Plainview teen organizes film festival for good cause



Jesse Sheps

Jesse Sheps

A teenager from Plainview came up with the idea to create a film festival to benefit St Jude’s Children’s Hospital and to focus a spotlight on independent filmmakers and actors. Jesse Sheps, a junior at Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School, held the event at the Ocean Beach Community Center in Fire Island this past weekend. The event was entitled the “Fire Island Film Festival.”

“I wanted to create a platform for young filmmakers and actors of all diverse backgrounds to come together to share their passion for film while giving back to the community at large,” said Sheps. “I’m ecstatic that I was able to create opportunities for filmmakers and actors to come together to share their story and to recognize their accomplishments,”

Jesse collected over 300 film submissions from young actors and filmmakers from all over the world. He personally browsed through the submissions via the online website  filmfreeway.com  and then selected the eight best feature films.

On Saturday, August 28, he shared the chosen submissions in front of an audience at the community center, which included the directors and actors discussing their films.

“It was such an amazing night, as people got to watch the films and we held a Q+A with the directors to find out what inspired them to create these great works,” said Sheps.

One of the top billing films was created by a young college student from China. The film was a love/comedy feature that took place in a pandemic world, where a boy falls in love with a girl as they are scanning people’s masks at a large venue.

All of the guests were charged $35 to attend the event and all of the proceeds went directly to childhood cancer research at St. Judes Hospital.

Aside from being a film buff, Sheps is also an accomplished young actor. His films have earned awards at the Park Slope Short Film Fest in Brooklyn  at Vegasmovieawards.com and for best comedy at a local talent show.

His other accolades include being an advisory member of a local indie film festival and editor-in-chief of the Hawk Eye, the Plainview-Bethpage JFK High school newspaper.

To learn more about the Fire Island Film Festival, you can visit the website  fifilmfest.com.

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