Film contests aims to inspire young filmmakers
Photo credited from website.
The No Malice Film Contest invites filmmakers, from ages 11 to 21, to make short films that deal with racial healing.
The contest is presented by the Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation along with the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation. The contest is funded with a grant from Healing Illinois, which is an organization that helps with racial healing and equity.
Healing Illinois, an initiative from the Illinois Department of Human Services, is designed to distribute grant money to organizations to continue or start the work towards racial healing. One of their goals is to allow opportunities for people to heal from the harm caused by racism.
According to the Robert Ebert website, the contest’s name comes from President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address where he had called for Americans to end slavery and to heal the country’s wounds and said the following, “with malice toward none, with charity for all.”
Throughout the duration of the contest, the emerging filmmakers will be able to attend a lecture series via Zoom with professional filmmakers. The lecture series occurs on Saturdays throughout the months of February and March.
Pamela Sherrod Anderson, the founder of Graceworks Theater and Film Production LLC and award-winning writer, filmmaker, and journalist, held a virtual presentation titled “Seeds for Story.” The presentation aims to explain the filmmaking process, from start to finish, as well as the importance of storytelling.
Anderson’s workshop is the fourth in the lecture series and it deals with her documentary, The Curators of Dixon School. The documentary features an elementary school in the heart of the Southside of Chicago where teachers made it their mission to expose the kids to works of art; the teachers did this by exhibiting it in their classrooms on a regular basis.
“It’s not [only] about learning about how to make a documentary, but also to really understand the importance of storytelling, and the effect that it can have not only on the audience that you have in mind,” says Anderson. “But, it also affects us as the storyteller. It helps us to become even more motivated and inspired by the work we feel charged to do.”
T. Shawn Taylor, a former full-time journalist, master storyteller, and presenter during this lecture series, will present a workshop titled “Trust Your Gut: The Stories You Were Born to Tell.”
“I really came up with that because that’s exactly what I’m doing with a documentary film I’m working on and have been working on now for two years on America’s missing Black men,” says Taylor. “And it’s a story that...was in me and it kept bugging me.”
“I’m going to be talking to them about how to...take those feelings, the stories of things that are bothering you, the things you can’t stop thinking about and translate that into [film],” Taylor explains.
Taylor explains that she had thought of making the film three years before she actually began the process. The documentary dives into the early deaths of Black men having a social, emotional, and economic impact on families and communities.
A piece of advice that Taylor would give to future filmmakers is to not wait too long and get going. She explains that if she had waited, she wouldn’t have what she has right now. She goes into a story of how she met a cameraman at a crowdfunding campaign event and he ended up being her own cameraman. She says that they’re still close to this day.
Anderson advises future filmmakers to never give up. She explains that it’s easy to doubt yourself, asking questions like, “Where’s that?” and “Where am I going with this?” She goes on to say how making films isn’t easy and that it’s a challenge.
With the future of filmmaking, Taylor says she likes where it’s heading now and she wants to see more of it.
“There’s just been such a breakthrough reckoning in our country. And you’re seeing a lot of studios paying more attention to diverse storytelling,” Taylor explains. “A lot of studios are doing a lot of work towards advancing aspiring filmmakers at every level…”
Anderson hopes that filmmakers in the future use their filmmaking to tell their story. She explains that she doesn’t think of the future of filmmaking in terms of something big and grand, rather about the individuals who tell the stories.
“It’s a very important thing to me, that we know the worth of our stories, to value those stories and to also give voice to those stories,” says Anderson.
Filmmakers can work as individuals or in groups and the deadline for entries is Friday, April 30. They are to submit short films at least three minutes and no more than seven minutes; animated films are allowed a minimum of 45 seconds.
Filmmakers who are a part of a group, but are not the designated person turning in the film via Freeway (the previous link), must turn in the Group Entrant Oath and Permission Form.
Cash award prizes will be given at a red carpet debut that will be held at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum on July 31. First place wins $2,000, second place wins $1,000, and third place wins $500.
The winning films in each age bracket will be shown at the Eberfest Film Festival at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.