Young aspiring Chicago filmmakers organize Worldscene virtual film festival

CHICAGO (WLS) — Young filmmakers from around the world are sharing their work through a virtual film festival.

The event has been put together by some local kids who are, themselves, aspiring filmmakers from inner-city Chicago.

Worldscene Film Festival will feature eight films from five different countries, curated by young people studying film making through a program with BUILD Chicago.

“A lot of kids in the inner-city aren’t thinking about film production. They don’t think about what it’s like to work behind a camera. A lot of them just want to be in front of the camera. This is an opportunity to take our kids behind the scenes to see what it takes to create a piece,” said Daniel Perez, manager of communication with BUILD Chicago.

For 16 weeks, the young filmmakers studied all types of films to learn the ends and outs of how they are made, including about equipment and storytelling by breaking down a wide-range of examples.

“Being able to tell your own narrative, and being able to tell the story of your community the way that it needs to be and should be told, you need to know how narratives work,” said Benjy Wax, BUILD Chicago’s digital media coordinator.

As part of the program, the BUILD students created their own production.

“Their film is called ‘The Bystander.’ It’s short. Its two minutes long. It’s probably best to call it a PSA. It’s an anti-bullying film,” Wax said about one film that is being featured. “A lot of these kids are hard kids, they’ve had a hard life, you know. Seeing that they take this and say this is what we want to tell the world.”

All the while they are learning new skills.

“I learned how to work a boom mic for one thing and I can get rich off that,” he added.

Now, in conjunction with The International Children’s Media Center, they’ve put together a virtual film festival to show off their films and the others that they’ve selected. It’s part of the mission of BUILD Chicago.

“I think we want to be able to shine a light on communities that are undeserved, and have people understand that there’s people in undeserved communities can do great things if you give them resources to be able to do it,” Perez said. “It’s something we’re passionate about, bringing new stuff to our kids.”

ABC7 Chicago is a proud community partner with BUILD Chicago. You can see their film and the others they’ve selected for their virtual Worldscene Film Festival through May 31 HERE.