LAFAYETTE!

Last week zipped by. You know you're invested when you wake up at 4 a.m. obsessing. Or you walk into a tree. That's how the Founding Folks Film Festival has been for me. I've spent so much time planning and being in the moment that I'm relieved to take a few beats to reflect.

The kids are into it. I got to show some of my very favorite films, trailers and shorts - allowing them to look at some new films (a clip from Amelie) and ones they've already seen (Up, The Muppets) but using a new set of eyes. Film is a language of its own. I love to hit this point home, because for so many of us, movies are considered an escape or a guilty pleasure. But kids are learning that film is also the epitome of "show, don't tell," which we talk about with our writing, and that a script looks different from a story for several important reasons. So last week was about introducing these concepts.

After watching film with a critical eye toward elements of narrative and getting a base-level grasp on script format, this week students were introduced (hilariously, I thought) to the biggest, brightest characters to come out of the Revolutionary War. Each teacher and myself had a chance to pitch our war heroes to the crowd, while students took notes as to who they might want to follow up on. We tried to cover not only the big names (Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Jefferson) but also some of the lesser known ones - did any of you know that Sybil Ludington rode her horse Star twice as far as Paul Revere to warn about the coming of the British troops? And she was only 16 at the time! Why doesn't she enjoy the same mythology as Revere does?  Hmmmm.....

As kids will be researching with seed stories in mind, today I will play some clips from the musical Hamilton, which does a brilliant job of magically turning historical facts into irresistible tales. Once again, Lafayette will blast-rap his way into infamy, with yet another brand new audience.