On Wednesday, March 30, we welcomed Academy Award nominated director Sam French to our school. Sam was in Ann Arbor speaking at the University of Michigan, and we were lucky enough to have him address the Summers-Knoll middle schoolers for an engaging question and answer session about his work.
In preparation, we watched Sam's short film, Buzkashi Boys. It's a notable film for many reasons. The most overt is probably the fact that it was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film in the 2012 Academy Awards. Perhaps more importantly, it was filmed entirely on location in Kabul, Afghanistan using local actors and a largely local film crew. The story also followed up on our study of the Time for School project. Shugufu, one of the subjects of that documentary, is also a young person trying to make her way in Afghanistan.
Sam French was a thoughtful and gracious guest. He shared anecdotes and answered questions for well over an hour, discussing a myriad of topics. We learned about how difficult it is to find actors to cast in a country where the arts had been brutally suppressed for decades, the perils of trying to work with horses, how a simple change in weather can force changes in a filming schedule, and some background on some of the stunning locations featured in the story. He also shared some thoughts on storytelling and filmmaking in general.
Here is a trailer for the film, and below that, the full film itself:
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