President Barack Obama rolled out the red carpet Friday for 15 grade-school students, their films and celebrities at the second annual White House Student Film Festival.
The White House’s East Room transformed into a movie theater to showcase the student-envisioned short films on “The Impact of Giving Back.”
“It’s like the Sundance or Cannes of film festivals that are open to the public through a government website,” Obama said.
Despite the lighthearted exchanges between the president and hosts Kal Penn and Terrence J, the student-created films focused on serious issues such as homelessness and the environment.
Riley Beres, a 17-year-old from San Pedro, Calif., attended the star-studded event with her “sockumentary,” an investigation into homelessness that showcases her own initiative, Socks for Souls Inc. The high-schooler gives out socks to the homeless, which the film describes as a basic necessity.
The American Film Institute chose Beres’ film and 14 others from some 1,500 entries to be honored at the festival, Obama said.
“As these young people are showing us, it’s a message that can be told powerfully through film,” Obama said. “That’s true whether you’re a middle-schooler with a GoPro or a Hollywood director on a custom-made soundstage.”
The other films ranged in subject from clean water on Navajo lands to a hip-hop mix from Chicago high school students that encourages those facing hardship.
Obama also announced a new Call to Arts Initiative to inspire a connection among the media industry, mentors and young artists. The 15 students selected will receive training from media industry mentors in the coming months.
The American Film Institute and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said they’d expand to more students during the next three years as an initiative to complete 1 million mentoring hours, in partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service.
According to the National Mentoring Partnership, students who meet regularly with mentors are more likely to enroll in college and are 52 percent less likely to skip school.
Special guests at the White House on Friday included Steve McQueen, director of the Oscar-winning movie “12 Years a Slave,” and Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank. Swank told the audience she’d grown up without acceptance from her peers because she came from a low-income family. She escaped through the arts – films and books – because they were about being different, she said. Swank encouraged students to pursue things that inspired them and made “their heart pound.”
Last year’s festival brought students together to explore the use of technology in learning, ending with the ConnectedED initiative, a promise from the president to connect 99 percent of students with broadband and wireless over a five-year period.
“If we’re going to make sure that these young people have those opportunities, then we’ve got to do our part to support them,” Obama said. “Because when we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, then we should at least have it in our schools and our libraries, too.”