Senior Nate Hencock shows his Documentary Award with Club officers.

by Connor Pugh ‘24

The Sherwood Film Club held its annual film festival in the library during lunch on Friday April 28, showcasing student-made films. The festival is the biggest event of the year for the film club.
“We were looking for good audio and visual quality, smooth transitions from scene to scene, multiple interesting characters, specifically for narrative, engaging content, and decent acting” said Junior Aidan Leclere, the club’s vice president., “We want to continue the festival and showcase student’s amazing work. I would like to see more categories and more genres, for people to show more types of film.”

The Film Festival was split into two categories: Documentary and Narrative. Documentary films were infomercials or PSAs dedicated to explaining or arguing about certain topics to the audience. Many Documentary films in the festival were assignments students made for other classes in school and then submitted to the festival, leading to a wide variety of topics in the festival lineup. One highlight of the Documentary category was the film produced for the latest Rock ‘n’ Roll by senior Nathaniel Hencock, offering a glimpse into the production of the show leading up to its premiere.

The second category of films in the festival was Narrative, which were works of fiction telling a story instead of explaining something in the real world. With the Narrative category students were freer to experiment with the many different facets of cinema. Narrative films in the festival include a thriller by Junior Rina Shalvi about a family member who magically rose from the dead, and a story by senior Arya Sharma about a kid confronting his nemesis for “outdripping” him, with an epic battle ensuing.

“There was a concession stand and you got to hang out and watch movies. I liked it,” recounted Shalvi.

A main factor to submitting a film in the festival was the possibility of winning the cash reward for the top two films in each category. A panel of judges consisting of members of the Film Club and its sponsor, Mrs. Lock, determined the winners of the festival, with a $100 reward going to the first place of each category and $50 to the second place. Consequently, the Film Club gave students interested in filmmaking the perfect opportunity to show their films to a wider audience, and also line their pockets with a little extra cash.

In a period of the school year characterized by the collective chaos of seasonal events such as the Spring Play and the looming threat of AP exams, the Film Festival went beyond only helping those submitting their films but also gave students the much needed opportunity to enjoy the student films and the company of others.