June 16, 2000

The summer has ushered in a youth movement at the The College of Santa Fe as Girls Film School 2000 convenes on the campus. The innovative program, which begins Monday, June 19, allows 15 teenage girls from across New Mexico and beyond to receive an introduction to film and video techniques.

Deborah Fort, assistant chair of the college's Moving Image Arts Department, pushed for the establishment of the school to help rectify an imbalance in the number of female students pursuing film careers. Out of the 25 film graduates this spring, only five are young women.

Fort said she and other faculty members have loon been troubled by that trend, reflected in film school enrollments around the nation, as well as the scarcity of women working in the industry as a whole.

Girls Film School 2000 extends for two weeks, providing extensive training in the basic concepts of writing, producing, acting, interviewing, editing, video production techniques and web site design. The faculty comprises women who act as mentors helping the girls produce short films. The students also work in teams of three on larger projects to show this summer at The Screen.

Actress Ali McGraw hosted a cocktail party to raise money for the program and major grants came from the Educational Foundation of America, the Santa Fe Community Foundation, the New Mexico Women's Foundation and Santa Fe Rotary Foundation.

Registration is closed for this summer but girls are invited to apply now foe and expanded version of the program scheduled to run next year. Call 473-6409.