Catching Fire: Young filmmaker gets a boost from Firestarter Films.

by Max Ginkel

As part of a Coalition for Jewish Learning project called Young Jewish Filmmakers’ Project, I worked on a film called Home, a documentary about Holocaust survivors and how they lost their homes. It took us two weeks of filming and several months of editing. But once it was finished, we had no idea where to show it to a larger audience.

But over the summer, I read an article in the newspaper about Firestarter Films. Firestarter is a group that invites people from the Milwaukee and Chicago film communities to come and show their work. So I e-mailed the man who runs it, Shawn Monaghan, and submitted Home. He enjoyed it very much and invited me to come show it at their next event.

I was very excited. The event took place on August 15 at the Harley-Davidson Museum, which was an amazing location, right on the river in a beautiful building.

At first I went around introducing myself to people and meeting a lot of very talented people. That was the whole point of the event: networking. Then we all sat down to watch the movies. They showed mostly short films, but there were a few trailers for feature films. They would show three movies, and then there would be a break for fifteen minutes.

Either during the break or while you were watching, you were encouraged to fill out the critique cards, where you wrote what you liked about the film you just saw and what needed work. Also during the break you did more networking. In the middle of the evening they raffled off prizes donated by the various sponsors.

Before they showed Home I went up and said a few words about the film. Afterwards, several people came up with really encouraging words. One person said they thought it was the best film of the night. They also had advice for future projects, which was very helpful, such as how to get money for another documentary I want to do. Everyone was polite and extremely supportive.

At the end they distributed the finished critique cards. These cards were also very helpful. One critique suggested that our audio quality needed work.

It was an amazing night, and I was very glad I had the chance to go. I look forward to future events with Firestarter Films.

Max Ginkel, 15, is a sophomore at WITS and lives in Mequon.