Fancy Rhino, in collaboration with the Howard School and the Ceros Fund, will premiere a feature-length documentary film, Build Me a World: The Story of the Howard School on Aug. 16. The film documents a year at the historic Howard School.
"The Howard School was founded in 1865, and is not only a historic institution in Chattanooga, it has also become known as a place where students, teachers and administrators fight against environmental and cyclical failure within our public education system," said Drew Belz of Fancy Rhino, one of the film's producers. "However, we believe that Howard stands for our city – and the aim of this film is to inspire our city to stand up for Howard and ultimately, for other schools like it."
During the course of the 2011-2012 school year, Fancy Rhino taught a film course at Howard once a week. Build Me a World primarily focuses on the stories of three graduating seniors in the class and a beloved Howard teacher.
"The idea of the class was to teach the students about story telling and film making – so we equipped some of the students to film themselves outside of school hours," said Isaiah Smallman of Fancy Rhino, the fim's other producer. "The footage that they shot became a centerpiece to the film, because without it we never would have gotten the whole story of a year in their lives."
View the trailer at the film's website – BuildMeAWorld.com
The premiere will be held at the Tivoli on Aug. 16, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. In order to bring the screening to the Chattanooga community (and to the families featured in the film) for free, the film's producers are launching a BUILD ME A WORLD campaign through Kickstarter.com, to raise $10,000. Individuals, churches and community groups are encouraged to champion the campaign through BuildMeAWorld.com.
Following the premiere, a series of events will o er opportunities for community dialogue and engagement around issues raised by the documentary:
• The Howard Summit: Saturday, Aug. 18, 10 a.m., The Howard School.
• Camp House Screening: Wednesday, Aug. 22, Time TBA
• Back Row Film Series Drive-In Screening: Saturday, Sept. 1, Time TBA
• Other screenings at churches and theaters TBA
Tickets can be reserved through BuildMeAWorldFilm.com.
For further information, please contact Isaiah Smallman, Fancy Rhino, 443 845-7191 or Isaiah@fancyrhino.com or Drew Belz, Fancy Rhino, 828 242-1480, Drew@fancyrhino.com.