Two student filmmakers tackle Asperger's By Rebecca Packard Award-winning films submitted to the second annual East End Student Film Festival were screened at the Greenport Theatre on Saturday night. The 17 finalists (out of 40 entrants) employed a variety of styles and techniques to engage and educate audience members. Animated films dominated the competition, taking all three prizes in the high school division and two of three prizes in the college division. Understanding disabilities also was a recurring theme. Two of the top-ranked high school films addressed what it's like to have Asperger's Syndrome, and the film that inspired one of the most enthusiastic audience responses, "Day on Wheels," was about insensitivity to those in wheelchairs. Leonardo De Luzio, a summer resident of Cutchogue, won first place in the high school division for his Japanese-style animated film "What Makes a Wolf." The film is about a shepherd who gets carried away in protecting his sheep from wolves. "The wolves cease to be the threat after he starts exerting his power over them," said Mr. De Luzio. "He becomes the wolf and realizes what it means to be the wolf, to be the threat, and the wolves are shown for what they really are: the sheep." Mr. De Luzio said there are animation classes at his high school, Cranston (R.I.) East. But this particular film was made through a Rhode Island School of Design pre-college program. He intends to study animation in college. Like the second-place high school winner, Alex Olinkiewicz of Shelter Island, Mr. De Luzio has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism that often goes undetected by the untrained eye. He said his film is an allegory for feeling threatened socially. Mr. Olinkiewicz's film, "In My Mind," deals with Asperger's directly. He talks about what it's like to have the disorder, interspersing shots of his explaining his point of view with cartoon images that illustrate his ideas. In the film, he addresses the camera directly about his hope that more people will understand what it's like to have Asperger's, and he says that if there were an antidote for Asperger's, he wouldn't take it because it's part of who he is. "Sometimes it's hard for me to explain things to people," said Mr. Olinkiewicz. "So sometimes I have to explain things in visual forms." Mr. Olinkiewicz said he taught himself how to do animation, and he's happy with the response to his work. He posted "In My Mind" on YouTube six months ago and has gotten over 700,000 hits, he said. The third-place winners of the high school division also taught themselves new techniques for their film "Puzzled." The film uses animation and a green screen to tell the story of a youth who is literally absorbed by his hobby. The filmmakers, Mike Ferris and Brian Romanelli, are Mattituck High School students who've taken film production classes at their school, but green screen instruction wasn't available until after they mastered the technique in their own makeshift way. Another of their current projects is a documentary about the Mattituck Lions Club's annual Strawberry Festival. The first-place winners in the college division were Daniel Ramirez and Rob Ludacer, students of Savannah (Ga.) College of Art & amp; Design, for "Pigpen," a film featuring robots. Nora Brisotti, who attends New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, won second place for her animated film "Girl vs. Giant Monster." And Kelly Goeller, also a student at Tisch, won third place for "Castles Made of Sand," a film about a young girl coping with a family move. Other notable entries included a well-received film with Lego characters called "Jim Bob's Big Mis-Adventure" by James Newman of Aquebogue, a documentary about the Montauk surfing scene by Roger Elliot, who attends Ross School in East Hampton, and "Race Skizm," a documentary about the repercussions of a high school student's act of vandalism against the Shinneock Indian Tribe, by Jason Pollak, also of Ross School. A grant from Hudson City Savings Bank enabled the film festival to purchase a new digital projector this year. Other major sponsors include Cablevision, the Greenport Theatre, Tax Reduction Services, and Times/Review Newspapers. Refreshments were provided by Aldo's, Bruce's Cheese Emporium, Chowder Pot Pub, Claudio's Restaurant, D'Latte, Harbourfront Deli, the Rhumbline and Salamander's. Greenport Mayor David Nyce and Troy Gustavson of Times/Review Newspapers presented certificates and prizes to the finalists and winners, and John Williams, one of the contest judges, served as master of ceremonies. Looking ahead, The East End Student Film Festival committee hopes to make film instruction and mentoring available to more students through an after-school pilot program in Greenport beginning next year.
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