PHILIPSBURG — Busloads of students descended on Philipsburg on Sept. 6 for The Centre Film Workshop’s first High School Master Class.
Approximately 65 students from Moshannon Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola, Keystone Central and Bellefonte High Schools gathered to learn how to shoot a short film with their cellphones.
“By the time (Luther) had arrived, (the students) had learned how to tell their own story to some degree,” Gluck said. “A couple of students got up to slam their story, and they were amazing. One of them was about finding out that a friend of hers had passed away while she was at school. Another one was about questioning assumptions about leadership. It was really good.”
“The energy level was really something,” Gette said. “It was hard to believe they had been there for two hours already (when I got there). Pearl was in top form.”
Renee McQuown, program coordinator for The Arts in Education Program of Central Intermediate Unit 10, known as Galaxy, helped put the workshop together.
“It was very cool to see the kids react how they did,” McQuown said. “They fell in love with (Luther). They talked and talked with him, even after we were all done. They were really interested right from the get-go. The students really got into it, and I’ve heard from a couple schools after that they took the knowledge and the items that Pearl had taught, and now they’re creating their own bullet list at their schools.”
MORE MASTER CLASSES AND A FILM FEST
In June, Gluck, in conjunction with the Philipsburg Revitalization Corporation, of which she is a member, and fellow filmmakers secured a $5,000 Central Pennsylvania Convention and Visitors Bureau grant. The grant money has been used to market the Centre Film Festival, slated for Nov. 8-10 at Philipsburg’s historic Rowland Theatre.
In addition to professionally produced movies, the Centre Film Fest will feature a screening of short films produced by high school students. Students interested in having their films featured in the festival must submit their work by Oct. 11.
Three more master classes are also available to high school students, but space is limited, and students must apply.
“There’s the film festival, and there are the master classes,” said Gluck. “The master classes are totally dedicated to the high school kids. My dream is to come to Philipsburg and see an inter-generational mix at the Rowland Theatre, engaging with the theatre in different ways.”
Gluck says the Centre Film Workshop is “part of a larger effort to start a workshop space … where filmmaking and storytelling and finding your point of view can flourish, specifically on camera.”
Remaining master classes include: a music workshop, featuring Robbie Mann of the Hillbilly Gypsies; a photography workshop with Matt Lambros, an architectural photographer who has documented the decay of America’s abandoned theatres; and a storytelling workshop with Susan Russel, innovator in residence at the Center for Pedagogy in Arts and Design and associate professor of theatre, School of Theatre.
More information about the film festival and the master classes is available at www.centrefilm.org.
