For the past three years, IFP/Chicago has run the Summer Production Program, taking students through the script-to-screen process of producing a short film that they write, direct and edit themselves.
This program has been a huge success, garnering several awards, including two national Student Emmy’s in both 2006 and 2007, positive press attention, including a cover story in the Chicago Tribune, and, most importantly new skills, confidence and dreams of the future for the underserved participants in the program.
This summer, we have expanded beyond the existing program at Chicago Vocational Career Academy to create a second program in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Urban Schools Improvement Center, to be held at the USI-run charter school on Chicago’s South Side. The aim is to combine the strengths of the current programs to create a model that extends the impact of the summer production into the school year curriculum.
2007’s WAKE ME UP LATER just received a National Student Emmy award for the second year in a row. Only seven awards are given each year. WMUL was nominated for an NAACP award, won a Midwest regional Emmy and is slate to screen in the CineYouth festival here in Chicago.
2006’s THE LAST STAIN received one of seven National Student ‘Emmy’ Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, beating out 600 entries. This important honor has resulted in much-deserved attention for the students and the program, including a cover story in the Chicago Tribune and news reports on the Chicago NBC and CBS affiliates. Production of THE LAST STAIN was also the subject of a Chicago Tonight report, which airs on the Chicago PBS affiliate WTTW.
2005’s SCREAM AT ME was enthusiastically received by local festival audiences at the Black Harvest Film Festival and the Future Filmmakers Festival, and was one of four projects nationally to win an award from Time Warner’s youth media program. SCREAM AT ME won the Kodak Opportunity Award at the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison, beating out 56 other shorts. It was the only film by high school students in the competition.
