This festival has truthfully been one of the greatest things that has ever happened in my life, and I believe it will be one of the best things that ever happens to me.  It was exciting, rewarding, and life changing.  I feel like during this experience I matured, became more comfortable with myself, and found out a lot about myself.  

Q:  What did you enjoy?

A:  I enjoyed every part of the festival, there was not one dull moment, and not one moment in which I was let down or felt disappointed.  I thought that all of the films were very enjoyable and same with all of the panels, and events.  I don’t think I can single out just one moment, which probably means that it was a pretty perfect experience.

Q: What did you learn?  

A:  I learned a lot, from reporting, to speaking, being prepared, staying alert, being on adult behavior.  I believe that there were many lessons to learn from the SBIFF and strived to learn them all.

Q: What surprised you?

A:  Every day surprised me, the films surprised me, the opportunities surprised me, the kindness of people surprised me, and the all around perfection of the festival surprised me.  And believe me they were all amazing surprises.

Q: What will you miss?

A: I will miss everything about the festival.  Starting school this morning was hard enough.  It has and definitely will be hard to get back into the routine.  And, I hopefully won’t have to miss it too long, because, no matter what, I am going to participate next year.

Q: Do you look at films differently now?

A:  I don’t think that I look at films differently, but I feel more respect for films.  And, the festival also opened my eyes to the difficulty of making films, and the energy put into them.

Q: Is the TEEN PRESS a valuable project?

A: I think that this project has been such a success and I also think that for everyone who participated this year, it played a big part in their life, where we were able to grow, expand, and learn in a new way.  And, this is especially a good program for SBMS students, because we already know that learning outside a classroom is the best way to learn, considering the fact that we take our bike trips three times a year.

Best Films

1.    Factory Girl

2.    Living with Lew

3.    Story about AIDS in Maio Zinghou

4.    The Forgotten Coast

                 5.       2:37