Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School students' work selected for New York Film and TV Festival

NEW YORK, July 24, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The New York Film and TV Festival recently announced it has selected "A Tax Dollar More," to be screened at its 2017 annual event. The film was shot, edited, written, directed and produced by two Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School media art students, Danielle Bain and Aidan Karstadt.

"This film was up against hundreds of films created by students and professionals, and was one of the few selected to be featured," New York Film and TV Festival officials wrote to the school, which submitted the film on the students' behalf.

While both students are honored their work has received accolades, they are more interested in having the issue they addressed catapulted into the limelight. The announcement comes at a time when the state legislature is once again debating charter school reform.

"I feel like the biggest is not the festival, but the impact the film can have on charter law," Bain said. "It also meant a lot that the politician we interviewed took us seriously."

"This is one of the bigger festivals we submitted to, so we were surprised. It's in New York and all, so it's cool," Karstadt said.

"Danielle approached Mr. Cageo and I in the fall of 2015 with the idea to make a documentary about charter schools," he said. "I don't think any of us knew it would be this big endeavor…the ball just started rolling and it started to grow and more people wanted to be interviewed."

Under the guidance of artist in residence Zac Cageo, Bain wrote, directed, and produced the 19-minute film and Aidan shot and edited it. The film also includes an original score by LPPACS Artistic Director, Todd Goodman. 

"It's a great honor, although I'm not surprised these two, incredibly creative and talented students were selected," Cageo said. "It's a testimony to the school's approach to nurturing and guiding budding artists."

Focusing on the students of LPPACS and the political challenges they face as part of today's charter school movement, the 19-minute film also featured an interview with former state Senator Jeff Piccola, who championed the original 1997 Charter School Law.

Both students say they love their experience at LPPACS, and immersed themselves in the documentary-making process, which turned out – as Karstadt put it – to be "an organic process that let the people we interviewed tell the story."

"I just never had a good school experience before going to Lincoln Park," Bain said. "Lincoln Park gave me so much more than comfort, it gave me people who take us seriously, state-of-the-art equipment, a chance to declare a major, more than I could get in my district school."

"At the time we started, I was overwhelmed, but then I got really into it and took it as a way – even if it's a small piece – to make a difference," Bain said.

"The thing I found most interesting when editing (I watched this film over 100 times now) was that I related," Karstadt said. "Charter schools are very important because the people in them think the same and respect what others are crafting. Just socially, Lincoln Park has a lot of what the real world has to offer both academically and through the arts. I feel very prepared to go off to college in 2018."

Karstadt will enter his senior year at LPPACS in the fall.

"I'm already looking into film schools," he said. "This is definitely a passion."

He is interested in attending University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem or DePaul University in Chicago.

Bain, now a graduate, will attend Point Park University in Pittsburgh as a cinema production major, and hopes to double major in screen writing as her higher education progresses.

The Screenwriter Awards Ceremony and Afterparty will be held at Videology in Brooklyn on July 24. "A Tax Dollar More" will be screened on July 25 at the same venue. The festival also will screen selected feature films, short films, screenplays, teleplays, web series and music videos.

The Shot for Shot Student Film Festival at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh also selected "A Tax Dollar More" for its event last spring. It was the first film produced by high school students to ever receive the honor.

Contact: Christina Zarek
[email protected] 
(717) 805-2337

SOURCE Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School