Scholastic Kid Reporter Emmet Smith waits for his cue from the cameraman before filming his intro at the Tribeca Film Festival's Downtown Youth Behind the Camera. (Photo: Suzanne Freeman)

Sunday, April 30—Would you like to be behind the camera like Peter Jackson or Steven Spielberg? You could have a shot at it by joining one of the many programs that help school kids around the city make their own movies. And if you're lucky, your film could be chosen to be part of the Tribeca Film Festival's Downtown Youth Behind the Camera screening.

On Saturday, for the third year, seven films by kids from New York City schools—including IS 89, PS 234, PS 150, PS 64, Children's Museum of the Arts, Marta Valley Secondary School, and PS 188—were shown to an audience of mostly parents and the filmmakers' friends. The young filmmakers even got to walk the red carpet for the premiere of their work.

Director Tanuj Chopra, who is premiering his first feature film, Punching at the Sun, was on hand to talk to the kids after the screenings about their work.

The films were about many subjects, such as bullies, video-game obsession, growing up, cool kids, and shopping at video stores. Many different techniques were used to make the films, including animation, drawings, claymation, and documentary.

For me, it was a good experience, and it inspired me to think about making movies. My favorite films were Bullies, directed by Christian Arteaga, and Video Games: The Untold Obsession, directed by Felix Chmiel. I liked these two films the best because they were so realistic in portraying life for today's kids.

Tristan Reginato, one of the stars of Video Games, said they started out wanting to make a movie about technology. "We all agreed on something we all liked—video games," he said. After a first round of editing, they decided the film was too negative. They reshot some scenes for better balance.

"I liked that you didn't make any big negative or positive statements about video-game playing," Chopra commented. "You were very evenhanded about it."

Brenyz Torres (left) and Jayline Rodriguez on the red carpet with Scholastic Kid Reporter Emmet Smith at the Tribeca Film Festival. Along with a group of girls from the Lower East Side Girls Club, Torres and Rodriguez produced and directed the film Growing Up. (Photo: Suzanne Freeman)

I also really liked the film Growing Up, directed by Elida Meyreles, Monika Galarza, Fatima Haidara, Jennifer Perez, Jaylyne Rodriguez, Samantha Santos, and Brenyz Torres. This film was about issues that affected these girls as they were growing up. In the film, they talked about complex situations, such as being raised without a father, peer pressure, and just being good friends to each other.

"We fit in all the parts of our lives," said Brenyz Torres. "We started with our little group, then we started to talk about our lives. We got ideas and put them together: how we grew up and how we did it. This is how we are."

Chopra said he liked the element of play between the girls as they discussed serious subjects.

Films by younger kids included Bugville High, Trip to Florida, and Cool Kids. I was surprised that such young kids could work with such advanced themes and materials.

Bugville High was claymation and dealt with the theme of bullies in elementary school. The group drew their characters first, then made them out of clay. They chose a piece of music for each character in the story.

"It was an amazingly detailed film," Chopra said.

Trip to Florida was a two-minute slide show with music and special effects. Fourth-grader Calvin Koder said he was inspired by the iMovie software on his mother's computer. "I wanted to see if I could do it, if I could tell a story with that program," he said in a discussion after the screenings. "I really like playing around with pictures of people."

Chopra said he was impressed with Calvin's transitions from scene to scene. "You are much more advanced than I was at that age," he told the 9-year-old.

To learn more about Downtown Youth Behind the Camera and other programs for young filmmakers, check out the Tribeca Film Institute Web site.