“What you don’t address can haunt you”: Henderson students win best screenplay award at Charlotte horror film festival – Salisbury Post

SALISBURY – Henderson Independent School students found a creative outlet through an Art & Soul Rowan partnership and were recognized for their work at a Charlotte film festival.

The Mad Monster Film Festival came to an end last month and when the dust settled, a group of young filmmakers from the Salisbury-based school won best screenplay for their film The Horror of Trauma.

“The slogan is, ‘What you don’t address can haunt you,'” said Shane Manier, a creative coach, visual artist and trauma-informed care instructor who, among other things, serves as a spoken word and art instructor at Henderson.

“We work with the school throughout the year and run a poetry and art program where we work with the students. “It’s essentially about poetry and art mixed with personal development,” said Manier. “Through artistic expression, we explore identity, rewriting the narrative of your trauma, through critical thinking, anger management, conflict resolution, and social-emotional learning…The arts are a vehicle for them to explore these things.”

When Manier and her students embarked on this creative journey of discovery, the idea of ​​submitting the film to a film festival was completely out of the question. Back then it was all about finding creative outlets.

“So we decided to make a movie … and I thought, ‘How about a horror movie?'” Manier said. “The whole class said ‘yes’.”

Manner pointed out that it was an all-hands-on-deck effort.

“We all helped write the script,” Manier said. “We all helped direct the film, the effects, everything.”

Manner said they had to shoot everything in the school.

“We ended up only having four weeks, an hour a week, and if you look at how long we were laughing and trying to get the shot, we actually only had about 30 minutes to shoot. for about four weeks,” Manier said. “We didn’t have much time at all. We had no budget, a crappy Rebel Canon camera and lots of sugar. And it just turned out so good, so funny, but also effective.”

What Manier witnessed with the students turned out to be remarkable.

“It was so much fun and it was so great to see students who didn’t really get along cheering each other on, which was really great,” Manier said.

So now they’ve had a movie, but what happens next?

Mad Monster is a horror convention in Charlotte that Manner has attended in the past. The convention has a film festival element and after some encouragement they decided to submit “Horror of Trauma.”

The students received tickets to the festival and were able to participate through collaboration with the Nazareth Children’s Home. Manier said they met some celebrities who were there and, among other things, attended a film forum at the convention.

Then came the awards. Of 27 films with five awards up for grabs, “Horror of Trauma” won the award for best screenplay. Manier said the support that has followed has been incredible.

“All the filmmakers have been so supportive,” she said. “The love they showed these students while they were there was just so beautiful. They were very committed. A lot of people came by to see the film during the festival and it was really cool for them to see that the world really appreciates us. These people don’t know us at all. They don’t know our history and thought that our creation was not only good enough to be at the festival, but also that people would come to it and then win an award.”

Manier pointed out that Henderson was a great partner.

“They gave us great, great support,” Manier said. “With this film, the principal was trying to reach out to the other students who are no longer at the school because they had to go back to their other schools, trying to get in touch with them so they could come to the festival and all that .”

Manier mentioned that the value the entire exercise brings to students at Henderson cannot be overstated.

“It completely changes the course of their lives and goes several levels deep,” Manier said. “So the first level is self-expression and exploration. If you have been told all these years that you are a bad child, you have abandonment issues and trauma.

“You’re in and out of the facilities when someone comes along and gives you tools to be able to process these difficult emotions without it being triggering and it’s like a way to express your body through art and poetry regulate; It’s just a big relief for them.”

Manier explained that in addition to the cathartic aspect, there is also a discovery aspect for the children, “where they say, ‘Oh wait, the way I see myself, that’s actually not me, these are my past experiences.'” Me I think that’s what the world told me and I don’t have to admit it to myself.”

Manier said this leads to a sense of ownership and the “ability to change the narrative of their story and really have agency in their own decisions” and “how they want their future to be.”

However, the benefits don’t stop there.

“They’re building new neural pathways in the brain because art and creativity do that, and we’re talking about how teenagers react, operating in a body that explodes when triggered. What the arts do is create new neural pathways that can take a break; You can do something other than lash out or explode. And so there’s really cool neuroscience in the brain too.”

This way their grades improve and they no longer get into trouble.

“We have had great success with the program,” Manier said. “We have already seen young people leave gangs and become successful. And I mean, it was great.”

Manier pointed out that success looks different for every student, whether they graduate or return to their original school.

“If they are allowed to return to their home school, that is a huge success,” Manier said, because it means the students’ behavioral problems have healed to the point where they can attend public school.

The success stories Manier has witnessed all look a little different, but as she said, each one deserves its own distinction. What lies ahead is unclear, but for now, Manier said she’s just excited about the next project.