The Manaiakalani Film Festival was held for the third consecutive year on November 11th. Students from our seven schools, ranging in age from 5 - 18 years, presented the movies they had been making at this festival event. Some of the movies were made by small groups, some by students across year levels and some by entire classes. We have elected to make this annual event a cluster celebration rather than a competition and we all share in the joy of seeing what each school has to present.
We present the films during the day to the 2000+ students from the schools, who bus in to the venue in shifts throughout the day. Then at night we hold a parent and community showcase. For the first two years we held it in the auditorium at Tamaki College, but this year we went huge and hired Hoyts Xtreme Screen at Sylvia Park Mall. We were grateful to our friends at the Tamaki Transformation Programme giving us encouragement and support to take the event to the next step. And we couldn't have done it at all without financial support from the TTP, Fusion Networks, Hapara, Rachel Hill and a local family.
There are so many 'gems' from the day that could be quoted here, but one thing that struck me was how many of our children as they entered the cinema made it clear it was the first time they had ever been to the movies here. It was heart warming to see how much it meant to the kids (and their whanau at night) to see their masterpieces on a real cinema screen.
The evening showcase began with entertainment in the foyer by a band from Tamaki College, and was MCed by Anthony Samuels (who many remember from his "What Now" days) then 22 movies were rolled out - each presented briefly by the students who created them.
All the movies screened can be watched online now. The link to them all is here.
I learnt a lot about creating movies for this screen during the event and have started writing notes for next time here.
This movie segement is part of the introduction (yes, it is meant to start from a black screen) and explains how this event fits into the Manaiakalani Project.
Hi I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile Al. This sounds like an outstanding event for the children. I have never heard of any schools around here doing this. But I am sure this event showcased some children that had spectacular talents that no one knew about. When children do productions such as this they find out stuff about themselves and sometimes run with it and treasure it forever.
ReplyDeleteI had the privilege of going to this event and it was amazingly cool. 7 schools, all levels (starting right from new entrants) and a bit of something for everyone.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite movie was probably this one: http://spxroom6.blogspot.com/2010/11/film-festival-entry-2010.html