By Tanya Terry
Starting July 17 and running through July 30, iMichigan Productions will host the 8th Annual Flint Youth Film Festival, to help encourage the next generation of filmmakers! Filmmakers between ages 13-25 were invited to participate, and over 1,000 submissions have been received.
The opening night reception will feature Mayor Sheldon Neeley, Celebrity Host Colette Boyd-anchor, WNEM TV5 and 2022 Flint’s Got Talent Winner Ava Safley.
iMichigan Productions is a youth-based organization that provides reading and writing skill-based learning through the arts. The organization is a 501(c) (3) non-profit led by media professionals with over one hundred years of collective experience in the classroom and behind the lens in producing television, film, video and other media projects.
“We’re based in Flint,” said Justin Brown, esteemed director of the Flint Youth Film Festival.
“We actually have office space downtown in the Ferris Wheel,” Brown added.
Brown is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning producer, writer, director and actor. He has a background in the world of media and independent production, working in various roles with iMichigan Productions, as well as founding his own production company MopHead Artistics.
Brown has been involved in the film festival since its beginning. He started by being involved in supporting roles, and he has been involved in leadership roles since 2019.
“I’ve seen it grow quite a lot since those early days,” stated Brown. “I’ve seen it benefit the next generation of filmmakers by exposing them. The selected films get shown to our audience online and in person. They are also judged by a group of creatives who also offer feedback.”
Previous judges have included Michigan Native Kevin Toney, pianist composer and author; Kiki Shepard, actress and founder, The K.I.S. Foundation; Michael Lluberes, award winning writer, director and actor; and Michael J Thorp, author, broadcaster and marketing consultant.
Exposure to the arts is essential to kids’ development, according Brown.
“It opens their world up and it opens their perspective up to what they are able to do with their imaginations. It makes them a better, more well-rounded person in the process.”
Alexandria Douglas is a Flint native who is also a Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) annual Student “Emmy” Production Award-nominated documentary filmmaker for her piece about the Flint Water Crisis. Douglas is known for “Transformers: The Last Knight”(2017), “Hallway” (2015) and” Parts Per Billion” (2016), according to IMDb.com. She is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts in NYC. She has also been involved with the film festival for several years, starting as an intern. Currently, she is the assistant director of the iMichigan Productions’ Flint Youth Film Festival.
“I was nominated for the Student Regional Emmy for a film called ‘Parts Per Billion,’” explained Douglas. “It was originally for school. I needed a final project. My co-director and I, Nicholas Ferguson, were in the midst of The Flint Water Crisis and we knew that all these journalists and activists would be coming into Flint. So, we decided to go out and document all the different voices of what was going on in our city.”
Douglas said it was because of film festivals and award ceremonies she and Ferguson were able to find audiences for the documentary.
“Otherwise, it would have been just another film for a grade,” she said. “It was because of places like the Flint Youth Film Festival that we were able to show it to a wider audience outside of just our friends and family.”
The festival entrants are divided into four age groups, 13-15, 16-18, 19-21 and 22-25 years of age. The three older groups’ films are divided into fiction, nonfiction, experimental and animation. Experimental and animation are open to all ages.
Craft awards also are presented for writing, directing, and cinematography for the two older groups. Other awards given, which are determined by judges, are The Industry Award and The Heart Award, which is for a film that shows passion from the entrant(s) which outshine all others. Additionally, there is the Audience Choice Award.
Movie Screenings will be hosted at various locations in Flint, , including the Flint Institute of Arts, The Gloria Coles Flint Public Library, U of M (KIVA) and Mott Community College, as well as online. Tickets are free and limited. To reserve a seat, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/flint-youth-film-festival-2023-tickets-652686491867?aff=oddtdtcreator
The Flint Youth Film Festival is sponsored by iMichigan Productions, Flint Institute of Arts, Share Art Genesee, James A. Welch Foundation, A.G. Bishop Charitable Trust and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. This activity is supported in part by Michigan Arts and Culture Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
For further details, visit www.flintyouthfilmfestival.com
