From the Aisle Seat

by Kathryn Collins

The founder of Quakerism, George Fox, said “Let your life speak.”  For the student movie-makers of The Bridge Film Festival, that sentiment extends to "Let your films speak.”  Now in its 15th year, this month's festival included more than 30 short film entries from 15 schools and three countries. Running the gamut from documentary to narrative, live action to animation, the films offered a variety of approaches to depicting Quaker values in action.

This year BFS hosted three screening events, a middle school and upper school collection as well as an evening event on April 10th at which Andy Cohen, BFS Visual Arts Teacher and founder of the film festival, announced the Judges Choice Awards:

 Student Action on Climate Change, Carolina Friends School, Durham, NC


Narrative Award: 
I Didn't Mean This to Happen, Pickering College, Newmarket, ON, Canada



Documentary Award:
Farming and Stewardship, Olney Friends School, Barnesville, OH



Public Service Announcement Award:
Quakers and Peace, Leighton Park School, Reading United Kingdom



New Media Award:
It Doesn't Take Much, Pickering College, Newmarket, ON, Canada

Spirit of the Festival 

Spirit of the Festival Award:
Student Action on Climate Change, Carolina Friends School, Durham, NC

While many of the short films deal with weighty subjects such as bullying, labels, war and racism, the festival also has its lighter moments.Quakers and Peace from Leighton Park School in Reading, England serves up a bit of cheeky British humor. Dreams from Pickering College in New Market, Ontario, Canada highlights a couple of quirky passions and the students who pursue them. And BFS's own The Quakers Are Out features clever, colorful animation.

The purpose of the film festival is to bridge an international network of Quaker educational institutions by celebrating the community's shared values as well as its diversity. The festival has evolved since its early days of cassette videotape screenings to the primarily online event that it is today. The online format makes it easy for Quaker schools and meetings around the country, and world, to submit entries. In addition, Cohen and The Bridge Film Festival executive committee hope to encourage teachers, students, schools and Meetings to use these films for their own Bridge Film Festival screening events. 

If you missed the screenings, you can view the entries to The 2014 Bridge Film Festival here: Bridge Film Festival