For the students, by the students—the first-ever Young Filmmakers Project debuted at the second annual Friday Harbor Film Festival, and will return year-in according to festival organizers.

The event’s success isn’t measured in seats occupied, although the venue set up at the Whale Museum was at capacity. Rather, opportunities to learn from each other, and become involved in film-making ventures throughout Washington, are what made the project a melting pot for creativity and education.

“This event is for kids to have a voice, and to explore a potential career,” said Sandy Strehlou, a volunteer that oversaw the project. “Jobs are limited on the island, filmmaking is mobile and could potentially allow kids to come back to the islands.”

Films were submitted by young filmmakers in San Juan County and Anacortes. Prior to the showcase, a panel of students, separate from the filmmakers, viewed and voted on which films would be shown. Seven films were chosen to premiere, and one took the title of best film.

Anacortes High School students Tim Graffius, Emma Craft and Henry Holtgeerts reined on screen for the first half of the afternoon. Their films cast an array of characters such as a destitute rapper, a personified weekday, and an explorer searching for an elusive pair of dancing pants.

Friday Harbor High School student Matthew Stepita showed his film “The Window,” a touching tale about grief and loss, with a special kind of poignancy that comes when a young person loses someone.

Orcas Power and Light Co-op sponsored the event, and also provided the subject matter for two films showcased. Energy conservation was the common theme, but the filmmakers approached the content from very different angles.

“I love documentaries, but didn’t feel I could do one justice,” Friday Harbor young filmmaker Conor von Kuetzing said. “Something fictitious can still carry the same messages.”

Kuetzing’s film, “Song of Utopia,” opens on a post-apocalyptic world.

The ice has melted, gas has run out, and people are going to war over little things. The protagonist, a bounty hunter, is hired to search for a self-sustaining village—but when he finds it, turning them in is not an option.

Small farm production and solar power are at the heart of this film, and offer hope to the very real issues that are not only faced on-screen, but in society today.

From left, Conor von Kuetzing and Nick Bey from the dramatic take on conservation, “Song of Utopia.”

Kuetzing is no longer a high school student, so his film was not considered for the best film award.

The documentary “Searching for Green,” produced by Spring Street International students Max Kessler, Pear Black, and Conrad Bormann, follows the filmmakers on their search for community members using alternative energy and living a “green” lifestyle.

Traveling by bicycle and row boat, the filmmakers used as little fossil fuels as possible to reach their subjects. The picture was painted of green-living at the iconic doe-bay on Orcas Island, a community on Lopez Island growing their own food and using solar power, and a “passive house” on San Juan Island, a home that meets specific standards of energy efficiency.

“Searching for Green” was the winning film from the Young Filmmakers Project, and the filmmakers were presented with an award at the film festival’s awards ceremony.

A last minute addition to the showcase was “Superviviente,” a documentary by Easter Island teenager Alejandro Tucki. The film tells the story of Toromiro, the only endemic tree of Easter Island, that is extinct in the wild now. The tree has attracted the attention of scientists all over the world, including environmental archaeologist Candace Gossen, who presented the film.

Perhaps the most notable guest was Brend Holma, from the Pickford Film Center in Bellingham. Holma is the coordinator for the Guerrilla Film Project, a high-school filmmaking competition where students across northern Washington race against the clock to write, shoot and edit a 3 minute narrative film in a few short days.

Holma said that many of the films she’s seeing young people produce today are not just art for art sake, but art for a purpose.

“This is the beginning of media literacy, going behind the camera to produce a film, and working together to portray a message,” she said. “It’s students knowing media is not only smartphones. It’s a way to construct and convey information, and then dissect it.”

Holma chats with FH student Matthew Stepita about the Guerilla Film Project, part of Bellingham’s Pickford Film Center.

Holma hopes to see more students from the San Juans in next year’s Guerilla Film Project competition, Feb., 12-15, 2015. For more information about the project, visit www.bellinghamfilmfestivals.com/guerilla-film-project.html.