Workshop Teaches Kids about Film and Climate Change

elbren_see_stories.jpgStudents interview subject for climate change documentaries. Suyet in chair, Montuya in blue. Photo by Marie Acemah

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

A film workshop is teaching middle school and high school students about the environment and film-making at the same time, and they’re about to present their work. The kids write, narrate, and film their own documentaries on their topics of choice.

The film intensive began on June 1 in partnership with the Baranov Museum and the Kodiak Historical Society, and is free for the students thanks to its sponsors and supporters, which include the Kodiak Island Borough School District and AKTEACH.

Kodiak High School freshman, Jessica Suyet, is one of the students and describes the project as both engaging and educational.

“We’re working on iMovies that are based on climate change and we’re working on films that educate others and can entertain others about our topics. Which we all have individual topics,” says Suyet. “Mine would be ocean acidification, which includes animals, economy, and our ecosystems.”

Suyet and freshman Elbren Montuya say the editing process is a lot of work.

“It usually takes hours, like maybe six hours or more, just to get at least one minute or at least two minutes and if you wanted like a ten minute film, you’d have to work for about three weeks on it. So, it takes a lot of time to edit,” says Suyet.

“This is a really intense intensive,” Montuya adds.

Montuya says his topic connects to Suyet’s and ties into renewable energy.                

“When you talk about renewable energy, you talk about the atmosphere and the ocean and a little bit about how it relates to ocean acidification and how it impacts it greatly ‘cause ocean acidification is a big thing, especially for Alaska, and it affects marine animals and I feel like renewable energy could change that,” says Montuya.

Their instructor, Marie Acemah, says this is the fourth year of the project.

“We looked last year at the Exon Valdez oil spill and before that [the] 1964 earthquake and tsunami, and the first year we studied Filipino community stories. So, every year is different,” says Acemah. “And it’s also almost like an internship because all of that footage goes to the Baranov Museum in their archives for researchers to use.”

The class ends today and the students will screen their films at 7 p.m. Saturday at the public library. The event is open to the public.

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