Dean Wong

Twelve students from Ballard High School’s Video Production Program will be attending the prestigious 2006 Sundance Film Festival in January thanks to an educational grant package provided by the non-profit Sundance Institute.

The Sundance Institute has become internationally recognized in its support of independent filmmakers through its film festival and arts development programs. The institute was founded by actor Robert Redford.

“It’s definitely the premiere showcase for film in this country,” said teacher Matt Lawrence.

The Ballard video students have won 90 local, regional and national film festival awards since the program began in 2001. In submitting the application to Sundance, Lawrence believed his student's work would give them strong consideration for acceptance.

In mid-November, Lawrence received a letter from the Sundance Institute with the news.

The twelve students are part of the school’s Advanced Production Program. The festival is held in Park City, Utah where high school students are being invited for the second week of the festival from January 25 to 29. They will have complimentary tickets, priority reservations, and invitations to an informal gathering of festival filmmakers and festival credentials.

Many of the Ballard students are interested in art, film, and broadcast television or journalism careers when they graduate.

“Quite a few of them want to pursue this after high school,” said Lawrence.

Junior Mixtli Zavaleta plans on going to film school. “It’s wonderful to have this opportunity. We are lucky to be chosen out of so many high schools,” she said.

“I’m so excited, it’s an amazing opportunity. How often do you get to go on a field trip all focused on the same things as your career goals,” said senior Alexa Anderson who will pursue a career in communication design.

The festival schedule includes 120 feature films, including 84 world premieres. The films were selected from 3,148 submissions.

“I’m thrilled to go. Movies are my second favorite thing behind baseball. It (the trip) will provide me a chance to see a lot of films I would not see in the theatres,” said Aaron Muse, a senior who wants to be a baseball broadcaster.

Since the Ballard High School Video Production Program was launched, the awards have gradually piled up and word has spread among the film community.

“It takes a while to get a reputation. We’ve been looking strong, have done good work and people have noticed,” said Lawrence.

Former student Jesse Harris had been a budding filmmaker since he was an early teen, running around Ballard with his video camera.

Last year Harris finished a feature film “Living Life,” which was shown in theatres in Seattle and the Los Angeles area.

Harris is now on the production crew of the television program “Rock Star.” He is also working on a documentary on the impact on Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf States.

Brenden McCarthy is attending the New York Film School. During his first semester, he won a screen writing contest.

McCarthy has a number of projects in the works, one of them is the film “Snack Cop,“ about a police officer who works in a movie theatre. It will be shot in Seattle.

“I am confident in saying that I owe and will continue to owe whatever success and experience to the Ballard High School film and video program,” said McCarthy.

He credits Lawrence for giving students the skills and knowledge for an education in the film field.

Junior Kyle Seago says the Ballard program covers all the bases for students who want to go into the film business.

Lawrence now has 125 students in the Ballard High School Video Production Program. He encourages students to develop a diverse portfolio of video productions to help them get into college.

“Young people are still discovering their interests and talent,” said Lawrence.

With Hollywood monopolizing on the media, the Sundance Institute plays a key role in supporting independent filmmakers.

“Sundance is about independent films, more voices and culture than what you have seen in the multiplex,” said Lawrence.

With thousands of filmmakers submitting work for the festival, it proves that the medium is not centralized to the Los Angeles film industry.

“Here are all these people making movies in all these places,” said Lawrence.

Ballard High School is one of those places where video production is prolific.

The program’s latest honors included videos made by advanced and beginning students being screened at the Lake2Sound Film Festival for college and high schools in the Puget Sound area in June. Ballard students took first, second and third place and two honorable mentions.

Lawrence said one juror named Gregory Wylie made the observation that some of the Ballard productions were better than work from college programs.

The 29th Annual Young People’s Film and Video Festival covering five Northwest states selected three Ballard videos in July. In September the Bumbershoot Arts Festival’s 10th Annual One Reel Film Festival selected two videos from Ballard for its youth media productions program.

The Ballard High School Video Production Program could use more equipment. “I wish we had more cameras and editing suites,” said Lawrence.

Students have conducted fundraisers to buy equipment and the public can make donations through the Video Program Committee of the Ballard High School Foundation.

The public can see more programs by the Ballard students on February 10, 7 p.m. in the school auditorium. The screening is called “The Showing.”