The third annual student-led Hart District Film Festival showcased student-produced films at the newly renovated Valencia High School theater on Friday night.
The event showcased 18 different short films and music videos made by students from across the William S. Hart Union High School District.
The festival was led by president and founder Cameron Gezerseh, a senior at Valencia High School, who wanted to bring young filmmakers together to build community through the love of cinema.
“When I had the idea to make the film festival, it originally came from this goal of trying to bring together as many people as possible from around the district who also just shared this inherent love of film, whether they love to make films, or just watch and talk about films. Well, whatever it was, I just wanted to bring those people together,” Gezerseh said.
With this festival being Gezerseh’s last, he wanted to up the ante by adding new elements to make the night more memorable.
“We wanted to up the technological aspect of the event. So, one of the members of my team, Dominic Grzecka, he’s a serious technical talent, set up (Open Broadcaster Software), and we set up a livestream, which we’ve never done before,” Gezerseh said. “Another thing is our theater, where we hosted that event, has actually been closed all year, until about a couple weeks ago. There was a massive renovation they were doing in there, which was great for us.”
The night was a big one for some students, showing their films for the first time. Gavin Helms, a junior from Valencia High School, acted and wrote the script for “The Cat and The Cavalry.”
The film follows a case that has gone cold, and a cop wants to chase the case to crack it, according to Helms.
“It is my first time at a film festival. This is actually the first full, like short film that I’ve been in. So, it’s exciting to see it finally finished,” Helms said.
Another Valencia High student named Jordan Wheeler joined in on the festivities for the first time with his award-winning writing skills for his short film, “Man or Mug.”
Wheeler recalled having this mug in the shape of a man and thinking that it would be hilarious to write about, thus his short film was born.
“It’s about a mug who’s having an identity crisis. He claims wholeheartedly that he’s a man, but due to the external pressures of humans saying, ‘Oh, that’s a mug,’ he kind of feels hopeless in that. Very existential,” Wheeler said.
The crowd roared for all the films while enjoying some buttery popcorn. With people clapping, laughing and screaming during the jump scares of “Hallway,” a horror-drama film from Ryder Boyd who is a junior at Hart High School, the event was a success for Gezerseh and his team.
Since Gezerseh is graduating this year, he said that this moment was bittersweet for him seeing people come out and support the festival.
“I started to feel the gravity of just, wow, this is it. You know, this is the last time I’m going to be doing this. I’m sad to let it go, for sure, but I’m very happy that it’s continuing past me. You know, when I started the festival, I had no idea how big it would get,” Gezerseh said.
The winners at this year’s film festival awards ceremony were:
• Best Music Video: “Are We Still Friends?” – Ilana and Owen St. Clair.
• Best Writing: “Man or Mug” – Jordan Wheeler.
• Best Cinematography: Hallway – Jackson Mustamandy.
• Best Performance: “Director” – Bardia Seiri.
• Best Comedy: “Pie Hard.”
• Best Drama: “Hallway.”
• Best of the Show: “Director.”
