There is no other organization in the country that does what Ghetto Film School (GFS) does. GFS offers young people of the South Bronx excellent hands on training in filmmaking with connections to notable directors and professionals in the American film industry. Students, called fellows, create their films entirely independently. Most organizations that do filmmaking with young people offer students nothing more than basic camera skills. Ultimately the adult professionals end up taking over most aspects of production, thereby making the experience for the young person vocational training only. GFS develops students' abilities to think as filmmakers and supports them in developing their conceptual thinking skills. Through that lens their students' technical expertise develops.
Last year, GFS took several students to Ireland to shoot their own film with professional actors. They have been conducting these trips for over five years. After the film is finished, GFS hosts a screening event for their student-made film in Manhattan. Notable people from the film industry screen the movie and many attend the event.
GFS is a small organization, but I see the potential they have to develop filmmaking programs in many schools and in expanding their programs to more young people. In a time where students in urban districts are dropping out of high school (and even moreso, dropping out of college) and the achievement gap is widening, GFS has advocated for and assisted in the creation of the nation's first filmmaking high school, The Cinema School. In its first year The Cinema School has achieved an attendance rate of over 93%, which is more than 10% higher than the NYC high school average. Additionally, 100% of the students of The Cinema School earned enough credits to advance to the next grade level.
GFS is one of a very few organizations that has combined a modern art into a program that prepares students for any 21st century aspirational career. Students learn to work in teams on authentic projects that are done in the same way as professionals. Students also engage in not only creative thinking, but are responsible for budgets, permits, design, and the marketing of their films. As an educator, I have never seen any arts organization engage students' creative minds with their technological savvy by allowing them to create work that is not only meaningful for them, but prepares them for success in the job market that is relevant for them.
I have been a friend and advisor to the GFS for the last 10 years. I am impressed with their progress and their means of achieving it. As one of the people they approach regularly, I appreciate their ability to go out and seek counsel, guidance, and advice informing and executing their curriculum. The challenges I see before them are: the new platforms for dispersing media and their ability to prepare students for study beyond their programs.
The Ghetto Film School represents the best of the non profit world. At its best it merely offers opportunity - no one says its gonna be easy, no one says everyone is going to be a winner, no one says expectations will be relaxed - its a chance to learn the core values that will help someone succeed in the world of media. And yet, when you raise expectations, amazing things happen.
When Headsets and Highballs first started working with GFS we were amazed to see the desire and incredible work of maturing fellows right before your eyes. The teachers and adminstrators don't sugar coat and our role as media industry ambassadors, teachers, mentors, and fund raisers has been repayed with the talent graduated from the program - the spirit of storytelling and the hustle of the entertainment industry.
Our role with GFS is also to provide the kids with perspective on other jobs in the industry - as 16 year olds they all want to be directors but for us it's great to see someone come alive for a different part of the program. I remember a student who was so quiet in class, and whose directing was middle of the pack and yet when we held our weekly box office game - he routinely dominated the class. A box office savant! Totally out of nowhere and yet it illustrates the breadth of talent that GFS students posess.
We are proud to continue to work with GFS fellows and alumni - those who are not in college, at internships and next helping them land those coveted entry level gigs. It's this new blood and perspective that will hopefully build a groundswell in the industry.
Headsets and Highballs is about networking and GFS is building an army of talent through the their program and we look forward to helping nurture that talent into real careers in the industry.
There is a clear distinction between my life before GFS and my life afterwards. Before GFS, I had many aspirations. I wanted to go to Hollywood and write television shows like the ones I enjoyed watching at home. I had never held a camera or even seen a film shoot in the street. I was completely oblivious to the reality of filmmaking. All I had was a book. On the cover it read: DIRECTOR IN TRAINING. In it, I would write short stories and episodes for existing tv shows. It was a book I kept private, but it was the only way I could exercise the ideas in my head. On July 5, 2007, a big change occurred. That was the day I began GFS. I was exposed to another world. On that very day I was handed a camera for the first time. GFS didn't just make me a filmmaker, it made me an artist. I developed a new pair of eyes. I learned to perceive the world around me like the lens on a camera. With these eyes, I saw Africa. I saw my film premiere at a loft in SoHo. With these eyes, I watched Catherine Hardwicke and her staff edit Twilight weeks before it premiered. I watched Spike Jonze run through the dailies of his film Where The Wild Things Are. With these eyes, I greeted Lee Daniels and Sherri Williams at a GFS Benefit event. I have read article of myself and the program in Variety magazine and the New York Times. I've watched interviews of myself on BET, CNN, PBS, and IFC. These new pair of eyes have experienced so much since that summer day in 2007. I found favor and was given opportunities I never thought would just flow into my life. I truly thank God for Ghetto Film School. They have a specific goal of finding talented kids in places most people wouldn't think to look. Before GFS, I did not have a voice. I did not have a place that would help me to achieve my goals without cost or long traveling. Entering GFS was like being handed a microphone. I was in an environment that wanted to hear and learn from me; they wanted me to grow; they were there to help me. The South Bronx is not the only place where mics are needed. A program like GFS can help underrepresented children nation-wide.
I have worked with youth empowerment programs throughout the world and Ghetto Film School simply is the most effective in every way. The work they do with high school students is nothing short of miraculous.
GFS values of high expectations, assets-based thinking, international travel and exposure to experts from many fields, inform the core Ghetto Film School model. GFS empowers students to accomplish remarkable things from making original narrative films in
places like Mexico City, Paris, Kampala, Rio de Janeiro, Belfast, and Shanghai, to landing paid internships and jobs in top film and media companies like Focus Features, JWT and Wieden+Kennedy.
From the first time i was privileged to attend their annual prestigious jury-selected and awarded film festival at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, featuring the short films of their high school Fellows, I was utterly impressed by every aspect of what Ghetto Film School was doing and, perhaps more important, how they were doing it.
The student Fellows were held to a standard that would have been arduous for tried and true film-makers. And these were 16-year
old kids who just a few months earlier had never been exposed to any aspect of film-making.
The youth who have the opportunity to participate in a GFS program gain life skills that will increase their likelihood of being highly effective young adults and right through their lives regardless of their career choices.
I strongly believe that now, as Ghetto Film School enters its second decade preparing the first steps toward program replication in other major American and international cities, it will only grow stronger. In fact, in my current position as Executive-in-Residence at IMD, ranked among the top three business schools globally by Forbes, The Economist and The Financial Times, I plan to do a case study on their successful model.
GFS is an outstanding program that deserves the recognition it has earned.
Nadine B. Hack
President & CEO, beCause Global Consulting, USA
Executive-in-Residence, IMD, Switzerland