DON'T MISS NEW SHORTS BY BALLARD'S AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKERS!

Everyone is invited to a screening of new work by students in the Ballard High School Digital Filmmaking Program.  The Ballard Film Festival (BFF) will be on Friday, June 3 or Saturday, June 11 at 7 pm in the Ballard High School auditorium.  The screening will feature short comedies and dramas, advertisements, documentaries, news features, and a music video.  Tickets ($10 for adults and $5 for students) will be sold at the door.  To screen the festival promo, visit www.vimeo.com/bhsfilmprogram/BFFpromo .

Films that first screen at the BFF routinely win honors at prestigious national and international film festivals and awards from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.  Six of the productions to be screened this spring have already been nominated for High School Awards of Excellence.  The envelopes will be opened, and the winners announced, at the Northwest Emmy Awards on June 4.

The BFF will also be the Ballard premiere of Voices, a music video that was an Official Selection of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth and the CineYouth Film Festival (a program of the Chicago International Film Festival).  In addition, on June 3, C-SPAN will be present to present Leo Pfeifer with 2^nd Prize in their StudentCam Competition, and filmmaker Ward Serrill will be speaking on June 11.  

Funds raised will benefit students in the Digital Filmmaking Program.  Students in the program regularly travel to Los Angeles to tour college schools of film and television, visit program alumni enrolled in these colleges or working in the industry, and meet with film and television professionals.  Students have visited Jason Cahill (Writers Guild of America Award winner for The Sopranos) to discuss screenwriting, and Visual Effects Supervisor Bill Powloski (Breaking Bad) to discuss visual effects.  Ticket sales and donations will make these trips possible for all accepted students and also provide additional production equipment.

BALLARD FILM STUDENTS WIN BEST MUSIC VIDEO AWARD AT INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

Big Coat, a music video by Jaya Flanary, Duncan Gowdy and Leo Pfeifer, won Best Music Video in the junior division at the CineYouth Awards on Saturday night, May 7, at Columbia College Chicago.  CineYouth is a project of the Chicago International Film Festival.  This annual film showcase celebrates shorts by filmmakers 22 and younger from around the world.  As winner of the prize for Best Music Video, Big Coat will be screened in the CineYouth “Best of the Fest” at the 52^nd Chicago International Film Festival next October.

BALLARD FILMS TO SCREEN AT INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

Two productions by nine students in the Ballard High School Digital Filmmaking Program have been chosen for screening this weekend at CineYouth – the Chicago International Film Festival’s showcase for shorts by filmmakers 22 and younger from around the world. 

Both are music videos.  Voices (by Jonathan Bowers, Aurore Bouriot, Brian Cropp, and Jake Rehfeldt) depicts a high school student hemmed in by conformity.  Big Coat (by Jaya Flanary, Duncan Gowdy, and Leo Pfeifer) charts the changes brought about by the presence – and absence – of romance.  Both films will be screened at the 12^th annual event in Chicago, May 5 – 7. 

Voices will also be screened at the Ballard Film Festival on Friday, June 3 or Saturday, June 11 in the Ballard High School auditorium at 7 pm.  Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for adults and will be sold at the door.