Last weekend was my friend’s week to shine but this weekend is mine for the taking. This weekend (April 12^th – 14^th) was the CUNY Film Festival. And I went because I along with my team of amazing people got together to make a documentary and we got chosen to screen! My documentary was about a writing organization in NYC that lets youth write and publish their own personal stories. On Friday I went with the original team to go watch

the screening of our film. When we got there the rest of the team was there too! So, there we were, at Macaulay’s Honors College, in a small screening room watching and rooting for our work. I saw a bunch of other great documentaries too which made me glad we were chosen. I believed that our work really was great because it had the privilege of being screened with them. We sat there for a while watching documentaries. Regretfully I didn’t attend any of the screenings on Saturday, which was mostly short narrative films amongst other things. On Sunday the Awards Gala was held. But before that there was a panel talk about “Producing the Future”. That was the theme of the panel. All of the guest s

peakers were great. I learned a lot about what they did and how that was shaping the future of filmmaking. They also had some nice demo reels, which is a video version of their portfolios and/or the work they did. It inspired me to do more so I can build my own demo reel.

Later on, we had the Awards Gala. Our film wasn’t nominated for anything but Professor Kapusinski and Professor Davis was nominated for different categories. So, we were there to root for them and as Professor Davis kept mumbling beside me, “Represent Brooklyn”. Unfortunately, they didn’t win in their respected categories but Professor Kapusinski took home an award, called “Audience Choice”.

 

When the awards were given out there were a variety of people reading the awards. There was the founder of the CUNY Film Festival, the current Director and some others. I regret not remembering who she was but she was giving the award for best Experiemental film.

She had a great speech. In her speech she referred to the Wizard of Oz. She said how every journey was like the yellow brick road, and we’re all trying to reach Oz. And along the way you will meet your Tin Man, your Scarecrow, and your Lion. And those people are the people you should cherish. Those are the people you should network with. You don’t have to necessarily go straight to the greats. As long as you gather people you can call your friends and your partners, then you will truly be an unstoppable force. She said that because as great as the Greats are, if you work hard enough, eventually you will become a Great. And that really stuck with me. As I was sitting there with my friend who helped me create my documentary and my professors, I realized how great of a team I really had. I hope I have a great team like that in the future. A team I want to sit with and root like crazy for one of ours making it. And I think that was the most important thing I got out of the CUNY Film Festival, the importance of a team.