By Lynna Huo ’15, Staff Writer

In early spring at Newark Academy, the students in the A and B language classes devote themselves to a cause that will affect the entire middle school community. Requiring weeks of meticulous planning and recording, on top of props, costumes, and additional effort needed to assure a success, the Foreign Language Film Festival is a wonderful event celebrated amongst not only its partakers but also the legion of viewers that it attracts.

In earlier years, the Film Festival had been known as the Cabaret, during which each of the Spanish and French A and B classes of the middle school prepared a script based on a theme chosen from a general variety of fairytales and folk stories. At the end of a period of rehearsing, the classes would perform their scripts in front of a live audience for entertainment. The final performance or ‘play’ required younger students of the NA community to step out of their comfort zones and become part of a team, something that an eighth grader reviewed as “…a memorable and relaxing experience for the whole student body.”

The Cabaret was later renamed to fit the new filming standard that had recently replaced the older method of live action and speech. This year, Spanish A classes plan to use scenes from the animated cartoon series Dora and Diego as well as the television game show Family Feud. Spanish B classes have chosen television series such as the animated cartoon Family Guy, the game show Deal or No Deal, and a documentary show known as The Office. As French A classes explore further possibilities for scripts, French B classes have chosen topics similar to the drama show Glee.

Scripts were written during the last week of February and filming is underway for the first full week of March. According to Newark Academy Spanish teacher and lead middle school advisor Señor Gomez, the upcoming Foreign Language Film Festival “…will not only be an opportunity for students to come in contact with the social uses of their respective languages, but also play out as a glimpse into the filming and movie industry- an accomplishment with rewards greater than that any ordinary school project could offer.”