Teacher Gable brings back student event; prizes to be awarded
This week, Culver City High School (CCHS) is gearing up for its “Take Ten Film Festival,” which is slated to showcase films created by its students, most of whom are part of the school’s Audio & Visual Performing Arts division.
Scheduled for May 31, the festival will feature the screening of the 11 films that made the cut out of a total field of 28 in the school’s Robert Frost Auditorium, with the winners to be announced immediately after the screening.
A top cash prize of $50 will be awarded to the grand prize winner while the winners of the individual categories will each receive a cash prize of $25. Some of the festival categories include the best narrative, best actor, best editing, best cinematography, and best music video.
All 11 films will be judged by a panel of film industry professionals, including screenwriter Hal Cantor, cinematographer Patrik Giardino, producer Carey Zieser, director Martin Dix, and Academy Award-nominated VFX Supervisor Kelly Port.
CCHS AVPA film teacher Holly Gable was the driving force behind the CCHS “Take Ten Film Festival.” After visiting other schools during the process to obtain her teaching credential, Gable noticed something interesting about these other schools.
“I went and visited other schools with film programs and I found that they all had film festivals and I wondered why Culver didn’t have one so when I started teaching this year, I asked [AVPA Creative Director] Dr. [Tony] Spano about it and he said, ‘Well, we used to have one but it sort got lost over the years’ so I decided that it was really important that we reinstate it,” Gable said.
According to Gable, the last time CCHS held a film festival was more than 15 years ago when then-CCHS AVPA Creative Director and film teacher. Jim Knight. was coordinating the event.
Knight, who was one of the founders of CCHS’s AVPA Program, established the festival 20 years ago, but after he left to open Pacifica Christian High School in Santa Monica, the CCHS festival fizzled out with no interest on the part of the school in reviving it — until Gable came along.
In fact, it was Gable’s introduction to the successful film festival at Pacifica Christian that prompted her to start one at CCHS.
“We’re starting small this year in order to get this going,” Gable said. “In the future, we hope to spread the word and attract a wider pool of students. Our ultimate goal is to open it up to high school students outside of CCHS.”
One element of this year’s festival is a throwback to the glory days of the festival under Knight.
While cleaning the film room, Gable and her students discovered a poster left over from Knight’s time at the helm. This gave her the idea to pay homage to Knight and his pioneering efforts within the AVPA by designing this year’s poster to look similar to the one they found.
Doors for the festival open at 6 p.m., and there will be a bake sale. Showings start at 7 p.m. The awards ceremony will commence immediately after the screening. The event is free and open to everyone.
For more information on the “Take Ten Film Festival,” visit http://avpa.org/