This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Changing a City's Image; Reel Youth Hartford Film Festival returns for 2014

If you typed the word “Hartford” into Youtube, what would you find? Maybe a news story on the army raiding the Puerto Rican Day Parade, possibly a fight breaking out on public transportation, or even Dave Chappelle’s harsh words towards the city. At the top however, you will notice a 4 ½ minute video clip titled “What is Hartford”. This video appears noticeably different from the other top hits around it. In contrast to many of the drama filled clips at the top list, this spoken word piece shines through much of the negative aura in the videos surrounding it and highlights one of Hartford’s true assets: its youth.


“What is Hartford” is a brief but stunning example of what youth in Hartford are capable of given the opportunity showcase their skills. As one of many entries into the 2013 Reel Youth Hartford Film Festival this video entertained a crowd of over 150 community members at the legendary Cinestudio this past May. Much like the case with Youtube, the film festival aimed to combat the negative perceptions of the city’s youth and rather celebrate Hartford’s homegrown talent.


The Reel Youth Hartford Film Festival will be coming back in 2014 for its second annual event on April 30th. The festival, in partnership with local high schools and Trinity College, engages Hartford high school and middle school students on many levels including working directly with them teaching them film making & editing skills, showcasing their work for free to the public, and providing numerous prizes to the film makers.

Find out what's happening in Simsburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.


To make all this possible, the Reel Youth Hartford Film Festival has created a Kickstarter to fund the event. The festival is seeking to raise $2000 by 9pm on Friday, January 17th.  Funds raised through the Kickstarter will be used to purchase new filming equipment for student filmmakers as costs of putting on the festival itself. You can visit the Kickstarter at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2113058654/reel-youth-hartford-film-festival-2014.


You can also visit the Reel Youth Hartford Film Festival website for more information regarding the festival at http://www.reelyouthhartford.org .

Find out what's happening in Simsburywith free, real-time updates from Patch.


We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?