Teen Community of Filmmakers

Nikita (L) & sister Monica (R)

Over the past few years I've taught a Story Symposium for a group of teens, and later helped them produce a short movie. One of my students is Nikita Mungarwadi, of whom I've written before about. The picture at right I took at her older sister's high school graduation dinner. Nikita's on the left, in dresses they purchased on a recent trip to their parent's cities in Southern India.

She asked my opinion of several of her college application essays. The one below was priceless and thought it applied to stories of all kinds. It tells one.

The application prompt is followed by her essay:

PROMPT

Essay #1 (Required for all applicants. Approximately 250 words) Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.

NIKITA'S ESSAY

We are a community of filmmaking teens.  A community of all Caucasians and one Indian.  A community of devout Catholics and one devout Hindu. I am the latter, yet I belong with the former. 

When I attended my first Story Symposium workshop freshman year, I was mildly surprised to find that I would be the brown sesame seed among the pot of white rice.  I was already accustomed to be the minority.  In school, I was one among the two Indians in my grade; in ballet I was the one Indian. 

I wasn’t expecting hostility, but I braced myself for the discreetness that was sure to exist.  Strangely… I got neither.  The rest of the teens completely ignored the fact that my external features were incompatible with theirs, and adopted me within their circle.

Soon, we became a cult, enthusiastically learning the craft of a perfect screenplay.  We contributed recommendations on others’ screenplay ideas while absorbing advice for our own. 

We all shared a mutual desire to become part of the channel through which we could manipulate human emotions, sending the audience into a sea of startling tears or a death of interminable laughter.  We realized that films were the illusion meant to distract people’s attention from the real world, yet offered universal principles that can be applied to reality.  The irony of filmmaking and the longing to be a part of it was what brought us together.

Even though our complexions clashed and our religious devotions disagreed, they considered me to be synonymous with themselves­­–a united community of teens indulged in fascination for the art of storytelling.

Story Symposium Query

Are you interested in participating in a Story Symposium that I would lead once a month, for 9 months, on Saturdays for three hours? It would include all of my various workshop content plus interactive discussions, sharing, and story critique opportunities. This new version of the symposium would be available to distance participants via WebEx, or to live participants who would come to the meeting location in Novi, MI.

From May 2010 through May 2012 I taught and facilitated, along with Jan Swedorske, a Story Symposium class in story writing (screenplays and prose) at my home in Novi. Students would come at 2 PM, and we'd be done by 5 PM. Some months the times shifted due to my travel schedule. The sessions were a mix of lecture, interactive, discussion, story sharing and critique. I presented my workshop material on various story topics, and I coached participants (as a group and privately) in the development of their own stories. Although this started out as a on-going workshop for teens involved in a Catholic Home School organization, at times welcomed adults, parents, and non-Christians to the group. The original symposium ran for two years. Recently there have been requests to run it again.

I am considering rerunning the symposium, but in a version that would only run for only 9-10 sessions during the regular school year (Sept through May) AND be available for people outside the area to participate live or (if a session is missed) to access the session file for playback. The live session would meet once a month on a Saturday for 3 hours. The "live" location would be in Novi at my home where I have easy access to electronic media and Internet transmission. If there was wider interest for the in-person live sessions than I anticipate we would meet at a larger venue.

This time there would be a cost, but as of yet I have not figured out what it would be. Distance participants would need a good internet connection for the transmission of visuals and movie clips, that you would be required to watch ahead of time.

Participants would also be required to have a copy of The Moral Premise that we would use for reading assignments. There would be additional handouts, access to a password projected website for downloading additional material, writing assignments (nothing very long as I wont' have time to read everything), one or two field trips, and a guest speaker from time-to-time. As before my opening lectures would be richly illustrated with my workshop slides and clips.

If you are interested in this (feel free to forward this to others), please write me ASAP to stan@moralpremise.com and provide me with your contact information and level of interest. There is no age or faith restriction.

stan