REEL Stories Premiere @ SLFS's Tower Theatre

Spy Hop Productions Presents :: REEL Stories Premiere
8 Short non-fiction films by Salt Lake City high school students
www.spyhop.org

This year, eight high school students completed the REEL Stories program, and chose a curiously wide and impressive range of subject material:

The Marble Lady
by Anna Berbert

Theater Camp
by Adriana Martinez

A junior at Cottonwood High School, Adriana enjoys watching movies, collecting thoughts in a notebook, and listening to music. Adriana participates in yearbook and choir, and enjoys finding ways to check her email on the school server. After graduation, she wishes to attend the Art Institute of Portland to pursue a career in filmmaking.

17 Reasons to Live
by Jordan Brockman

Jordan is 17 years old and attends The Academy for Math Engineering and Science. Jordan wishes to one day attend film school and become a world-renowned director. He enjoys watching movies and making people laugh. He has enjoyed his time in Reel Stories because, “It gave me more experience in film making than I ever could have had otherwise.”

Let It Be
by Sam Highsmith

Samantha is 16 and attends Judge Memorial Catholic High School. She is involved in the drama program at her school as well as the literary magazine. She enjoys music, the outdoors, and just having an all around good time. Sam one day hopes to attend school in the Northwest or East coast and study photography and cinematography, then to one day join the Peace Corps.

The Ladies: An Attempt to Communicate
by Bryce Riley

Bryce is 16 years old and is currently attending Cottonwood High School. He has been taking karate for more than ten years, and is in his school's pep band. In his spare time, Bryce likes to play Rock Band and watch silly Internet videos. He hates the sun.

Brittany’s Story
by Russell Williams

Russell is a 17-year-old student at Lone Peak High School in Highland, where he is on the football team. He has a black belt in karate and enjoys spending hours upon hours every day playing video games. After high school, he wants to serve a LDS mission, attend Brigham Young University, and become a film producer.

Pressure
by Renzo Miera

Renzo is 17 years old and attends Highland High School. Renzo participates in many school-based activities such as being in the school orchestra for the last eight years playing the viola. He hopes to attend the University of Utah after two years at Salt Lake Community College. Renzo aspires to become a film or music producer.

Red.
by Brooke Runyan

Brooke is a junior at Taylorsville High School and is involved in her school's newspaper. Her father passed away when she was twelve years old and she has lived in Utah all sixteen years of her life. In her free time Brooke enjoys writing poetry and hopes to one day publish her own book. She is terrified of turtles.

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In early April, Sundance Film Festival Senior Programmer Trevor Groth and 10 filmmakers, including former Spy Hop assistant instructor, Jesse E. Epstein (Wet Dreams And False Images), Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (2008 Sundance Film Festival Shorts Jury Winner), and Destin Cretton (2009 Sundance Film Festival Shorts Jury Winner), held a workshop at Spy Hop Productions and spoke to a majority of this year's students, listened to their story pitches, and helped them continue to mold their film concepts.

This premiere gives each of the student filmmakers a chance to share their stories—ranging from serious and contemplative to funny and humorous—with the local community via the big screen.  Films from past workshops have gone on to screen on HBO Family, the MNN Youth Channel National Series and PBS’ online youth media initiative “Listen Up!”, as well as at numerous film festivals including the Museum of Television and Radio Docu-Jam, the MNN Youth Channel National Series and the IFP Los Angeles Film Festival.

About REEL Stories

REEL Stories is an intensive Documentary Arts Program at Spy Hop Productions that gives Utah high school students the opportunity to work with some of the country’s best non-fiction filmmakers.  Each participant comes out of the program having created a 5-minute, non-fiction short on the subject of their choosing.  Past pieces have explored issues such a male body image, mental illness, the meaning of femininity, and the process of coming of age in different cultures.  All the REEL Stories shorts premiere free to the public upon completion.  The REEL Stories Premiere provides a wonderful opportunity to see the talent and creativity alive in our local youth community.  All films are produced in the LS Peery Studio at Spy Hop Productions.

REEL Stories is made possible thanks to the generous financial support from Zoo, Arts & Parks of Salt Lake County, Anonymous, Adobe Youth Voices, National Endowment for the Arts, George and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, Hot Topic Foundation, Salt Lake County Substance Abuse Prevention Services, Hemingway Foundation, B.W. Bastian Foundation, and US Bancorps Foundation.  In-kind support provided by Salt Lake Film Society and Sundance Institute.

For more information, please call John Boyack at (801) 532-7500 or john@spyhop.org.