It was an amazing summer of creativity at The Picture House Pelham and The Picture House Bronxville! We kicked off the summer camp season with our Documentary Intensive for High School Students at our location in Bronxville. This camp is a unique experience that combines documentary filmmaking, public service, and building professional skills for future college and job applications. Under the instruction of Jamal Pedro, students worked collaboratively as a small film crew, learning by doing, as they filmed at our theaters and on location throughout New Rochelle. They created a short documentary for a youth justice initiative called Opportunity Youth Part, using newfound filmmaking skills and interview techniques, while providing OYP with a new video to showcase their vital services.

We continued our camp season with Green Screen Camp for middle school students at our Bronxville location. The campers were already in a Halloween mood and used green screen technology to write, act, and direct three original, scary short films. Kids had a blast learning about green screen techniques from the industry insiders at Shake the Tree Productions, who partnered with us to bring the quality of a professional film set to our space in Bronxville.

In Pelham, students in our Page to Screen program for K–5 spent the first week of camp creating an original script inspired by the children’s book No Pirates Allowed, Said Library Lou. Students created new characters and story arcs, worked on pre-production elements like props and costumes, and scouted locations in and around the theater for filming, which took place during the second week. Filming was a whirlwind of painting set pieces, putting together costumes, learning lines, acting, filming, directing, and learning what it takes to create an original film together. The film was shot in black and white, and with the post-production skills of our fabulous instructors James and Lydia, we can’t wait to see the final product!

And we won’t have to wait long…

We have two exciting, free events at our theaters on Saturday, September 24: Family Day in Bronxville and the Student Film Showcase in Pelham. Join us for Family Day with a free filmmaking activity for kids in grades K-5 at our Bronxville location on Saturday morning, followed by a short film program highlighting some of our best student work, as well as professional short films from around the world. This is an excellent opportunity to introduce your kids to the art of filmmaking and the wide world of short films for kids of all ages. We’ll continue to highlight our student work later that day at our theater in Pelham as we host our annual Student Film Showcase, complete with a red carpet and step and repeat for the stars of the show. This showcase will feature student work made over the last year, including films from our summer camps, February Break camp, Spring Break camp, and work from students at Girls Inc. of Westchester and the Boys and Girls Clubs in New Rochelle. You can find more details about these events here: Family Day and Student Film Showcase.

Thank you to all of our students for sharing your imaginations with us, to our amazing instructors, and to our Picture House parents for trusting us to inspire the next generation of filmmakers and film lovers — we’ll see you at the movies!