The annual Beaumont Unified School District Film Festival held earlier this month celebrated film projects by teachers and students across the categories of animation, documentary, public service announcement (PSA), how-to and short film.
This year’s contest saw a total of 59 films submitted, including first place short film “Intoxicating Stick,” by Mountain View Middle School’s Autumn Bradbury, Yellena Alderete, Scarlett Lobo, and Jayden Palmer and first place PSA, “Wear Your Helmet,” by Ella Karras and Alana Alva.
“Ours was just, like, awareness why you should wear a helmet, and like, the positive effects it has because, you know, a lot of kids don’t wear their helmets,” Alana, a seventh grader, said. “So, you know, we just kind of thought like, well, they should know why they need to wear a helmet.”
According to Beaumont Unified Public Information Officer Thomas Guzowski, raising awareness of the importance of wearing a helmet while riding a bike, scooter or skateboard to school has been a major concern for the district.
“In fact, this issue is so important to us that our superintendent will be playing the student film at our next board meeting,” Guzowski said. “In a real way, the student’s winning film is going to be delivered as an actual PSA.”
The students said the most eye-opening part of working on the PSA was learning about the severity of injuries that can happen when a person isn’t wearing a helmet.
“It was crazy because I knew that there were definitely bad consequences, but I didn’t think it was that intense,” Alana said. “Now, I’m like, ‘Wow, I do really need to get a helmet.”
For the film “Intoxicating Stick,” Autumn, Yellena, Scarlett and Jayden, tackled the issue of teen vaping.
“It’s about this girl who gets introduced to vaping, and she’s a straight-A student and she’s doing really good and then it just tumbles down,” Yellena said. “She’s in a very bad place, and she decides, after getting in an argument with her mom, that she needs help.”
The student, through counseling services, is then able to stop vaping, get her grades back up and get her life back on track.
Teacher Zachary Miller, whose entry “Amazing Shake Film,” went home with the Viewer’s Choice award, said he pushed the girls to really see their main character’s storyline through to the end.
“They wanted to have this therapy showing to the students, their peers, that, ‘Hey, if you are struggling with this, there’s an out,” Miller said. “There’s a pathway out of this darkness.”
And while all of the students were required to submit a film to the contest as part of their classwork, all of them said they enjoyed being able to see their projects through to the finish line — even if it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
“We were filming house scenes, and it was like one of the main parts of the movie, and the audio of our camera did not end up working,” Autumn, an eighth grader, said. “And we couldn’t re-film it.”
Instead of scrapping the whole scene, the group re-recorded the audio of the script as a voice over for the full scene and cleaned it up during the editing process.
“That took a very long time to edit still, and it was very hard to edit,” Autumn said.
Stay up to date with the latest from The Record. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter today!
Other winners included:
Animation
“Ball Adventure,” by student Logan Williams from Tournament Hills Elementary School
“Alien,” by student Kennedy Meader from Summerwind Trails School
Short Film
“School Alone,” by teacher Lindsay Hill from Starlight Elementary School
“The Case of the Missing Books,” by students’ Joyce Gallup, Camila Vazquez, Ruben Granados, Keira Syahid, and Yareli Avila from Three Rings Ranch Elementary School
Documentary
“A 100 Years Through Time,” by student Emsley Garza from Tournament Hills Elementary School
“The Mighty Amazon Rainforest,” by student Christopher Estrada from Mountain View Middle School
How-To
“How to Be an AVID Kid of Good Character,” by students’ Andrew Jorn, Caleb Tetteh, Angel Sanchez, Kinsley Williams, and Vennice Samson from Three Rings Ranch Elementary School
“How to Survive a Horror Movie,” by students’ Ryan Fragoso and Aythen Castillo from Beaumont High School
According to the district, the film festival was started in 2021 by Instructional Technology Coordinator Lani Gauntlett and Executive Assistant Aprylle Larson.
“It became a powerful way to combine storytelling, technology, and student voice, all while having fun and showcasing their creativity,” Gauntlett said in a news release announcing the winners.
In addition to the film awards, the contest also included a poster design competition to promote next year’s film festival. This year’s winner was Roxanne Vanderwalker from Mountain View Middle School.
“It’s just a really fun experience,” Alana said. “Like, you and your friends get to do something that you all enjoy. Even if you don’t win, it’s fun.”
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet providing Riverside County with high-quality journalism free of charge. We’re able to do this because of the generous donations of supporters like you!