Of the 130 film entries, 75 percent were submitted by homeschoolers: parents, children, or entire families together. First-time filmmakers competed with thouse who had been in the industry for many years. Thirty-eight semi-finalists were chosen in four main categories ...
This comment, though, caught my attention:
The youngest filmmaker, homeschooled Caleb McLeod Young, conceived the idea for his film, based on the book Christ in the Camp, when he was nine years old. With the encouragement of his family and the help of his homeschool history club, he made his five-minute film for $80. When the director of Time Changer, Rich Christiano, came to the podium to give a short speech, he pretended to take a call on his cell phone. "What, Lord?" he asked. "You want me to tell the folks you're more pleased with the nine-year-old who made Christ in the Camp than you are with Steven Spielberg?" The theater erupted in appreciative applause.
Caleb of course is my own son; the club is "Homeschoolers Unfolding History", a chapter of the N.C. History Museum's "Tarheel Junior Historians" organization, sponsored locally by the Public Library of Smithfield and Johnston County. The video was one of the 38 semi-finalists and was included in the "Best of Festival" DVD set.
Not being the youngest, perhaps, and having many worthy competitors in the young filmmakers category, my older son, John Calvin, has not attracted the same attention as Caleb. However, his HUH project, Independence Bound, was also honored as a semi-finalist and included on the "Best of" release, and both films are well-made, full costume presentations -- filmed at several historic locations around eastern North Carolina.
Dad's proud of both of them, of the Homeschoolers Unfolding History, and of Elaine Foreman, their sponsor at the library. Not to mention the regiment of mothers who sewed a closet full of Colonial garb (no coincidence that both of this year's productions are Revolutionary era, too).
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