Moving Image Exploration:
Highlights from Aurora’s Education Programs
Saturday, February 6, 11AM
Free Admission
New visions and young voices from all over Houston will be showcased in this free screening. This selection features videos created in hospitals, schools and community centers with the help of Aurora’s professional media makers and celebrates the creativity of the kids in our community. Young filmmakers and teachers from our Education programs will be present to discuss their projects and present these imaginative and energetic works.
The program includes the following selections:
In collaboration with Ian Cion at MD Anderson's Arts in Medicine Program, Aurora has been using the process of video making in the hospital setting as a treatment tool for helping patients overcome anxiety, pain, and many of the sufferings associated with Cancer Treatment. By inviting patients to collaborate in the ongoing storytelling process, the story was then told and created to engage patients and their families in a large-scale ongoing narrative work of art.
Star Guides (5:00min)
In the distance, rising above even the cloud forest of Trankilos, sit the Aura Mountains, the tallest peak of which is called Mount Meru. In the distance mountains loom. A mysterious wise people are rumored to dwell there. From that height, they view the balance of the world around them and beyond to the great dragon. Our world is simply one of the many scales of this dragon's skin, an armored skin of thousands of worlds.
Instructors:
Camilo Gonzalez
Sharad Patel
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During a semester-long residency at Reynolds Elementary (HISD), artists Dave Merson Hess and Tomas Feijo taught an after-school animation class and helped 3rd, 4th & 5th graders produce seven short films. The class focused on hand-drawn animation on paper, stop-motion with paper cut-outs, shooting with iMotion for iOS, and beginning music production & beatmaking with Hydrogen, iOS apps Figure, Take, and Loopy, a xylophone and a ukulele. This project was made possible through a partnership with Young Audiences of Houston.
The KD Documentary (1:30 min)
4th and 5th graders Corey, Hezekiah, Jaevin and Jonathan discuss the life and basketball career of their hero, Oklahoma City Thunder star, Kevin Durant, and reveal why he inspires them. With original music by their classmates, Jaulavia, Daesha, and Diamond.
Guitar Man (1:40 min)
Jaulavia, a girl in the 3rd grade, discusses the things that are most important to her: drawing, music, and her family. With original music by the director herself.
Birdman Begins(4:00 min)
Based on the character created by Cedrianna (writer-animator of "Birdman In Prison" ), and written and animated by her classmate, Barry.
Instructors:
Dave Merson Hess
Tomas Feijo
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Over the course of eight workshops held in the clinic and at Aurora Picture Show, children and long term survivors worked with the artists and volunteers from The Periwinkle Foundation to create this film. The patients recorded voice over stories of their dreams and the long term survivors recreated them using all sorts of video techniques. Each year, The Periwinkle Foundation invites a signature artist to work with the children in the Cancer and Hematology Centers of Texas Children's Hospital on an art project in their area of expertise.
I Dream (10:00 min)
What happens when your most wildest stories come alive?
Instructor:
Camilo Gonzalez
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With a group of animators, Aurora visits the Carol Herron at the Cancer and Hematology Center of Texas Children's Hospital to teach and make stop motion films with the patients and their families. Each of the participants gets to make and direct short animations using crafts and their imagination. Each of the films is screened instantly as they share and watch their films on the big screen. This Program is supported by The Periwinkle Foundation.
Stop Motion Workshop at TCH (1:00 min)
Can you make a film in less than 20 minutes? Of course you can!
Instructors:
Ceci Norman
Jacinta Molina
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In this after school animation project, 4th grade students explore memories of their families - parents, siblings, cousins, and pets - that have helped shape who they are today. During the semester, the class began with a writing workshop to brainstorm ideas for the individual narratives they wanted to share. Then students recreated these memories with hand drawn illustrations, collage, voiceover, and After Effects animation. This residency took place at Woodview Elementary (Spring Branch ISD) during a semester long project exploring their idea of memory and what role it plays on their lives. This program was made possible through a partnership with Young Audience of Houston.
Dia de la Memoria (3:30 min)
What is memory made out of? How do we construct it? Students also experimented with digital cameras to capture playtime and fun with friends on this imaginative day of remembrance
Instructors:
Laura Fletcher
Matt Prendergast
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Films from Aurora's filmmaking camps films, where students are immersed in a week long process and learn how to make a movie from scratch with the help of professional filmmakers. Topics include story structures and writing, direction, camera operation, sound and editing.
NANA (4:00 min)
A documentary interview with an elderly banana ends too soon.
By: Julia Griffin, Lili Lazar-Pope, Veronica Mendez
Forbidden Fruit (1:30 min)
A passionate love story between a red and green grape ends tragically when they reunite in a blender.
By: Mignon Perque, Chloe Evered, Kendall Pierson
Pong2 (1:30 min)
A stop motion where a pong game doesn't play out like it should.
By: Ian McDaniel, Joseph Orr, Andrew Lu
Elephant in the Room (1:30 min)
Stuck on an awful date? Suffer no more!
By: Julia Griffin, Lucy Griffin and Ella Richardson
Instructors:
Kelly Quarles
Sharad Patel
Dave Merson Hess
Ceci Norman
Dana Suleymanova