy. His latest show is Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, which will air on Showtime soon. Mr. Levien is a GCDS parent of 7th grader Robbie, Joseph ’18, and James ’23 )

What are you working on?

We followed up with students whose junior theses were previously featured in the December and March issues of GCDS News. They shared reflections as they finished their year-long projects.

For his thesis project, Jay D’Ercole worked in partnership with a NASA program, researching the optimal ways to grow radishes on the International Space Station (ISS) to help feed astronaut teams.

“I presented to NASA back in late April about growing radishes in space and selecting the best variety using the best light spectrum. My defense involved a recap of what I learned and how I found a love for botany during this project and want to do more with it in my future. I plan on going to a convention in November in Houston Texas to speak and present my findings. This has been an amazing experience for me and I still can’t believe I got the chance to do something like this.”

Through research and historical accounts, Andrew Thompson hypothesized how history might have been different if the dictator Julius Caesar hadn’t been assassinated.

“Based on my research of historical events and personalities, I had Julius Caesar conquering all of known Europe, directly increasing Roman influence in our modern society. Things like; sports, religion, pop culture, music, art, and fashion would have had more Roman ties. I designed a timeline mapping out Caesar’s campaign through Europe, which I presented during the Thesis night, that showed how this event could have affected our lives. The Junior Thesis was a success and one of my proudest high school achievements.”