Albuquerque Journal North - June 26, 2000
College Combines Entertainment, Education
Girls Film School 2000 provides an introduction to the medium.
by Diana Heil
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The stage lights are buzzing. Lindsay carver sits at a solitary table, pulls a bottle of fingernail polish from her black purse, spreads her fingers and begins painting in silence. She is not sure of her intention. Maybe getting gussied up for prom?

A second time -- after instructor Wendy Chapin whispers another intention into her ear -- she strokes her nails with a marked intensity, then wipes tears from her eyes as she takes her seat among the audience. The tears are real. A classmate hovers around her in comfort.

She was told, in the whisper, to paint her nails as if she were preparing for a loved ones funeral. Days before the acting exercise, a close family friend had died. "Acting has consequences. When you act, feelings happen," Chapin said. Breathing, drinking water and meditating are ways professional actors clear out emotions after a charged scene, she told the girls Wednesday.

"It was tiered. It just triggered my emotions completely," Carver, a St. Michael's High School graduate, said. Although her college destination is set -- San Diego State University -- she signed up for Girls Film School 2000 in Santa Fe to sort out her career ambiguity: artist, actress or businesswoman?

When the two week film school is done, she will have produced a short film as well as worked in teams of three on a larger project. All the angles are covered: writing, producing, acting, interviewing, editing, video production techniques and web site design.

"Women do get really competitive, but it's not like that here. I think if boys were here, boys would tend to show off more and jump in front of the camera," she said. "You don't have to hold back at all. You're not hiding behind them."

The film and video school for 15 New Mexico teen-agers began June 19 under the all-female instruction of professionals in the field and faculty from the College of Santa Fe's film school. Girls Film School 2000 is a first year pilot program designed by College of Santa Fe Moving Image Arts Department assistant chairwoman Deborah Fort for girls 15 - 18. She has her niece to thank for the concept, which was sparked by a science camp for girls at Smith College in Massachusetts that she had attended.

"It's a tremendous vehicle for female expression and female voice -- and to find that in a group of young women," she said. Women are underrepresented in both fields, science and film, on a national level. This year, only five of the 25 graduates from the College of Santa Fe's film program were female. "I think there's a lot of really supportive men, but what's going to make it change is women supporting women," Fort said.

Sometimes women stick to acting because they are afraid of the technical knowledge to work behind the camera. "Guys are acculturated to feel comfortable with technology and girls are not." she said. In the school's multi-generational network, teens interact with female mentors who are studying film, as well as female instructors who are working in the industry.

Full tuition is $1,200 but no student was turned away. Hollywood producer Gale Ann Hurd ("Terminator" and "The Abyss") -- and several Santa Fe organizations -- helped bankroll the program.

Collaboration, rather than competition, is central to the structure of Girls Film School. "It's just been amazing the things that have happened," Fort said Wednesday, three days into the program. Fort, 48, holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute. The road there was long and winding. At 6, she saved enough box tops from cereal boxes to purchase a simple camera. It wasn't until she was grown, though, that she found a role model in New York, where she took her first film class at a community arts center.

"There were women photographers whose work I knew, but I didn't know how they did it," Fort said. With encouragement from other women, she forged ahead to graduate school and eventually to awards for her personal narratives and documentaries.

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FINISHED PRODUCTS

Short films created by highschoolers in the two week Girls Film School 2000 will hit The Screen at 8:00pm Friday in the College of Santa Fe's Garson Communications Center. The screening is free and open to the public.

A sampling of the works will also be featured Friday on www.girlsfilmschool.csf.edu.

Borders Books & Music will hold a benefit night July 6th at 6:30pm. The final projects will be screened in the cafe, and 15% of all purchases made that evening will be donated to Girls Film School.

For more information, call Deborah at 473-6409.
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