Stories • Films • Music
Don’t miss the latest podcast from Gather Well Cleveland Heights featuring our own Jen and Lance! In this episode, we discuss exciting upcoming events with HMSS, our efforts to become more sustainable, how we’re working to serve all Cleveland Heights students, and more.
We’re absolutely buzzing with excitement to share that Heights Middle School Shorts (HMSS) has forged an incredible new partnership with the prestigious Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF)! 🎬✨
An Unstoppable Collaboration This groundbreaking collaboration is set to unlock a treasure trove of opportunities for our budding filmmakers. Picture this: our students’ creative visions showcased on a national stage, learning experiences supercharged, and exposure to the world of professional filmmaking like never before.
Lights, Camera, Action: Our Students in the Spotlight One of the most thrilling aspects of this partnership is the inclusion of our students’ films in CIFF’s renowned FilmSlam® Streams program. This virtual showcase brings the best student cinema directly into classrooms across the country. Now, our talented young filmmakers will have their work seen by a wider audience, earning the recognition they so richly deserve. This isn’t just a milestone—it’s a launchpad for their future careers in film and beyond.
Interactive, Inspirational, and Insightful But that’s not all! CIFF will be hosting a Zoom Q&A with our student filmmakers, giving them the chance to discuss their work and the filmmaking process with industry pros. This is a golden opportunity for our students to share their journeys, gain insider knowledge, and spark new ideas. And to top it off, CIFF is crafting an in-depth study guide around our students’ films. This guide will be packed with insights about HMSS and all things filmmaking—perfect for anyone eager to dive deeper into the craft.
Hands-On Experience and Giving Back Our partnership goes beyond the screen. CIFF is opening the doors for our students to volunteer at the festival, including those from Heights Career Tech Education (CTE). These roles will not only help students earn community service hours but also give them hands-on experience in a professional festival environment. It’s a win-win: giving back to the community while building real-world skills.
Exclusive Screenings and Networking Galore Get ready for a major highlight of CIFF49: the premiere of our 2024 student films in the FilmSlam® Student Cinema section! This special screening is a momentous occasion, offering our students the chance to see their work celebrated on a grand stage. And the benefits don’t stop there—CIFF will provide access to an extensive network of filmmakers, giving our students unique opportunities to connect, learn, and grow in all aspects of filmmaking, from screenwriting to editing.
Strengthening Our Film Community This partnership is about more than just film—it’s about building a stronger, more connected film community. Our students will have the chance to join CIFF’s Student Screening Team, diving deep into the art of film critique and analysis alongside their peers who share a passion for cinema.
Looking Ahead: A Bright Future for Our Filmmakers We couldn’t be more excited about the potential of this partnership to elevate our students’ educational journeys and shine a spotlight on their incredible talents. We’re on the edge of our seats, eager to see the amazing projects that will come out of this collaboration. Together with CIFF, we’re not just making films—we’re making the future of filmmaking.
Stay tuned, because this journey is just beginning. We’ll be sharing more updates as we embark on this exciting adventure with the Cleveland International Film Festival. Together, we’re paving the way for the next generation of filmmakers and storytellers.
#HeightsMiddleSchoolShorts #HMSS #HMSSSeason5 #CIFF #NextGenFilmmakers #FilmEducation #CommunityEngagement #FilmFestivalMagic
It’s no surprise that Tyler Maxey is a composer/arranger who specializes in film music, concert music, and the creation of custom-arranged scores for marching and pep bands. He’s a Heights grad.
We are thrilled Tyler has joined our music program, HMSS Film Scores as the music instructor to teach CHUH middle schoolers how to create, write and produce original music for the films of Heights Middle School Shorts beginning February 27-March 20. To apply, click here. Space is limited
Tyler believes that music in films should create a unique and captivating auditory experience that enhances visual storytelling. That’s why his music covers a wide range of genres and styles to create a musical soundscape that draws in the audience and creates a robust emotional backdrop that enhances the drama and adds a new level of immersion to the film. His concert pieces and other original compositions seek to explore melody, harmony, texture, and rhythm in a way that allows listeners to engage with the music and see the world through his unique perspective.
