All American High School Film Festival Selects Mt. Pleasant High School Student Films To Be Part of This Year’s Festival in New York

San Jose, CA — The All American High School Film Festival, the largest student film festival in the world, selected four of Mt. Pleasant High School student films to be part of this year’s Festival in New York. Selected by industry judges, these films are selected as some of the best high school films of the year.

These films were produced by recent Mt. Pleasant High School graduates from the Class of 2021. Even through the pandemic, these dedicated students honed their production skills and created their own films while in distance learning. The Mt. Pleasant High School student films selected to be part of this year’s Festival include the following:

“Orange Skies from the Eastside” by Elijah Anaya
“The Alabaster Awakening” by Brian Diaz (attending CSUN and majoring in Film Studies)
“The Yellow America” by Bianca Castillo (attending University of the Pacific)
“Trapped in the Tank” by Dominic Trapani (attending San Jose State University)

All four films are now an Official Selection and will be screened at the 2021 All American High School Film Festival on October 9th and 10th at Times Square in New York City. Each year, the All American High School Film Festival receives thousands of films submitted by student filmmakers from around the world.

This past year of distance learning was challenging for both myself and my students. But even through the pandemic, these amazing students created their own films while at home. And now the validation of their work by being selected in the All American Film Festival is a testament to the power of giving students a platform and a space to express themselves. These students in the end are giving all of us a beautiful gift, their stories.”

As Official Selections, each of the four films is eligible to be nominated for an award. All award nominees and winners will be announced at the Teen Indie Awards on October 10th at The Kings Theater in New York.

William Cavada
Mt. Pleasant High School Multimedia Arts Teacher and Program Director

This is exciting, to have our East Side students recognized at the national level for their creative work as young filmmakers! Anyone of them could turn out to be the next celebrated American filmmaker in the years ahead!

J. Manuel Herrera
ESUHSD Board of Trustees Vice President