Contact: Ray Pasciuto
Our eighth-grade class (25 students) worked with award-winning filmmaker Jared Katsiane CFS '79 and drama teacher Arika Cohen, to create a film, "Last Snow" for the Bridge Film Festival. The film "Last Snow" explores how homophobia, manifested through gossip, teasing, and bullying, leads to tragic results. The film was selected for screening at the Festival on April 12 and received the third highest score from the judges, 20 out of 25 points. The project was featured in the fall and winter issues of our newsletter "Connections" and the spring issue of our magazine "Cadbury Courier." This was CFS' first entry in the Bridge Film Festival.

The eighth-graders were asked to complete a questionnaire about their experiences working on the film. One question was, Why is the subject of this film important to you and what do you want the audience to get out of it?

"This is not a story. It’s reality. This is what I want people to learn. This is also why it is important to me."

"This subject is important to me because I am so sick of people making fun of gay people. When homophobic people watch this movie they will see how stupid all the homophobic characters are and maybe it will make them think twice about their feelings toward gays."

"The subject matter is important to me because it is heart-felt. I want the audience to feel for this story."

"It’s important to me because my uncle is gay and he has been discriminated against. The message needs to get out."

"The audience will hopefully get a bit of moral guidance from the film. The issues addressed in it are real-life, important issues that should be addressed."

"There are a lot of gay high school students who get bullied or picked on and I want the audience to acknowledge that."

"I hope that some people will be discouraged from starting rumors after seeing this film."

"This is an important message about being accepting of people who are different from you. This is especially important during adolescence."