Over the last year, Tyler composed the music for the short film The Baby Doll Dance which was featured at Cleveland State University’s annual student film showcase and the Youngstown Film Festival, where it was nominated for “Best Area Film.” He was also commissioned by the Notre Dame College Wind Symphony to compose a piece for Wind Band and Visual Media entitled TBD and to compose several marching band arrangements for South Central High School and Brecksville-Broadview High School.
When he’s not composing music, Tyler works as a Low Brass Instructor – his primary focus is trombone and euphonium – and has worked with the Rainey Institute as a teaching artist in their newly launched Cinemusic summer program for elementary-aged Tremont kids, where he taught the art of film scoring and created a final project showcased at the end of camp.
A Cleveland native, Tyler graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 2014. He earned his undergraduate degree in Music Entrepreneurship at Notre Dame College in 2021. Currently, he is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Music Composition at Cleveland State University where he works as a graduate assistant in the composition department, and expects to graduate in May 2024.
After a two-year hiatus, Antonio Harper – one of our original HMSS Film Instructors and a Heights High School alum – has returned!
Antonio is a bright young filmmaker who left Cleveland Heights in 2022 with his partner Abby to pursue his dream in Los Angeles, California. But he always stayed in touch: as a virtual drop-in at Heights Middle School Shorts, as our film editor where – from the other side of the country – he edited HMSS films while teaching campers about the art of montage, and more.
But this year it’s different. Antonio will be ‘on location’ in the Heights, every day for the two weeks of in-person camp from June 3-14: filming, producing, editing, and adding original music created by students in our new program, HMSS Film Scores, to the films of Heights Middle School Shorts. He’ll also join us for this year’s screening, which will be held on Sunday, June 16 at the Cedar Lee Theatre.
We’re thrilled that Antonio will be back in the Heights with HMSS this year. He’s a real rising star of the film industry: dedicated and hard-working, he spent time as Production Coordinator for the Greater Cleveland Film Commission and on a variety of films shot in Cleveland before heading West, including Yann Demange’s White Boy Rick. On Demange’s set, Antonio was hired to shadow the director but was quickly promoted to Production Assistant, then again to Casting Coordinator, all within mere weeks.
Antonio is one-half of a writing-directing duo with his partner Abby Burton; they’ve made a number of successful short films, including Bush (shot in 16 mm), Panic in Valley City, and Altruist, all of which were selected for screening at numerous festivals around the country, including the Oscar-qualifying Cleveland International Film Festival. Through their company West 10G Productions they have several new projects slated this year for both television and film under their directing flagship Abbio Film.
The Campers of Heights Middle School Shorts 2023, Cleveland Heights’ own summer film camp, are excited to invite the public to the main auditorium at Heights High on Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 2:00 to join them for the screening of their films:
HMSS co-founder Jen Holland shares their excitement: “The films produced by this year’s campers are outstanding! We’re so impressed with the dedication, commitment, and creativity of our campers and the movies they have worked together to create, and we can’t wait to show them to the public.”
Heights Middle School Shorts is a three-week arts camp where Cleveland Heights and University Heights middle school students learn to express themselves creatively through the medium of film. Guided by local professionals experienced in filmmaking, writing, acting, and facilitating youth creative expression, HMSS campers learn storytelling through the medium of film as they write short stories that they turn into short films. Each camper is an integral part of a production team that writes and produces its own film.
This year’s camper class is composed of 17 students from the Heights:
For questions or to donate to Heights Middle School Shorts, visit our website.
When we started Heights Middle School Shorts nearly three years ago, we had a single objective: give middle school students in Cleveland Heights and University Heights the opportunity to make movies.
We’d seen the creativity of Heights kids in our theater camp. We knew they could write thought-provoking stories, play compelling characters, and lead complete productions. But when COVID-19 forced us to move to an all-remote format featuring plays that campers filmed on cell phones, we were captivated. We wanted more movies!
