For Filmmakers Showcase
St. Margaret of Scotland films are picked
Kids at St. Margaret of Scotland school are
making quite a name for themselves at the St. Louis Filmmakers
Showcase festival. This month, eight of the schools short-film
documentaries are scheduled for showing.
Three years ago, three filmmaking teams from
the south St. Louis school had their films shown during the
2004 festival. Last year, three more short films were screened
during the 2006 festival.
The 2007 Filmmakers Showcase will show its selections
July 21-26. Most of the films will be by adult filmmakers.
For details about the festival, visit www.cinemastlouis.org.
Chris Clark is artistic director of Cinema St.
Louis that sponsors two film festivals here. The Showcase
is in July and the St. Louis International Film Festival in
November.
Of the St. Margaret kids' efforts, Mr. Clark
said, "They do consistently good work. Their topics are very
adult and their films are very atypical of what you expect
from kid filmmakers."
Victoria Cacchione |
Fourteen-year-old Victoria Cacchione produced
a solo film, entitled "The Declaration of Independence: Americans
First Great Compromise." The film outlines the negotiations
needed by delegates of the 13 colonies.
Her 10-minute film used the theme from the movie,
"1776," as background music. She located the theme music on
the Colonial Williamsburg website.
Victoria was quick to point out, "I paid for
the download." Victoria and other St. Margaret filmmakers
actually got double-duty out of their efforts.
Since 2005, kids participating in the school's
filmmaking activity have picked their topics from history.
That means they can use the film both for the Showcase and
as an entry in the Missouri History Day competition.
Victoria said the chance to go to the 2007 History
Day event at University of Missouri-St. Louis was lots of
fun for her. She said history is one of her favorite classes
at school and the Revolutionary War is her favorite historic
period.
Also, she remembered a family trip to Philadelphia
when she was younger. She saw many places where the founding
fathers met to create the Declaration of Independence.
Sonya McCanna |
Fourteen-year-old Sonya McCanna was another
of the solo filmmakers. Her film was entitled: "Oscar Romero:
I Will Rise In The People."
She said Oscar Romero was an archbishop in
El Salvador in Central America. He was beaten to death while
trying to negotiate peace between a repressive government
and opposing rebels.
Sonya said she got her idea from her father,
Shaun McCanna. He is a documentary film producer with a special
interest in Central and South American topics. He and Lee
Ann Nelson advice the filmmaker teams at St. Margaret of Scotland.
The two have Flamingo Productions in St. Charles.
It's a documentary film company. Mr. McCanna recently traveled
to Afghanistan to get material to finish a documentary about
a soldier who died of drugs at a military base there.
About her film, daughter Sonya said, "I thought
I'd do something unusual about someone people didn't know
about."
Like Victoria, Sonya drew some of her background
material from a motion picture. "Bishop Romero isn't very
well-known here but he's had books and movies about him,"
she said.
She did a lot of her research at the Saint Louis
University library. Since Bishop Romero was a Catholic cleric,
the college had a lot of material on the bishop, she said.
Both of the girls said their social studies
teacher, Ms. Alice Chase, was very helpful in moving their
script-writing along.
Sonya said she liked the chance to work with
her father. She particularly liked the chance to use "Final
Cut Pro" computer software that made editing the film much
easier.
But, Sonya doesn't plan to make filmmaking a
career. She wants to be an engineer. "I've gone two summers
to engineering camp at Purdue University," she said.
Three other films picked for Filmmakers showings
were solo efforts and three were done by St. Margaret teams.
The eight films have a total of 66 minutes of action.
The other six selected films and their kid
producers were:
