Mount Sentinel Secondary Performance and Media Academy (Academy PM) students have been getting ready to show their work to their peers, their teachers and their community. Now it’s showtime.
On June 8 and 9 at 7 p.m., the Civic Theatre in Nelson is hosting Mount Sentinel’s Academy PM Fourth Annual Film Fest. Tickets are available to the public at civictheatre.ca.
“Our entire school community looks forward to this event all year,” said Mount Sentinel principal Shellie Malloff. “To see the original work these 28 students have spent hundreds of hours creating and editing come to life on screen is nothing short of exhilarating. We cannot wait to share their efforts with the public.”
Third-year Academy PM student Devon Kilgour is graduating this year and has already been accepted to the Vancouver Film School (VFS) for fall 2022 with a scholarship to help pay for school costs.
“I am looking forward to moving to Vancouver, and the new experiences ahead and to make new connections in my program at VFS. I am so grateful to the experience I had in Academy PM for teaching me about teamwork, relationships, and time management in a professional setting. The teachers and the school were a huge part in taking the next step.”
Ty Theoret, a third-year Academy PM student, along with film crew members Emmett Bush and Eliza Janzen will screen their film Between Giants at the Civic Theatre. The film explores the importance of old growth and the last remaining inland temperate rainforests. Theoret has already secured full-time employment in the film industry as soon as he graduates in June.
Academy PM is a cross-curricular program that is designed to prepare students to enter a post-secondary education or a career in the film, theatre, game and digital media industry. This program is one full semester in length and offers students an opportunity to work on major, student-led projects and showcases such as film festivals, theatre productions and gallery displays.
Students work hand in hand with industry partners to give academy members an authentic opportunity to work in an industry they want to pursue after high school. All students who successfully complete the program are automatically awarded a scholarship at Vancouver Film School, a partner in the academy.
Mount Sentinel Secondary is also celebrating the work of students from last year’s film festival. All films from 2021 were entered into the BC Student Film Festival and students were recognized in the top three in the province in the following categories:
• Best Long Form and Best Screen Play: Aur Hager
• Best Animation 3D: Eliza Janzen, Sara Hurst, and crew.
• Best Performance/Acting Senior: Katie VanDerHoeven.
• Best Editing, Best Film, Best Senior Drama, Best Art Direction, Best Film and Most Promising Film Maker: Ty Theoret, who also took home the trophy for Best Cinematography (Senior).
This follows up success at the Real2Reel International Youth Showcase, which saw the 2021 films win for Best Cinematography (Ty Theoret), Best Screenplay (Rhythm Storm), and Best Animation (Eliza Janzen, Sara Hurst, and crew).