On Aug. 16, Fancy Rhino will premiere a feature-length documentary film, “Build Me a World: The Story of the Howard School.” The film documents a year at the historic Howard School.
“The Howard School was founded in 1865, and is not only a historic institution in Chattanooga, it has also become known as a place where students, teachers and administrators fight against environmental and cyclical failure within our public education system,” said Drew Belz, one of the film’s producers. “However, we believe Howard stands for our city – and the aim of this film is to inspire our city to stand up for Howard and other schools like it.”
During the 2011-2012 school year, Fancy Rhino taught a film course at Howard once a week. “Build Me a World” primarily focuses on the stories of three graduating seniors in the class and a beloved Howard teacher.
“The idea of the class was to teach the students about story telling and filmmaking – so we equipped some of the students to film themselves outside of school hours,” said Isaiah Smallman, the film’s other producer. “The footage they shot became a centerpiece to the film, because without it we never would have gotten the whole story of a year in their lives.”
View the trailer at the film’s Web site – BuildMeAWorld.com.
The premiere will be held at the Tivoli on August 16 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. To bring the screening to the Chattanooga community (and to the families featured in the film) for free, the film’s producers have launched a BUILD ME A WORLD fundraising campaign through Kickstarter.com. They are encouraging individuals, churches and community groups to champion the campaign through BuildMeAWorld.com.
Tickets can be reserved through BuildMeAWorldFilm.com.