It all started back in early March when Tom Flint asked a group of 16 students at Lincoln Sudbury (LS) Regional High School what popped into their minds when they heard the word “belonging.”
A group of rugby players found themselves thinking of a team huddling together before a match. Others described it as more of a feeling. In the span of just two and a half months, these students ultimately collaborated in a workshop run by Flint’s organization Filmbuilding to dive much deeper into what belonging truly means—and to make three short films about it.
The LS workshop was first conceived when David Grace, EMA’s Director of Educational Programs and a history teacher at LS, was approached by his colleague Lori Houghton. While working with the Racial Climate Task Force in Massachusetts, Houghton mentioned to Grace that she saw a need for students to tell their stories. As part of a long-running voluntary school desegregation program run by the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), the LS population includes students from Lincoln, Sudbury, and communities in Boston. Houghton envisioned that giving these students who came to LS from a variety of different communities the chance to tell their stories could help them build connections with one another. Grace immediately recognized the potential for EMA partner Filmbuilding to fulfill that goal.
After more than two months of learning and filmmaking, the end result of the Filmbuilding workshop was a pair of film showcases for the community: at LS on May 22nd and at Roxbury Community College in Boston on June 5th. Each event included a screening of the three films the students had made as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary about their process titled Belong-In made by Moses Sibley, an award-winning young filmmaker and rising junior at LS. Both screening showcases were followed by a Q&A with the student filmmakers, during which much of the emphasis was on how each individual grew while working with their peers.
“The process oftentimes in art education tends to be overlooked," said Flint. "I think film, particularly now because it's visual storytelling and exploratory, offers so many opportunities for students to come together, get to know each other, and create something really meaningful.”
Throughout the workshop, relationship-building was a priority, with bonding time and field trips a key part of the schedule. This in-person time was critical, enabling Flint to encourage the students that they had stories worth telling and the capability to do it with the technology in the palm of their hands, with no prior filmmaking experience required.
“With the technology that we have today there is nothing stopping anyone who has a recording device, some great ideas, and some people to do it with from going out there and making a movie. Film is inherently a collaborative form of art.”
Grace was constantly surprised by how the whole team continued to come together and how the students transformed through the process. Some of those who he thought might have had trouble with the project actually thrived with the challenge and rose to the occasion to collaborate across differences.
"Maybe the whole reason why we make movies is just to connect. Whether you have eight people in a Zoom room attending a virtual screening or 300 people in an auditorium at a high school, it's an opportunity to have a common shared experience around the story.”
During one of the post-screening Q&As, one question in particular really made Flint and Grace take a step back. Asking about their process during the workshop, one Boston mother asked the students to respond in this format: “Before Filmbuilding I was…, after Filmbuilding I am…” The responses varied from the literal to the tangential, with one saying “I am an editor” and others remarking “I am proud.” At the end of it all, Grace reflected on what he learned from the students about the meaning of belonging.
“It’s not a thing. It's not a noun, it's a verb. It's something you do, that you have to do, and continually do. The belonging is built through doing, so I guess we need to have a lot more shared experiences and watch a lot more movies.”
