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Getting to the Moon


Anyone who makes movies has thought about what it would be like to screen their film at a festival. However, the festival circuit has historically been something reserved for an exclusive club, set aside for the chosen few. With the Eugene Children’s Film Festival, the AAC is making that lofty dream a reality for young filmmakers. Filmmaking for me has severed as the creative rock I’ve been able to lean on as I’ve made the transition in college. Having a unique skill set has allowed me to plug into interesting spaces, meet new people, and accelerate my involvement in higher level courses thanks to having already learned many of the basics involved in the craft. Being drawn to film as a way to express myself from a young age, there’s not a shadow of doubt in my mind that learning to produce, write, edit, and publish my own creative work made me a better student and prepared me for the challenges college entails.

I believe one the most important elements of education is inspiring kids to tell their own story and building a platform for them to share it with an audience. As a filmmaker–or any artist for that matter–when starting to climb the mountain of impact, getting people to care about your work can seem insurmountable. The Eugene Children’s Film provides kids with a shortcut to the top of that mountain, providing everyone with the same opportunity to get their work in front of a community of supportive and enthusiastic viewers, regardless of prior experience or gear. Perhaps the most remarkable takeaway to come from my time as a participant in the festival was seeing people completely new to making videos pick up a camera for the first time.

What’s so neat about filmmaking today is that it’s completely discredited many of the excuses that once allowed you to put a roadblock in front of getting started. Now, thanks to relatively inexpensive camera equipment and constantly expanding, free options for global distribution such as YouTube, as well as a variety of social media platforms, never before has filmmaking been such a widely accessible medium for self-expression. It all serves as a great reminder to the power of the internet and the connectivity of social media. An entirely new era of filmmaking is upon us–with emphasis on speed and feedback–it’s one that sidesteps the gatekeepers and places the entirety of the creative control in the hands of the filmmaker. What this next generation of filmmaking will look like is undefined, but I’d be willing to bet the kids making movies on their cell phones right now will have a role to play in it. Because in the end, it’s not about the scale of the movies that matter, it’s about the heart. Events like the Eugene Children’s Film Festival are needed reminder and celebration of that.



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