SUNY New Paltz student, UlsterCorps Volunteer Youth Mentor Organizes Film Festival for Budding Filmmakers
Stone Ridge, NY (March 26, 2010) – Chris Nostrand, SUNY New Paltz student and aspiring filmmaker, is being recognized by UlsterCorps for his commitment to building community through his newly created Nearly Famous Film Festival. His story demonstrates how innovative new ideas are realized through collaborative community networking.
Chris explains how the festival idea came about while he was an UlsterCorps student volunteer: “While participating in UlsterCorps’ Harvesting a Lifetime summer project I had the opportunity to do what I love to do, which is make movies. At the same time, I was able to grow and acquire new skills like interviewing, teaching, mentoring, and working along side professional people which are all valuable tools to have in my field. After Harvesting, I officially started my tv/radio production major program at SUNY New Paltz. And I could not believe it when my first assignment in my media research class was to interview a senior! Since that’s what I did all summer long, I was confident and got an A!
“Lou Spina of Second Chance 4 Me was providing the facilities for the Harvesting program. One evening, I spoke to Lou about submitting my work to a film festival, but they were always too expensive. So, I thought I’d make my own festival which could be affordable to everyone. Lou already had the idea on “his shelf” so I knocked it off and rolled with it.”
Lou Spina adds, “When we first met Beth and Ilene from UlsterCorps last summer, our business was only in existence for 2 months. Your Harvesting a Lifetime project immediately captured my heart on two notes. As a retired teacher my focus is still helping young people find their path in life. Our business is named Second Chance 4 Me and that is for a reason. The second note is our seniors…. because our seasoned veterans have an enormous wealth of knowledge and history to share and who better to share it with then our youth. The essence of who we are at SC4M and our mission is to help others. We hope to bridge the world of profit and non-profit in our businesses concepts, and delighted to be part of the Nearly Famous Festival.”
Melissa Hewitt, Art Director for VISITvortex, the video-based website about the Ulster community says, “I met Chris last summer while doing some work with UlsterCorps and Harvesting A Lifetime. Since then Chris shoots and edits many of our community videos and he’s just great to work with. We were so glad that he started the Almost Famous Film Festival, we submitted a simple video about Making Maple Syrup. That one might not make us famous, but it might make us Nearly Famous! We will be doing a video feature about the upcoming Hunger Banquet and are so glad to be working with so many amazing people that are also working to make our community a better place to live.”
The Nearly Famous Film Festival is scheduled for Friday. April 9, 2010, 7:30 pm, at Seven21 Media Center, 721 Broadway, Kingston. Volunteers are still needed. More information is available on the UlsterCorps website, www.ulstercorps.org, or contact Chris Nostrand directly at: Nostrandproductions@gmail.com
UlsterCorps, created in early 2009, is a countywide resource, working with community service agencies to encourage the use of volunteers, facilitate successful volunteer placements, and nurture collaborations among service organizations throughout Ulster County.
Contact:
Beth McLendon
845-481-0331
beth@ulstercorps.org
www.ulstercorps.org
