Despite students being unable to interact in person, North Harford is keeping them engaged with events such as the Film Festival.

     “With no trips, no live shows, no concerts or live ensemble rehearsals, NHHS Music and Performing Arts Department determined that our student artists needed an opportunity to share their artistic talents and original works with a wider audience,” Film Festival director and drama teacher Mrs. Nancy Green explains. “And have a motivational and fun, creative way to inspire kids to make some art right now.”

     In the North Harford Film Festival, students will submit entries of films, music, documentaries, or animation by March 26. These submissions are to be judged by Ms. Hemling, Mrs. Larissa Arist, Ms. Christle Henzel, Mrs. Jennifer Chandler, Mr. Brady Green, and Mr. Mike James in April.

     The event is organized by ITS and Drama Club, NHHS Choirs, Misentity Literary Magazine, Foreign Language, Science and Zoology, and Cry of the Hawk.

     Participants receive a free t-shirt, and winners receive more prizes sponsored by local businesses, but specifics are yet to be announced.

     North Harford is still preparing for the event. “Getting it set up is still a work in pro[gr]ess. [It] takes lots of students and teachers collaborating on different aspects [of] planning, rehearsing, promoting, and hosting the event,” Mrs. Green says. “It is only because we have an amazing team of teachers and innovative hard-working students that we could try to pull an event like this off that we’ve never done before.”

     “Art is a perfect outlet for kids in quarantine, with many benefits to their social and emotional well beings,” Mrs. Green explains. “A virtual film festival [is] something we can still count on doing no matter what happens.”

     With the event approaching closely, students have already submitted their submissions.

     “I participated in the film festival because I absolutely adore telling stories, and my preferred way of telling stories is through text or film,” junior Andrew Hartlove says. “I loved being a part of this festival, it gives me an opportunity to show off my skills as a director, writer and editor, along with showing off what kind of stories my friends and I can come up with and really portray that story in the realest way possible.”

     Hartlove describes his entry as a “cinematic experience along with a story in a game.” All participants had to respect the CDC guidelines and follow the rules of social distancing. This led to Hartlove filming inside of the game Red Dead Redemption II. “We wanted to show the beauty of the game’s scenery along with a story that went along with it,” Hartlove explains. “I wanted to show the gameplay along with music in our adventure… it’s the music that adds to the beauty of this game.”

     “I participated because I think it’s important to support school events and I love making videos already so it just seemed fun,” junior Marissa Altenburg says. “It’s a great thing that the drama classes are getting the school involved still.”

     Altenburg describes her entry as “a newer time capsule project that is loosely based on the San Jose Science Center time capsule.”