Walking into the Springs Cinema Taphouse and seeing the lobby filled with familiar faces was a fantastic start to our first annual MV Film Festival. Wednesday evening. Actors, directors, and videographers surrounded their fearless leader. Al Basulto is a new face to Mount Vernon, joining the staff during the pandemic, making this is his inaugural year with this crew. In the short time he has been here, the Film Club has grown tremendously, and members can be found filming Chapel on Wednesdays, Advisory videos for Fridays, and much more.
For the Film Club’s inaugural event, the crew chose to highlight four films created during the year.
First up, Michael Barwood, class of 2022, stood up and introduced the 72-hour film the club completed last September. In under 72-hours, the crew of this fantastic short film wrote, directed, acted, filmed, and edited their creation based on the given prompt, “The Interpretation and Re-Creation of Dreams”. The result was a chilling tale of how dreams can come back to haunt us.
Next up, Rose Dodder, class of 2022, introduced two short pieces. The first highlighted Hispanic Heritage Month, and the second celebrated Black History Month. Both pieces dove into celebrating the heritage and what it is like to celebrate culture at Mount Vernon. The pieces were incredibly moving as the audience heard from faculty and staff throughout the school share their experiences and stories.
The final piece, “In Atlanta,” was introduced by Win Scott, class of 2022. A touching portrayal of a young woman’s saying goodbye to a city she loves as she heads off to college. As Al Balsuto put it, it was a beautiful “Love letter to the city of Atlanta”. This closing film particularly resonated with the audience as the current seniors in the room prepared to forge their own paths in the world.