Student short-form festival begins May 16
Of the many grassroots, community-based organizations in Beacon, only one turns the city into a mini-Hollywood for a few months.
Next week, 80 two-minute shorts produced by some 200 school-age filmmakers and their assistants will be screened at the high school auditorium and the Beacon Movie Theater on Main Street.
Volunteers at the Foundation for Beacon Schools are pulling all-nighters to ensure accuracy and quality control, says Anna Sullivan, the foundation’s first president, who stepped down in 2023 but remains active with the organization.
“We’re taking the extra time to increase production value across the board and edit the program, line up the title cards with accuracy and make sure the students’ names correspond with their school,” she says. “We want to value and honor these films, which are so creative; people are going to be amazed.”
Founded in March 2020, the nonprofit launched the festival in 2022 and receives cooperation and participation from students, teachers, administrators and local filmmakers, including Ophir Ariel, Lucas Millard and Rob Featherstone.
Beyond stimulating creativity and bringing people together, the festival raises money for teacher grants and other enrichment programs. “We’re trying to foster innovation in education and the primary function is to help teachers and administrators get classroom equipment and enhance their skills,” says Jean Huang, a board member.
Since its creation, the foundation has distributed more than $60,000 in grants, supporting the high school’s Breaking Beacon newspaper, supplying waders for elementary students to walk in the Hudson River and sending seventh and eighth graders to the Italian and English play Caccia al Tesoro in White Plains.
The film festival originated because “we were looking to do one event each year that could bring the community together and we heard about the PS 187 festival [in New York City], went down there and it checked all the boxes,” says Sullivan.
In addition to promoting the arts, the foundation supports projects like History of the Bell, a short film about the JV Forrestal Elementary school’s cherished chime that students ring at graduation, and Lines of Demarcation, an oral history of Black residents’ experience in Beacon during the 20th century.
The foundation is a descendant of the longstanding Beacon Arts and Education Foundation, which disbanded amicably in 2020. Several of the group’s board members helped get the new organization off the ground, which explains their initial focus on the arts. Now, they’ve branched out to cover the wider curriculum, says Sullivan.
Beyond raising money and building community, there is another practical element to the festival. “There’s also a vocational component,” says Sullivan. “Every industry values people who can communicate ideas visually, so knowledge of editing and telling stories clearly and thoughtfully is another wrench in the toolbox for our students.”
The fourth annual Beacon Student Film Festival opens at 6:30 p.m. on May 16 at Beacon High School, 101 Matteawan Road, with screenings of films by elementary students. It continues May 19 at 7 p.m. at the Beacon Movie Theater, 445 Main St., with screenings of films by middle and high school students. Tickets are $8 or $4 for students for either screening, or $12 and $6 for both. See forbeaconschools.org/film-festival. The Current is among the sponsors of the event.
