New this year, Powell River Film Festival is hosting a separate event just for youth. Youth Festival and Adventures in Film Camp runs from Thursday, March 7, through Sunday, March 10, and features film screenings open to the public as well as a two and a half day camp for young filmmakers aged 15 to 24.
The community offers unique learning opportunities for aspiring filmmakers, according to camp coordinator Tai Uhlmann.
“We have such a great talent base here; these youth are going to get exposed to people working in the industry from all different backgrounds and genres,” she said. “They even get exposed to underwater photography with one of our local filmmakers.”
The festival kicks off March 7 at the Patricia Theatre with a screening of a film made by two of the visiting camp mentors called Metamorphosis. The National Film Board of Canada describes the film as “a poem for the planet.” The screening is at 7 pm and open to everyone.
Another open event takes place at the theatre on March 10 at 10:30 am when the public is invited to come and see the young filmmakers present their one-minute films and talk about them, said Uhlmann. Winners of the five-minute film contest will also be announced. The contest is open to youth across Canada and has received over 100 entries so far.
This year’s camp has attracted some 30 participants from around the province and beyond, said Uhlmann, with roughly half the campers being local youth. During the program they will take part in seminars by filmmakers, and hands-on video or animation production workshops in small crews.
“We have seminars about camera and lighting and then we have a local person doing sound and another local person who is an acting coach doing an acting seminar,” said Uhlmann.
This year’s camp also has a theme, she added.
“The theme is change; if you could change anything what would it be?” said Uhlmann. “We’re hoping to challenge [the participants] to think about the world, the environment, identity, values and larger ideas.”
For more information go to prfilmfestival.ca/adventures-in-film-camp/.
