Award-winning short film by South Range students delivers a towering message | News, sports, jobs

Students from several school districts in the Mahoning Valley have discovered that they too can be respected actors who can convey a message in a top-quality film.

Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick spent the past two years using grants to sponsor short films aimed at reducing gun violence among young people in Youngstown, but their films were spotlighted this year by school districts like South Range Local Schools in southern Mahoning County.

The nonprofit organization OK Inc. of Twinsburg produces about five to six short films a year in the Youngstown area, in which students and adults dramatize issues that endanger young people, ranging from bullying and substance abuse to eating disorders and sexual pressure.

The juvenile court short films featured youth from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Youngstown. The films provide realistic portrayals of the reasons why some young people resort to gun violence and offer hope that such episodes can be avoided. The films have been praised by Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and Captain Jason Simon of the Youngstown Police Department.

But OK Inc. has also had a fruitful relationship with South Range, producing short films for the rural district between Canfield and Columbiana four years in a row.

The films that OK Inc. produced in Youngstown and South Range were among the most critically acclaimed short films the company produced last year. South Range won Best Short Film, as judged in the online voting on OK’s YouTube channel, where all films can be viewed for free. www.youtube.com/c/OKInc

The Youngstown Movie “Time for change” also won several awards: Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adult Male Role and Best Extras. The awards were presented on October 6 during the OK Inc. Friends4Friends Film Festival at the DeYor Performing Arts Center in Youngstown.

These awards are chosen by the Friends4Friends Academy, a group of community members who preview the films before they are released.

In addition to Best Short Film, South Range also won Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and the Annual Impact Award. The topic was self-harm and suicidal ideation, dramatizing how a young person might struggle with mental health issues and offering ideas on how to get help.

OK also produced short films this year for Youngstown’s Chaney Middle School and Wilson Alternative School (which won the Best Female Adult Role Award), Salem Middle School and Mathews Junior High School in Trumbull County.

Peggy Pecchio, executive director of OK Inc., said that because of the grant funding, there is no cost to school districts participating in the short film making. In addition to the school districts involved this year, Campbell, Austintown and West Branch have participated in the past. OK Inc. has a satellite office in Austintown.

Pecchio said OK Inc. works in eleven counties, but Mahoning and Cuyahoga are the ones that have embraced the shorts the most. They all address risk behaviors identified by students based on what they believe are the most pressing issues in their communities. Working on the films builds confidence that they can make a difference in the lives of others, Pecchio said.

“Our films are shown all over the world on YouTube,” said Pecchio. “We have 450,000 subscribers. We want to start talking about this risk behavior. We want them to know they are not alone.” she said of the films’ viewership, which takes nearly a year to complete.

As for the actors and others who perform and assist in the productions, Pecchio said they learn: “I have the ability to stand up and speak on issues that are very important to us.” She said young people have said that before becoming part of a film project, they might have noticed a problem like bullying, but “I never did anything about it. Or I saw a friend who was suffering from depression, but I didn’t know what to say to him.”

Being part of a film helped them “Growing and developing these skills,” she said.

Dominick Patterson, who won best actor for the Youngstown film ‘Time for change’ takes part in speeches and debates, “So the short films have helped him think about what he wants to do in life,” said Pecchio.

SOUTH RANGE FACILITATOR

John Rappach, an eighth-grade history teacher at South Range Middle School who has served as a facilitator for the school district’s films for the past two years, said the quality of the films is a big draw for students. When he agreed to be the go-between for the school district and OK Inc., he watched the earlier films.

“I was so impressed with the final product. I can honestly say that people are genuinely amazed at its high quality. It’s legit. When you talk about script writing, camera work, just everything. It’s something to see,” he said of the films. “I think the quality is fantastic.”

Rappach described this year’s film as follows: “The main character is really having a hard time in her personal life. Her parents are divorced. Her biological mother struggles with an addiction and her father has remarried. Essentially, she’s having trouble connecting. She doesn’t really belong. She is carrying the full weight of her family situation, and she is so upset about it that she thinks she can no longer cope with what is happening and wants to put an end to it.”

She called a help hotline, and a woman played by South Range High School student Addie Sell gives her good advice and a friendly, supportive ear, and her help makes a difference, Rappach said.

Brooke Neilsen played the role of the struggling girl. Neilsen, who has starred in South Range films for the past four years, won Best Actress this year and Sell was winner of the Best Supporting Actress Award at the film festival.

“The movie is called “I’m here for you,“And what our character learns is that there are a lot of people in her life that she can rightfully count on,” Rappach said. “Even if her life is falling apart, she can take the adult step of contacting this hotline and saying, ‘I’m not okay.’ She is also in therapy, so she has a therapist who listens to her and tries to convey that he is there for her.” he said.

Rappach said an important scene is when the character’s friend contacts her to say, “Hey, you really don’t seem to be okay, and I want you to know that no matter what you’re going through, you can rely on it can count. me.’ I think her biological father is trying his best to be there for her to some extent, but he also has a new wife and she has kids that she’s bringing to the wedding, so he’s torn.

“For me the message is: no matter how bleak the situation is, there are people who love us and want us to do well.” Rappach said. “We just have to be willing to reach out and let them know we’re hurting. Sometimes people bury it. They may be ashamed of it. It’s hard. If you contact such a person, you are vulnerable. For some people, I think these vulnerabilities are really scary.”

Rappach said that within a few days of South Range’s film appearing on OK Inc.’s YouTube channel earlier this month. was posted, it had already been viewed 5,000 times.

“Last year our film was about bullying and was viewed more than 122,000 times. If you can reach thousands of kids or thousands of adults, I think that alone has the power, just discussing things that they might not normally want to discuss,” he said.

Pecchio noted that Neilsen and Patterson not only starred in their films, but also sang original songs for them, and both performed their songs live during the film festival earlier this month.

In this nine-minute film, OK Inc. leaned. drew on the expertise of Vince Brancaccio, CEO of the Help Network of Northeast Ohio, to ensure the information about suicidal ideation and self-harm was as good as possible, Pecchio said. . Brancaccio, who also starred in the film, “guided us through the process of making the film because we wanted to make sure we didn’t do or say anything that would be harmful to anyone who sees the film online or in a classroom where we show it,” said Pecchio.

NEILSEN

In an interview, Neilsen said she has always enjoyed singing and acting, so when the school district asked students to come to a meeting about the film project four years ago, she went. She liked the process where students with the help of OK Inc. also chose an interesting subject for the film.

Neilsen, now a student at John Carroll University, said she shuddered a bit when the group decided to tackle mental health. She wondered “how it would be perceived by people and whether we could do justice to the subject” mental health.”

But the film’s results have made her proud, she said. “Seeing the comments after the movie was posted and even talking to people at John Carroll and saying, ‘Thank you so much for that,’” she said.

“I think (mental health) is such a hush-hush topic that people feel uncomfortable or have difficulty talking about it,” Neilson said. The film succeeds in this “Creating awareness and showing people that you are not alone and that there are people for you. I’m so glad we were able to make this point clear.”

Brooke’s father, Scott Neilsen, played Brooke’s father in the film. He said it was an easy decision to participate.

“No matter what Brooke does, I usually walk side by side with her. Brooke had a highly decorated speech career at the state qualifier South Range, winning a host of awards. And I invested in that from a father’s perspective,” he said. “It was very easy to make the transition from being part of her speech and debate career to her role in the films.”

Brooke said that during her four years in the films, she didn’t always portray a character in crisis. In one movie she played a “mean” character. In last year’s film, she played a girl who bullied someone and then time traveled back to the 1990s when her character became a victim of bullying.

“Especially in that film and over the years I got a taste of being shy or more of a bully, a bystander or a very big protagonist” role in the film. “It has kept me sharp to act in a different way.”

FOR HELP

Anyone requiring mental health support should contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988.

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