Cinemagic Teens For LA Film Festival

Two teenagers from Belfast are preparing for a trip of a lifetime to Los Angeles at the end of next month, where a short film that they produced, will be screened at a special reception.

The visit to the US's filmmaking capital is part of Belfast-based Cinemagic International Film and Television Festival's second USA festival programme. It aimed to inspire, educate, motivate and create opportunities for young people, aged 4-25, through the medium of film.

Stormont First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness (shown here) met Joan Burney, Cinemagic Chief Executive and the young participants, Chloe McLaurin and Ellen McLean who previously attended Cinemagic's inaugural International Film Camp in Belfast, last August, along with 15 other young people from Belfast, Donegal, New York and Los Angeles.

They made a short film Gone that will now mark the opening of Cinemagic Los Angeles on 21 Feb.

The teenagers will now represent Northern Ireland at the USA festival and further their skills base and learning by taking part in Cinemagic film and television masterclasses along with their peers from Dublin, in Los Angeles.

The young people from Belfast will have the chance to gain an insight to the workings of the film and television industry through film festival events in The Jim Henson Company, Walt Disney Animation Studios, HBO, including masterclasses hosted by actors such as Patrick Bergin and Michael York.

Joan Burney, Cinemagic Chief Executive said: "Cinemagic engaged with various groups of young people at festival events in New York, Los Angeles.

"Dublin and Belfast last year and one of our aims for 2011 was to offer young people from Northern Ireland and Ireland, who participated in the International Film Camp, the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the film industry, to work with others from different cultural backgrounds, to create channels of communication between them and to do this through the medium of film.

"The International Film Camp and the upcoming USA programme of events are both entertaining and educational. Together they will develop the young people's filmmaking skills as well as their inter-personal skills, and this process will contribute to a deeper and new understanding of cultural difference."

(BMcC/GK)