Berkshire Country Day School to Hold Second Annual Drew Bridges Memorial Film Festival

LENOX, MA (05/18/2009)(readMedia)-- Berkshire Country Day School, an independent school for students in preschool through ninth grade, will be hosting its Second Annual Drew Bridges Memorial Upper School Film Festival on Friday and Saturday, May 29 and 30, at 7:00 p.m. at BCD's Winthrop Theater, 45 West Street in Lenox, MA.

"The Drew" film festival will showcase student short films made in BCD film courses as well as Schooled!, a full-scale movie production produced by the BCD Upper School Stage And Film Ensemble (S.A.F.E.) under the direction of Jesse Howard. The festival honors Andrew Bridges, a BCD student who died of Cystic Fibrosis in 2007.

The film festival will include the student films How 2 Cheat by Catherine Hennessey, David Mah, and Jonathan Sokolsky made in the introductory digital film course; Teaspoon by Dylan Cole-Kink, Isaak van der Meulen, and Charlie Coan from the intermediate course; and nine Grade Lounge, written and directed by advanced film student, Claire Meyer, whose film Richie and Jane just played at the student film festival at BIFF.

The feature film, Schooled!, is a satirical send-up of TV reality game shows in which six students compete to be declared "too smart for school." Their drive for the ultimate prize (never having to go to school again), brings out the best and worst in them. Humorous characters, strange relationships, and ridiculous academic challenges abound in this movie made collaboratively by S.A.F.E. Written and directed by BCD's film teacher and local filmmaker, Jesse Howard, students performed all of the acting roles, designed costumes and props, operated cameras and dollies, recorded sound, set-up lighting, supervised slating and continuity, and contributed to the editing of the movie using Final Cut Pro in BCD's film lab.

BCD's Film Program has been instrumental in turning out award-winning student film makers. In 2007, three of the eight films selected for the student category by the Berkshire International Film Festival (BIFF) were BCD student productions. In 2008, five out of the seven student films selected for showing at BIFF were shot by BCD students. This year, BCD current and former students swept the Winner's Circle in the student film category.

"The Drew" plays on Friday, May 29 and Saturday, May 30 at 7:00pm at BCD's Winthrop Theater, 45 West Street in Lenox, MA. For more information, please call (413) 637-0755 or go to www.berkshirecountryday.org.