Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Cameras will soon be rolling in the hands of the 17 teenagers who are the 2006–07 fellows of the Ghetto Film School.
The fellows have until September 1 to complete their films, which will have their premiere at the Walter Reade Theater on September 14.
“We’re thinking about the subjects right now and we’re supposed to finalize it by next week,” one participant, Subrina Moorley, 16, said.
Miguel Rodriguez, 15, wants to film an adventure, but noted the project’s time limit of six minutes, “including credits and bloopers.” Shiyah Trotman, 15, of Brooklyn, clarified: “It can be under six minutes, but not over. And there’s no spoken parts.”
“We don’t do dialogue in the first projects because it’s the most difficult aspect to get right in filmmaking,” the program director of the school, Stosh Mintek, said. (But instructor Tony Dreannan is already teaching screenwriting. A sample dialogue on the blackboard dealt with spilt ketchup and chomping on a Big Mac.)
George Velez, 14, is already calling the Ghetto Film School his second home. He plans to film his short in the style of Quentin Tarantino, although when the commissioner of the Department of Parks & Recreation, Adrian Benepe, asked him to name his three favorite movies, he listed some more established classics: “Casablanca,” “The Godfather,” and “Carlito’s Way.”
Mr. Benepe was on hand yesterday because he was the one who arranged for the Ghetto Film School to be in residence at the St. Mary’s Recreation Center in the South Bronx. The film buff talked about one of his favorite films shot in New York, “The Naked City” (especially the final scene on the Williamsburg Bridge). And naturally, he mentioned some of the films that recently shot in Central Park, such as “Spiderman III” and “The Devil Wears Prada.”
The Ghetto Film School’s founder, Joe Hall, said that the Parks & Recreation department’s donation of the space was just part of the support coming from the Bloomberg administration, which includes a grant to buy equipment from the Department of Cultural Affairs. Government and corporate support is augmented by revenue from the school’s filmmaking business, Digital Bodega, whose clients include New York Presbyterian Hospital and Childcare Inc.
This year’s fellows are, from the Bronx, Spanky Aguirre, 18; Joel Arzon, 14; Irvin Benitez, 16; Tiffany Brown, 15; Dwight Mack, 19; Daneisha Mobley, 15; Jonathan Rodriguez, 18; Miguel Rodriguez, 15; Joseph Torres, 18; Sharlene Reed, 16; George Velez, 14, and Nurgul Yilmaz, 14. From Harlem, Dondre Chris Cattling, 15, and Melissa Murray, 15, and from Brooklyn, Shiyah Trotman, 15; from Queens, Subrina Moorley, 16, and from New Jersey, Agnes Garfield, 19.
