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Putney Central School Students Create Short Films About Putney Community Members

The Putney Central School 8th grade Social Studies class invites the public to “Putney Stories,” a public screening of short film portraits of some of our wisest and most notable community members and the stories they have to tell about their life experiences. The screening will take place at Next Stage Arts Project, 15 Kimball Hill Putney on Wednesday, December 16 at 7:30 pm.

Film subjects were chosen from a list of notable elders compiled by the Putney Historical Society. Each student was paired with a member of the community based on shared interests or family relation (one interviewed a grandfather, another her great grandmother). Students interviewed, photographed, and produced a short film, a portrait of this individual and their stories of life in this area.

As part of their “Putney Stories” curriculum, students in Leah Toffolon’s 8th grade Social Studies class at Putney Central School worked with Evie Lovett from the Vermont Folklife Center to learn the fundamentals of ethnographic research, interviewing techniques and media production. One student spoke of the project: “I could have taken this project in any number of ways. I like the fact that I had to use my own judgment about what path to take and make a project that was based on my own decisions—that there was no “right answer”, just my judgment.”

The Vermont Folklife Center’s “Discovering Community” Education program encourages students to learn to be “storytellers;” to explore and capture stories in their communities by doing primary source research; to listen to others’ stories, thereby building empathy and compassion; and to come to see themselves as part of a wider, interwoven community.

Putney Central School and the Vermont Folklife Center are deeply appreciative to Next Stage Arts Project for the use of their space.

For more information, contact:

Leah Toffolon: ltoffolon@wsesu.org
Evie Lovett: evielovett@gmail.com
Vermont Folklife Center: info@vermontfolklifecenter.org