Flash Mob, Filmmaker's Competition Coming to Library's Big Read

This year's program just got a lot more exciting.

The Wyckoff Public Library has hired The Great Heights Performing Arts Lab to create a flash mob, and a young film maker's competition.  

The flash mob will be choreographed and organized by Jamie Sporn, co-artistic director of the theater company, and submissions for the film competition are due on October 15th.

Co-Artistic Director Jonathan Samarro will steer the film competition; the selected entrees will be shown in the library at 7 p.m. on November 3.

For more info on film competition guidelines and rules see the attached PDF.

"Through this competition, we hope to provide young artists with the opportunity to work on their craft — whether it is film-making, designing, script writing, or acting," said Samarro. "Working on this particular material at such an intimate level — trying to understand the characters' motivations — provides such a richer understanding of the wicked world of Poe than just a casual read." 

Samarro suggested that by tripping headlong into the psyches of Poe's various characters, a deeper understanding may be reached.

"These tales center on characters whose myopic views and obsessions lead to unimaginably horrific ends — ends which to these characters seem reasonable and inevitable. These tales explore what happens when our obsessions, insecurities, and defense mechanisms overshadow our humanity and our ability to be empathetic. These tales are about getting lost. As fantastic, outlandish, and macabre as these stories and poems seem, there is so much here that we can learn from."

Such Great Heights is a performing arts group in its infancy. According to Samarro, they just recently began as a non-profit arts and education organization.

"Over the course of this upcoming school year, Jamie [Sporn] and I will be writing our constitution, assembling a board of trustees, building a website, and establishing ourselves formally," Samarro said. "These projects with the Wyckoff Public Library are only our second endeavor."  

Sporn and Samarro have been working in arts education for more than a decade.

"Jamie is a product of Teacher's College's dance education graduate program. Likewise, I earned my master's at Columbia's School of the Arts in the playwriting program," Samarro said.

The group plans to conduct fundraisers in the spring, in hopes of producing either a play or musical next summer, as well as offering either a camp or some formal classes.

You can get in touch with the group at greatheightspal@gmail.com.

Stay with Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes Patch for more as the library's  develops.

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