The imaginations of students enrolled in a filmmaking elective at The Liberty School run rampant.
Evidence of their creativity can be seen in four movies they’ve researched, written and filmed this year under the guidance of teacher Christian Holmen.
“Time Warp,” the brainstorm of Sam Atchison and Milo Ethridge, tells the story of a boy who controls time and has a run-in with some rogue monsters along the way.
“Ghost Guys,” created by Andrew Kluth-Clark and Demarr Harslan, is a comedy/horror flick in which a senior ghost explains the ins and outs of ghosthood to a young ghost.
“The Battle of Water and Wisdom” relates a terrifying journey – as envisioned by Melissa Roberts, Rainey Scott, Cody Kuchler and Saige Hanson-Fogarty – to rid an evil queen of her kingdom.
“The Uprising,” the work of Caleb Gerst, Chris Atchison and Taylor Gretz, shows kids taking over the world.
Students devise the plots, create the characters, plot the action and film scenes.
The Liberty School, founded seven years ago by Joyce Bilgrave, has an enrollment of 24. The student body, ages 8 to 13, is made up of students who are dyslexic, mentally gifted or, as the school says, twice exceptional – gifted and dyslexic.
The student-written movies run for 10 to 15 minutes. Some have re-enactments of scenes from “Monte Python and the Holy Grail,” “Jurassic Park” and “Nacho Libre.”
The students will make their artistic creations available to the public at 6 p.m. Thursday at Grace Church, 1440 Florida Road.
Students devise the plots, plan the action and write the dialogues. Teachers are cast as villains and expendable characters.
Katie Cashette is the queen who is deposed in “The Battle of Water and Wisdom.” Holmen is a teacher who gets tranquilized in “The Uprising” and is an executioner who is thrown out of a window in “The Battle of Water and Wisdom.”
“This is my first year making films, but I love it,” said Sam Atchison, who is the boy who stops time in “Time Warp,” an action that saves his friend from an attacking vampire. “No one stops you from letting your mind run wild.”
Sam wouldn’t divulge the denouement.
“You have to go to the festival,” he said.
Melissa found the teamwork with her three classmates satisfying.
“I like the interaction with others and learning about their personalities,” Melissa said. “I’d like to make more films.”
daler@durangoherald.com
if you go
Students at The Liberty School will show their films at 6 p.m. Thursday at Grace Church, 1440 Florida Road. For more information call, 385-4834.
