At Facets’ Film 101 summer camp, the best way to have fun is to work together as a team.

It’s pretty clear that something like soccer is a team sport. You have your goalie, your center back, your sweeper. You have your coach yelling from the sidelines. It’s all pretty straightforward and fits nicely into our understanding of traditional team sports.

But what if we told you filmmaking is also a team sport? Just think about how long the credits roll at the end of your favorite film. You have your director, your cinematographer, your actors. You have your writers, your editors, your sound engineers. You even have your gaffers and best boys. There are so many different people with distinct jobs who must work together to make the film a reality. 

At our Film 101 summer camp for ages 7-14, we use our 45 years of experience in film to create an environment of shared creativity and collaboration where everyone is welcome to participate. After learning about film history, film criticism, and watching classic and independent films from around the world, campers fill every role on the production team to make their very own short film.

“We enjoy film as a family, but the summer camp is cool because film is approached from so many different angles—history, production and skills, but also team building, experimentation, critical thinking and expression.”

^{Andrew, (parent of Hannah, age 10).}

It’s hard to imagine that when we started our summer camps back in 1993, there were almost no film education opportunities for kids and teens in Chicago. But we knew then that by giving kids and teens the tools to become film and media literate, we can prepare them for the media saturated world the live in everyday. Twenty-seven years later, this is still true.

“When we have the right tools and vocabulary to understand and talk about what’s on the screen, we can gain new perspectives about how filmmaking and storytelling impacts our daily lives. For me and our staff of media educators, empowering campers to tell their own stories and share their own opinions is the most important and rewarding part of the summer.”

^{Kathleen Beckman, Facets Education Director}

And the fun doesn’t have to end here. Everyone who graduates from the Film 101 summer camp are invited back to join the Children and Youth Juries at our Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, the oldest and largest Oscar-qualifying children’s film festival in the United States. Our summer camps are a fun and unique way to access other Facets programs, and the wider Chicago film community.

If you want to learn something new, if you have something to say, or if you want to spend your time with a group like-minded peers, then Facets invites you to join our team this summer.

Sign your kids up for Facets’ Film 101 summer camp and unleash their creativity through filmmaking, the new team sport. Camp. runs from July 6 – 31, 2020 in four one-week session for ages 7-14. <<Get more info and sign up