Silent film fest fest pits Shepard teacher’s team against her daughter, but for both it was an ‘amazing experience’ – Daily Southtown

Jodi Pelini, digital media teacher at Alan B. Shepard High School in Palos Heights, has wanted her students to participate in the Student Silent Film Festival since she first heard about it a few years ago. After her team entered this year’s contest, she learned she’d have one more reason to attend: Her daughter was competing as well.

“My mom talked about it at dinner, and I kind of entered it on my own and pitched it to my teachers,” said Bella Pelini, a senior at Victor J. Andrew High School in Tinley Park.

Jodi Pelini said it’s not surprising that her daughter entered the festival.

“My daughter has been going to my students’ film competitions since she was a baby and she even had a few starring roles in several of their projects as a child so I guess it was natural that she would be drawn to becoming a filmmaker herself,” she said. “I don’t think either team went into this process thinking only about winning.”

Rather, both teams “deserve all the accolades that come with seeing their final film on the big screen,” she said.

Though her students Daniella Ramirez Prado and Saidah Diab would be pitted against her daughter in the contest, things never got awkward at home.

“I tried to guide both teams through the whole process,” she said before the event.

“Interestingly enough, they separately came up with similar storylines for their films. I think that their own experience as young female artists is what inspired them to focus on the theme of finding your inner strength to be true to yourself. Their themes were similar, but the way they portrayed that idea in their films was very different.”

She said her daughter sought her opinion after she was done editing her film. “I asked her ‘Do you want to hear the opinion of your mom? Or do you want the truth?’ She ended up reediting the project about three more times. And it was no different with my students. Their rough draft was 10 minutes long and after they reedited it, they got it down to six minutes.”

Bella Pelini agreed there were no awkward moments talking about the festival. “It’s the opposite. We joke about it a lot,” she said before the event. “I think we’re really excited to see where it goes and if one of us wins, what will happen.”

During the festival last week, student filmmakers from 11 Chicago area schools showed their silent films on the big screen at the Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove. They were judged based on the quality of the story narrative, development, lighting, camera work and editing. Each participant received a high-definition digital file of the movie with the accompanying soundtrack.

The event was created in 2017 by Ed Newmann, founder of Calabash Animation; Bill Allan, supervisor of Television Services at Lyons Township High School; and Derek Berg, founder and CEO of Clarendon Hills Music Academy. Berg provided live musical accompaniment.

“I have been teaching for 23 years, but this is the first time that my students will watch their project on a big screen at an actual movie theater for a big audience. And not just any theater,” Jodi Pelini said. “The Tivoli Theatre is unbelievably beautiful and inspiring! Plus to have a professional musician creating music for their movie …. that is an amazing experience for a teenage filmmaker.”

From the time her team registered on Oct. 28, they had six weeks to write the script, storyboard their shots, film it and edit it.

“And we needed every second,” she said. “I estimate that Bella spent 15 hours filming and 20 hours editing, while my Shepard team spent 20 hours filming and 20 hours editing. It was down to the wire, with Saidah and Daniella reediting the film in the last hours before the deadline.”

Her team’s entry was titled “The Art of Waking,” and her daughter’s film was titled “Breaking.” Neither film made it to the top three, but everyone involved thinks the results were fair.

Because Jodi Pelini’s students are just sophomores, “we were not looking to win. They were just excited to be there and to see their film,” she said. “They took advantage of the red carpet affair. Their actors came and their camera crew. They’re already inspired for next year, so we’ll be back.” Read more in the Daily Southtown >>

By Melinda Moore
January 30, 2023