2014 will mark the 15th anniversary of the Bridge Film Festival. In recognition of this milestone, the BFF is collecting interviews of our filmmaker alumni.
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| Reid Hildebrand |
Reid Hildebrand, Tandem Friends School '11, Charlottesville, VA
Reid has entered the BFF three times with the films Break Away (2008), Montag (2010) and The Balloonist (2011). His animation Montag won the Judges Choice Award. Reid's latest work can be seen on his Vimeo Channel.
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BFF - How did you learn about the Bridge Film Festival, and what was it like to enter your film?
RH - I learned about the festival through my school. Making a film to submit to the festival was a part of the 8th grade art and drama curriculum, so everyone in my class made a film in small teams. My team's film was selected to be our school's entry into the festival, and since then I have had two more films submitted and screened.
BFF - Which teachers at Tandem Friends School most influenced your filmmaking?
RH - The teacher who helped me the most at Tandem would probably be Lydia Horan. Great woman.
BFF - After graduating from Tandem Friends School, what college/university did you attend, and what did you study?
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| The Ballonist |
RH - I attend Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut as a double major in East Asian Studies and Film.
BFF - How did the experience of making a film for the BFF that required you to "depict Quaker values in action" influence your future storytelling?
RH - The values have since always held a spot in the back of my mind--whether or not they are in the forefront of the narrative, they certainly paint the interactions between characters and the moral resolutions.
BFF - Which of your film projects are you most pleased with?
RH - The two hand-drawn films were obviously huge accomplishments, both at the time and in hindsight. To be able to complete a film like that with hundreds of drawn frames is a large testament to my willpower and patience as a 17-year-old, and while I think the films themselves could use work, I am pleased with my ability to finish them.
BFF - What personal or professional projects are you currently working on?
RH - I am currently teaching at a non-profit organization called Light House Studio where we teach teens how to make films. It's where I learned, so I view this as a sort of giving back to the community. As for myself, I have a couple peripheral projects, but nothing deep in the pipeline just yet.
Light House Youth Film Festival Commercial 2013 from Reid Hildebrand on Vimeo.
BFF - What are your plans for the future?
RH - In a month I depart for Japan, where I will be studying the language and hopefully practicing my filmmaking and cinematography in the aesthetic playground of Kyoto. After I get back, I'll take a production class at Wesleyan and begin working on my senior thesis film.
BFF - What advice do you have for filmmakers currently attending Friends schools?
RH - Get as much practice as you can. Especially in film school, nothing separates you from the crowd as much as knowing what you're doing. Getting the kinks out while you're young, ahead of the game, is hugely important to getting ahead later. Keep on keeping on, never finish, always keep improving. Make sure the fire that keeps you wanting to create is never extinguished.
