On September 18, ECHS student Guillermo (Memo) Mora won one of three scholarships offered by Ghetto Film School (GFS) at its LA Fellows Screening held at LACMA. At the screening, which was held at LACMA, Memo and the other 2015-2017 GFS LA Fellows showcased outstanding new work and featured ten six-minute, non-dialogue short narrative films, curated by the Fellows themselves. Memo’s film, Hard to Explain, was developed through his involvement with the GFS LA’s Fellows Program, which provides diverse Angeleno teen storytellers with a free, rigorous thirty month pre-professional immersion in cinematic storytelling and production training.
[Photo] Film Screening. Photo Credit: Ghetto Film School
With a love of film that inspired him to start his own Film Club at ECHS, Memo applied to the GFS LA Fellows program to meet more people in the film industry and to make his own film. As a fellow, he took four buses from his home in Lawndale and endured a commute time of one hour and thirty minutes each way to participate in the intensive summer program – yet, for Memo, it was completely worth it, and he says he would do it a billion times again!
[Photo] Screenshots from Hard to Explain
As a GFS LA Fellow, Memo and his cohort wrote, directed, and edited original short films, commercials, and other creative content while studying with top filmmakers and industry experts. Fellows learned the ins-and-outs of filmmaking, with training in script writing, cinematography, lighting, film editing and even casting and talent management training.
“Being on set or behind the camera has always fascinated me. But learning how to write a script was most valuable to me because I learned about the formats, fonts, and transitions in script writing and how important those are in telling a story.”
– Memo Mora, 11th grade student
With the experiential learning and training offered in GFS and through the encouragement of their teachers and peers at ECHS, our students are becoming part of the next generation of great American storytellers!
Watch Memo’s film, Hard to Explain, here:
