On Fri. April 4, the French and Spanish classes attended the University of Central Missouri Modern Languages Film Festival. To be eligible to compete for awards, films needed to be fully in their category’s language, and be entirely student written, directed and acted. Spanish teacher Karen Detrixhe spoke about the process of creating a film entirely during class time.
“UCM provides a list of resources on how to write, act in and record short films that the students watched for movie-making insights. Students thought of and created a storyline in Spanish and then filled in the details with lots of writing and peer editing. The filming was completed quickly around the school and edited with music, sound effects and subtitled into English for anyone to watch,” said Detrixhe.
Detrixhe’s Spanish V class participated in the festival with their film, “¿Dónde está la profe?” which translates to “Where is the teacher?” This was a comedic story that followed a Spanish teacher that is missing at school, and the class searches for her by interviewing several staff members.
On the heels of their 3rd place finish in the mystery category in 2024, for their film “Le Mafia,” the combined French III/IV class film took more of a whimsical approach. Teacher Will Schowalter described the plot of their film “Contes Sinistres,” which translates to “Sinister Tales.”
“It’s a collection of traditional fairy tales, but for each one they put a spooky twist on it. So it’s a story of these two kids that find this old book and they start reading it and they’re shocked and horrified by the dark twists on each of them. It’s a fun, creepy version of these fairy tales,” said Schowalter.
The French classes followed a similar creative process to the Spanish students. The script writing process began at the end of the first semester, filming wrapped in February and the film was completed after being edited by junior Caitlin Bangs.
On the day of the festival, both classes, along with Randy Enright’s Spanish II class, travelled to Warrensburg, Missouri to spend the day on the UCM campus. Caitlin Bangs described her experience at the festival.
“When we first got there, we went to a hall where we could watch anyone’s film, no matter what language it is. Then, you can either do a scavenger hunt, a campus tour, or trivia—we did trivia, and then we walked down to the auditorium where they gave out awards,” Bangs said.
At the end of the day, the closing ceremony and awards showcase was held. Enright’s Spanish II class earned third place in the Spanish category.
“It’s a really great way for kids to use their language with kids from other schools, and to use their language for something tangible. It’s really awesome,” Schowalter said.
