Hammel’s Sonnet 56 screened at .EDU Film Festival

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Mimi Geller, Arts and Entertainment Editor

The EDU Film Festival is an annual event with the goal to bring together filmmakers from Minnesota and showcase examples of excellent films created by high school students. This year, the 2016 selection team chose senior Ora Hammel’s film: Sonnet 56. Hammel’s inspiration for the film came from her Classics in Society English class taught by US English teacher Kathryn Campbell. The film was Hammel’s final project.

“We were assigned to make a short video using one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Many sonnets are already on YouTube. Our class gained ideas and inspiration from viewing others sonnet videos. In general, I got super excited about the project,” Hammel said. 

I’d encourage you [students] to watch my film to realize that everyone at SPA has the potential to make films with the resources they have right now.

— senior Ora Hammel

Hammel doesn’t regard herself as a filmmaker; however, her experience with photography helped her in the making of Sonnet 56.

“My main focus of media over my high school years has been photography. However, I’ve always loved movies and short films and think there’s a lot of overlapping between photography and film,” Hammel said.

While approaching her assignment, Hammel planned on using a different sonnet, however she said that the snow outside inspired her to use a sonnet that mentioned snow. Hammel then formed a new plot around the weather. On the .EDU Film Festival’s website, Sonnet 56 is described as follows: A married man apart from his wife, due to geography, longs for the past as he speaks William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 56.”

Hammel encourages SPA students to watch her film to understand that a great film doesn’t require expensive equipment.

“I’d encourage you [students] to watch my film to realize that everyone at SPA has the potential to make films with the resources they have right now. You don’t need five thousand dollar video cameras to create a piece of work. I’ve never been a contestant in SPA’s student film competition but think it’s a great way to motivate students to create films because they’re given the opportunity to show them,” Hammel said.

The .EDU Film Festival took place on May 13 at Showplace ICON Theatre in St. Loius Park. Check out the .EDU Film Festival’s website at http://www.edufilmfest.org/.