Pupils Premiere Films at City Cinema

Budding Stephen Spielbergs got the chance to see the films they have been busily making over the past few months on the big screen.

Films created by more than 60 children from Sprowston schools were shown at Hollywood Cinema in Norwich recently. It was part of the fourth community film festival, with pupils, friends and family attending.

Organised by Sprowston Community High School (SCHS), the film festival showcased the talents of pupils and the work developed through its specialist performing arts and media status. The theme for this year's event was “East meets East” and the younger pupils were given professional guidance by local filmmaker Robert Vaughan.

Margaret Quigley, arts director at SCHS, said: “I am delighted how far our school community has come in
working together to share and develop film making skills and media literacy. “From learning to make simple claymation figures, students and community members are now experimenting with more in depth media techniques to create green screen effect backgrounds and documentary style films of a high calibre.”

Twelve short films were shown and pupils from the high school gave out their very own awards, presenting all the younger children with certificates celebrating their hard work and creativity. Ms Quigley added: “I'm really proud of all the films produced this year, which show a diverse range of skills and interpretation and make this a truly intergenerational, multicultural project.”

The film festival was first launched in 2005 as a vehicle to share media skills and resources with the wider community and last year was the first time the films were screened at the cinema.