So we launched Heights Middle School Shorts in the summer of 2021 with 14 campers who each wrote, acted, produced, and directed their own short film. And thanks to the generosity of the entire Heights community – the donors who provided funding, the merchants who provided meals and supplies, the CHUH district that provided space for our campers to learn and work, the parents who brought their kids to camp and picked them up again at the end of the day, and too many others to mention – it was a fabulous success.
The following year, the HMSS class of 2022 did not disappoint: campers produced ten stellar films, six of which were screened at the 2022 Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival (GCUFF), followed by a panel discussion hosted by the district’s own Emmy Award winner, Cynthia Booker, who teaches media and TV production, and featuring the students who wrote, produced, and directed those films. Equally important, the community continued to embrace our work and provide us the support we need: Reaching Heights, which acts as our fiscal agent, the CHUH district, which once again opened its doors to give our camp a home in 2022, the CHUH PTA Council, which allows us to operate under their umbrella, and most importantly the generous donors who continue to write checks and make donations to ensure that our middle school students can explore their creativity at Heights Middle School Shorts.
Our goals have changed a bit as we look to HMSS 2023 (and beyond). We’re no longer satisfied with giving campers a camera and telling them to ‘start shooting:’ we still aim to spark their imaginations, of course, but we also want to provide them with a hands-on perspective of careers in the film and television industry. To teach them to work together, to collaborate, and to compromise. To show them how to find inspiration, to nurture their creativity, and to trust their vision.
With your assistance, we’re confident that we can get there. Please help us meet our goal of raising $5,000 by December 31, 2022. Click here to donate. Thank you.
Are you going to the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Foundation festival, running September 15-23? We are!
We’re looking forward to the screening of six Heights Middle School Shorts films at this year’s GCUFF festival on Saturday, September 17. The films will be followed by a panel discussion featuring their filmmakers talking about their journeys from ideas to screenplays to finished films.
This free community event will be moderated by Cynthia Booker, Heights High digital media teacher and two-time Emmy Award-winning journalist who dropped into HMSS this summer to give campers a hands-on filming experience. It will run from 1:10-3:10 pm in Theater 3 at Atlas Shaker Square.
The Greater Cleveland Urban Film Foundation was established in 2012 to celebrate, preserve, promote and advance African American arts, culture, and cinema. This year’s theme of “Afrofuturism: Black to the Future,” will bring a selection of all-new films that span animation, documentary, and genre spectacle, to present exuberant visions of Black creativity, resistance, and freedom.
And our HMSS films and filmmakers, of course!
Heights Middle School Shorts is thrilled to announce that they have formed a partnership with the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Foundation to feature six HMSS films and their directors at this year’s GCUFF film festival!
The Greater Cleveland Urban Film Foundation was established in 2012 to celebrate, preserve, promote and advance African American arts, culture, and cinema. GCUFF’s 2022 film festival will take place from September 15-23, 2022, at Shaker Square Cinemas in Cleveland, Ohio.
This year’s GCUFF festival will include a panel discussion with the directors of the top six Heights Middle School Shorts films (chosen by the audience at the July 6 screening), where the HMSS campers will show their films and talk about their journeys from ideas to screenplays to finished films.
“To say that we are excited is an understatement,” said Jen Holland, HMSS co-founder. “The partnership with GCUFF will give our campers a fabulous new audience for their films, and provide them with the unique experience of presenting their work at an important film festival.” The July 6 screening of 2022 HMSS films will take place from 2:00-3:30 at Heights High School in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The public is welcome to attend. Registration is required for the screening.
Hard at work on their scripts.
The second season of HMSS has begun with more than 15 campers excited to make some magic!
On the first day of our writing workshops, two-time Emmy award-winning journalist and digital media teacher Cynthia Booker dropped in to give the campers a hands-on filming experience. Thank you, Cynthia!
