NEW YORK, July 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
New York Film and TV Festival recently announced it has selected "A
Tax Dollar More," to be screened at its 2017 annual event. The film
was shot, edited, written, directed and produced by two Lincoln
Park Performing Arts Charter School media art students,
Danielle Bain and Aidan Karstadt.
"This film was up against hundreds of films created by
students and professionals, and was one of the few selected to be
featured," New York Film and TV Festival officials wrote to the
school, which submitted the film on the students' behalf.
While both students are honored their work has received
accolades, they are more interested in having the issue they
addressed catapulted into the limelight. The announcement comes at
a time when the state legislature is once again debating charter
school reform.
"I feel like the biggest is not the festival, but the impact the
film can have on charter law," Bain said. "It also meant a lot
that the politician we interviewed took us seriously."
"This is one of the bigger festivals we submitted to, so we were
surprised. It's in New York and
all, so it's cool," Karstadt said.
"Danielle approached Mr. Cageo and I in the fall of 2015 with
the idea to make a documentary about charter schools," he said. "I
don't think any of us knew it would be this big endeavor…the ball
just started rolling and it started to grow and more people wanted
to be interviewed."
Under the guidance of artist in residence Zac Cageo, Bain wrote,
directed, and produced the 19-minute film and Aidan shot and edited
it. The film also includes an original score by LPPACS Artistic
Director, Todd Goodman.
"It's a great honor, although I'm not surprised these two,
incredibly creative and talented students were selected," Cageo
said. "It's a testimony to the school's approach to nurturing and
guiding budding artists."
Focusing on the students of LPPACS and the
political challenges they face as part of today's charter
school movement, the 19-minute film also featured an interview with
former state Senator Jeff Piccola,
who championed the original 1997 Charter School Law.
Both students say they love their experience at LPPACS, and
immersed themselves in the documentary-making process, which turned
out – as Karstadt put it – to be "an organic process that let the
people we interviewed tell the story."
"I just never had a good school experience before going to
Lincoln Park," Bain said.
"Lincoln Park gave me so much more
than comfort, it gave me people who take us seriously,
state-of-the-art equipment, a chance to declare a major, more than
I could get in my district school."
"At the time we started, I was overwhelmed, but then I got
really into it and took it as a way – even if it's a small piece –
to make a difference," Bain said.
"The thing I found most interesting when editing (I watched this
film over 100 times now) was that I related," Karstadt said.
"Charter schools are very important because the people in them
think the same and respect what others are crafting. Just socially,
Lincoln Park has a lot of what the
real world has to offer both academically and through the arts. I
feel very prepared to go off to college in 2018."
Karstadt will enter his senior year at LPPACS in the fall.
"I'm already looking into film schools," he said. "This is
definitely a passion."
He is interested in attending University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem or DePaul
University in Chicago.
Bain, now a graduate, will attend Point
Park University in Pittsburgh as a cinema production major, and
hopes to double major in screen writing as her higher education
progresses.
The Screenwriter Awards Ceremony and Afterparty will be held at
Videology in Brooklyn on
July 24. "A Tax Dollar More" will be
screened on July 25 at the same
venue. The festival also will screen selected feature films, short
films, screenplays, teleplays, web series and music videos.
The Shot for Shot Student Film Festival at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh also selected "A Tax Dollar More"
for its event last spring. It was the first film produced by high
school students to ever receive the honor.
Contact: Christina Zarek
czarek@lincolnlearningsolutions.org
(717) 805-2337
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SOURCE Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School