Brunswick Middle School students participate in local film festival

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick Middle School students created a short film titled "Stealing — The Thief" as part of the upcoming Friends4Friends Film Festival. The film festival consists of videos created and performed by middle and high school students that are about risky behaviors that negatively impact young people. Brunswick Middle School is one of seven schools participating in this year's event. Last year's seventh graders did the short film as part of their health class, and teacher Pete Demonte assisted the students on the project. Demonte said prior to the pandemic, the middle school was selected by Operation Keepsake to be a part of the film festival, but this was pushed back until last school year. The students worked together as a group from the brainstorming stage of coming up with a script to the final product, and they decided to focus their video on stealing. "Kids get tempted (to steal) because of socio-economic status and all those kinds of things," he said. "(It's to) try to get kids to understand that that's not what's important in life. What's important is that you're a good person." In the video, the main character steals a pair of jeans in the locker room after she is bullied because of her own clothes, and she faces the consequences of her actions. Demonte said he wants his students to learn a life lesson of how stealing affects others. "It's understanding that there's another side of who you're stealing from," he said. "Maybe they're working really hard just like your family to make ends meet." A project like this shows students that they can teach others, and it helps push kids out of their comfort zone, Demonte said. "You can be taken out of your element a little bit, something that you're not used to, and you can accomplish it." he said. This annual event will be held at the DeYor Performing Arts Center in Youngstown on Thursday, and Demonte will be there as a representative for Brunswick Middle School. The video that receives the most likes on YouTube will win the festival. Yet Demonte said his biggest prize was that his students worked together on a project and created something as a collective. "They stuck with it," he said. "They did a great job and at the end, they're proud of what they put together." Brunswick Middle School's video can be viewed at bit.ly/3Lf3F9y. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.