Ridiculous Opinions #199
When I lived in Ghana, one of the teachers mentioned to me that there was a new course called IB Film that was getting started. Film as a course? I thought. I must get involved with this!
It wasn’t until we moved to Shanghai that I was able to dip my toe in the waters of film, however. Some of you may or may not know this, but when I was eighteen, I applied to ONE university (besides the one that I was going to). It was New York University’s Tisch School of Arts and lo and behold, I was accepted! I was all set to go to the same film school as my heroes, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, and Oliver Stone. There was only one problem…
…I couldn’t afford to go.
It was all fine and I have zero regrets about not being able to rack up several hundred thousand dollars in student debt, but my interest in film never diminished.
So, when the opportunity came along to teach film, I jumped at the chance. I was teaching drama in Shanghai at the time, but I had a nice little side gig in the class where I did a unit on film. Eventually, I expanded that side gig to a larger role and we started making films in class. After going to a training for IB Drama, I realized, Oh, crap, I don’t want to teach this miserable course! I want to teach IB Film! So, I convinced my wonderful principal at SCIS to let us have a film program and we got to it.
It was the right time to get involved. Technology had really opened up opportunities for filmmakers and it was easier than ever to make something awesome for everyone to see. The ability to make films on your phone made it even better.
One of the things about teaching in Shanghai was the notion that I was in contact with several other IB Film teachers in the city; such luminaries as David Gran, Anthony Reich, Rus Ekkel, and Michael Lambert (amongst others) were there to converse with. The year before I arrived, David and Michael (again, amongst others) started the Shanghai Student Film Festival. I attended a couple of meetings the first year I was there, but then, like a chump, I volunteered to chair the festival the next year.
The film festival was a big hit. The first year I chaired, we had it at our school at SCIS Puxi. The next year, it was at Shanghai American School. The fest rotated around schools over the next few years. We brought in people from various industries to talk about film and art, including Hammond Peek, the Academy Award-winning sound recordist for The Lord of the Rings, current Marvel Editor-in-Chief, C.B. Cebulski, Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, and many others. It was a nice event to celebrate the films of students throughout the city.
2014 was my last year in Shanghai and we had an event at Concordia. It was a nice affair, but I knew that I was moving on to Bangladesh, where I would only be teaching English. I had plans, though. I was going to start a film program there, too. Alas, that never worked out, and from 2014 until 2017, I taught no film.
In 2017, though, I wormed my way into the tech department at our current school and the next year, I shifted even more towards film. That year, I started the UAE Student Film Festival, which was an opportunity for students to showcase their work. It was the first time that I really got to put on the type of festival that I wanted. We were given use of one of the state of the art theaters here in the city and we made it a lavish affair.
Students would enter on a red carpet, have their pictures taken, and be interviewed. Then, we would have a ceremony in the main theater to show off their work and give awards. It was a great deal of fun!
But in 2020, we couldn’t have the festival because of COVID, so we held one online. In 2021, we were the first public event that our school could have, though space was limited, as you can see above.
2022 brought everything back into focus and we had another fun event, this time at a new theater. The only big difference in all of these photos is my ever-receding hairline and my ever-expanding waistline.
On Tuesday, we’re going to have our 5th annual festival. I have been getting things ready for this over the last week, so it’s been busy, busy, busy. We’ve got the films edited, our red carpet ready, and excitement is in the air. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly. We have over 100 films entered into the festival this year and we’ve narrowed it down to fifteen winners.
I have had the privilege of teaching some very talented students during this time, some of which have gone on to go to school at the very same film school that I couldn’t afford over thirty years ago. I have little doubt that those that pursue all of this are going to be successful with whatever they do. So, today’s newsletter is all about celebrating the hard work of the kids that have been in my class for the last 10+ years. It has been a privilege to teach them!
If you have any memories of being in one of my film classes, send me a note or leave a comment! I’d love to hear about how awful a teacher I was!
NEWSLETTER NOTE: Our next newsletter will be #200, a milestone of sorts. However, the letter will be delayed indefinitely, because I am moving! Hopefully, I can put together something good for this momentous occasion (but maybe not!).
