The Cinema School, in partnership with the Ghetto Film School, had their first official student screening this past week, at the Tribeca Film Center in Manhattan.
As I wrote in a previous post, I have been working with the students at this high school since January 2010, helping to teach them about animation and guiding them through the production of their individual short works. Seventy two brand new animators, born! I am very proud of the students for the work they created, and for braving it through the often repetitive, challenging, and tiring process of creating animation.
My Ghetto Film School colleagues and I chose 17 of the student animations to screen at Tribeca, along with a series of live-action shorts that students wrote, acted, and directed in the after-school Film Credits Program, shepherded by GFS's Derrick Cameron. Sitting in the audience, watching both the live-action and the animated shorts, I was entertained, inspired, educated, and proud.
Here is a photo of the 4-student panel of animators (whose worked screened that night) participating in an expressive Q and A by my co-teacher and Director of the Mid Winter Institute in Animation, Stosh Mintek:
(l to r: Keila Solomon, Ronald Pressley, Wendy Soto, Marquis Hendricks)
While I would love to post animations on this blog, the work belongs to the students and the schools... perhaps down the road I can get permission to post some of this great work. But in the meantime, here are some stills from some of the pieces that screened on Tuesday night at Tribeca:
Lueshen Swainson: "The Last Strawberry"(Claymation)
Ayanna Jones: "Finding Uno"(Hand-drawn animation)
Tasha Ritchens: "Lights Out" (Claymation)
Keila Solomon: "Runaway from the Bronx Zoo" (Flash animation)
Ronald Pressley: "Mr. Mug Goes Hungry" (Stop motion using objects)
