By Will Van Gelder ‘16

Sherwood will host a film festival on May 16 at 7 p.m. in the Ertzman Theatre. The film fest will show student-created short films. Students from any school in MCPS can compete in the festival.

Literature as Film and English teacher Christiane Lock is organizing the festival. “The film festival is an opportunity for high school students from anywhere in Montgomery County to showcase their amazing talents in the art of film,” said Lock. “Film production is the convergence of so many areas of learning for students, including the depth and influence of telling a great story, the importance of visual literacy, the dramatic effects of music, and the power of creation through technology.  I want to give students the opportunity to show the community the wealth of their creativity.”

Sign-up for entering a video starts in January and ends on March 27. The longest video that can be entered is 12 minutes while the shortest that can be entered is a Vine, a short video, usually five to 10 seconds long of compiled clips of random stuff. The five entry categories will be narrative, animated, documentary, music video and Vine style. Lock has also said that students who have made documentaries for the recent 10th grade English project can submit those videos to the festival. Three judges—a local artist, a teacher from another school, and a film industry professional—will be enlisted. They will choose which videos they believe are the best and will also determine the three finalists for each category.

Promotion of the festival has begun to encourage students to submit videos, with signs posted around the building. In addition to the school promotion, local restaurants may sponsor the event by donating food or putting ads in the festival program. There will be free t-shirts  given to winners who attend the event, and there will be other great prizes given out to big festival winners.

Students are also encouraged to help raise money for the event. The money will be used for the cost of the festival, the reception and prizes. Lock is hoping for a large crowd to attend the festival but is only expecting a few hundred people, including students, families and members of the greater community.