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Coco Warner ReportingWe know the Sundance Film Festival caters to the Hollywood crowd, but it also sponsors a program aimed at a different group -- teenagers! High School screenings are part of Sundance's Art and Audience program-- a year long effort that brings free film programming to Utah.
You might expect to see a bit more popcorn flying around a movie theater filled with teenagers, but the seniors from American Fork and Box Elder High Schools are quietly enthralled with a documentary featured at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
Melinda Nebeker, Sundance Film Festival: "It's a great way for high schools to come and see that film can be a lot more than entertainment, that it can be a dynamic art form."
One of the reasons that this movie was screened for students is because of the subject matter.
Peter Richardson, Dir. of "Clearcut The Story of Philomath, Oregon:" Clearcut is basically about a conflict between liberal and conservative values in a small Oregon logging town that threatens the college scholarships program called the Clemens Foundation, that's been paying the tuition of every kid that's graduated from the high school for the last 40 years."
Documentary filmmaker Peter Richardson thought his movie was the perfect fit for high school students and really enjoyed a question and answer session.
Peter Richardson, Dir. of "Clearcut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon: "Because I'm a young filmmaker and I wanted an opportunity to talk to young filmmakers in the high schools, and kind of encourage them to go out and make their own films."
This year, more than five thousand students along the Wasatch Front and Summit County will participate in the program. This group includes English, Psychology and Film students.
Trent Oswald, American Fork High School: "The editing of it was superb, some of the best I've ever seen, so that was one of the things I took away from it."
Matt Boulter, American Fork High School: "I liked it a lot. A lot of times my viewpoints were changed here and there cause I was feeling for the logging company and then for the school district."
Kiera Andreasen, Box Elder High School: "It was interesting to see like their perspectives on things and kind of see a personal battle turn out to be a small town political war."
There’s a screening tonight of "Clearcut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon" at the Broadway theatre.
