Three young student filmmakers are headed to this year's Cannes Film Festival on an expenses-paid trip thanks to DePaul University and the Chicago Housing Authority.
The three student filmmakers are all Chicago Housing Authority residents who studied filmmaking at DePaul University in the CHA’s Become a Filmmaker Youth program.
Chaz Ebert, who also lived in CHA housing as a young girl, has a special relationship with the program. It was her idea to send some students to Cannes.
“I’m most excited about walking the red carpet,” Christal Westmoreland, one of three film students heading to the Cannes Film Festival told NBC Chicago.
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Thanks to outfits provided by Chicago Designer Barbara Bates, Westmoreland, Unique Moore and Isis Gullette will walk the red carpet in style.
“It kind of blew my mind even thinking about it, but she was serious. She reached out and said I think it’s time. She has covered the cost of their flights, and she will meet them and talk to them at the festival," DePaul faculty member Liliane Calfee told NBC Chicago.
Calfee is the director of the Become a Filmmaker Youth program.
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“It’s still surreal,” says filmmaker Unique Moore. “I don’t think it will be real until, honestly once we get off the plane and get into the taxi. I don’t think it’s gonna be real until we are on the carpet and cameras are flashing.”
The students are also celebrating the launch of their short film, “I Am Not Your Token”, which is not being shown at Cannes. They were selected to go to Cannes because of their work on that project.
Gullette, who wrote and directed it, didn’t think her script was that good at first.
“But, the fact that Liliane and all the other people in the screenwriting cohort saw the potential, even though I didn’t, was just really inspiring," Gullette said.
Although they are still fundraising, the trip is sponsored by DePaul University and the CHA. Tracey Scott, the CHA’s CEO says, “I want their story to be shared far and wide, with all the youth at CHA and throughout the community, that anything is possible.”
Gullette will soon be graduating from Jones College Prep. She plans on attending film school, Unique Moore will graduate from Lindblom High School and plans to study cinematography, and Christal Westmoreland is a junior at DePaul’s School of Cinematic Arts.
“I really hope that when Black girls see us, they smile and see these kids going to France, being able to do things they probably didn’t think was possible. Especially coming from a low income neighborhood. So it’s really refreshing to be a part of this journey," Westmoreland said.
