Stephan Playfair wins Third Place Award from International Digital Dreams Festival.

AlphaMax Graduating student (Class of 2010) Stephan Playfair won the third place award in an International Film competition sponsored by the Cosmopolitan Group in Holland.

In August 2010 Stephan entered a contest called “Digital Dreams Festival”. A month later he learnt that he was shortlisted with nine other participants for the finals.

This group then did a three day crash course in cinematography, directing, and camerawork.   At the end of the course each participant had to direct and film his or her own five minute movie.  Each participant was given exactly one week to complete the movie.  The movie’s theme was where you see yourself in the future.
        
In an interview Stephan said that he spent the first day creating his storyboard. Then he took three days developing a story for his film.  On day four, Stephan assembled the required camera and lighting equipment. He also selected his aunt’s house in Uitvlucht, Paramaribo as the shooting location. Shooting started the next day. The lead actor was Zikomo Mhango. The technical and make up crew were David Chen, Raoul Gondorf, and Gerda Getrouw. