North Jersey teen named a 'visionary' for starting an international student film fest
MAHWAH — Where do the future Spielbergs and Scorseses go to learn and perfect their filmmaking craft?
In response to that challenge, Mark Leschinsky, a 16-year-old filmmaker from Mahwah, has organized the Student World Impact Film Festival, or SWIFF, one of the world's largest, with 8,000 entries from 130 countries to date. For his efforts, Mark has been named one of 25 Prudential Emerging Visionaries for 2023.
The Prudential program is part of a 26-year effort to honor outstanding youth volunteers. It "recognizes young people ages 14-18 whose fresh perspectives and innovative solutions address pressing financial and societal challenges in their communities."
The festival was originally proposed by Mark as an in-house project at the Bergen County Academies magnet high school in Hackensack, where he is a junior. He was teaching film at the Mahwah Public Library and had authored a children's book on the subject named after a family pet: "Beanie the Bunny Teaches Children About Filmmaking!"
"Mark first came to me at the beginning of last year interested in starting a film festival for the students," said English teacher David Wilson. "It quickly escalated to the point that we were not equipped to do that in person. So Mark came back saying he had decided to do it online. He got submissions from all over the world, greater than he expected. He figured it out."
Guidance counselor Kymberly Acuna said Mark was "already a creative force" when he discussed his plan with her.
"We were flabbergasted when he got 8,000 entries, but he handled it graciously," Acuna said.
Mark's goals were to create a free film festival for cash-strapped students and to increase the diversity of "voices" behind those films.
"Large submission fees of film festivals often discourage students and low-income filmmakers from sharing their work just because of their age or income level," Mark said. "The unique and culturally diverse stories by student filmmakers have also been historically marginalized." Citing Screen Daily, Mark said Black directors made up just 1% of competition films at major festivals in 2021.
The SWIFF festival is split into under-18 and 18-or-over age segments in 10 categories: short film, drama, social impact, documentary, inspirational community interview, animation, comedy, feature film, music video and public service announcement.
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The films must be in English or have English subtitles and cannot contain alcohol consumption, profanity, extreme or excessive anger, violence, blood, guns, weapons, nudity, sexually related thoughts or behavior, hate speech, or praise for a specific religion.
Wilson has a music background and volunteered to judge the best musical score. Video production teacher Scott Lang volunteered to judge and present the best cinematography award.
"We've received submissions from students as young as 8 years old," Mark said.
The winner of the Best Inspirational Community Interview Film has the additional opportunity to work with The Community Photobooth to launch a fundraiser for the film's topic. Mark is seeking similar sponsorships and collaborations in other categories for the festival and has high hopes for the future.
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"It is my dream to work with President Biden and the White House to reinstitute the White House Student Film Festival, a platform that celebrates the creativity and talent of young filmmakers across the United States," Mark said. "At SWIFF, it is my goal to partner with industry leaders such as Disney, NBCUniversal and Netflix to provide opportunities for our students at leading film industry companies."
Mark will be honored by Prudential alongside other winners at the company's offices in Newark from April 22 to 25.
SWIFF entries are due by May 29 for the June 18-22 festival. For more information, visit filmfreeway.com/SWIFF-TLI or email mark@lightfilmfest.org.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ teen named 'visionary' by Prudential for creating student film fest
