Pierre Van Cortlandt Middle School hosted its first film festival on March 2, focusing on the topic of digital citizenship. The evening featured nine student films, a poster board presentation, as well as a panel discussion about the use of technology and different ways students can make good choices online.“We designed the film festival to bridge the digital divide between parents and children when it comes to digital citizenship,” said media literacy teacher Johanna Mustacchi. “We wanted to focus on issues likes cyber bullying, online predators, scams, copyright law, piracy and even sexting. What, I hope, everyone got out of this festival was an experience and exposure to quite a lot of issues that they may not have been seriously thinking about up until this point.”
Students, who created films on cyber bullying, said they wanted to educate their fellow classmates about it and discuss ways of preventing it.
“My favorite part of making the movie was going to my friend’s house every day when we would film parts of it,” said sixth-grader Faith, who created the film “Cyber” with her group. “Even though we were talking about a serious subject, it was still fun to do because then I could educate my fellow classmates in an okay way. It wasn’t something that would make you feel really sad.”
Although the student-filmmakers were given guidelines for their films, they also used their creativity to decide what story to tell and how to film their own movies.
“We were really impressed with what they submitted,” Mustacchi said. “This was all done on their own time and it was a wonderful opportunity for the students.”
Director of Technology Deborah August said the film festival provided an opportunity to teach students how to be the next generation of positive digital learners.
“The film festival brought it home to them,” August said. “They got to work on a project and embrace it, something that was fun and rewarding. They know to their core, because they did the research and cited their sources, what good digital citizenship encompasses. Our film festival is about making good choices online, always, forever, for the rest of our lives.”
Congratulations to the following winners on receiving first-, second- and third-place prizes for their films:
First Place: “Rumor Has It” – Eighth-graders Samantha, Zennor and Brandon
Second Place: “A Bullying Story” – Fifth-graders Evan and Nika
Third Place: “Think Before You Hit Send” – Fifth-graders Dahlia and Jasmine
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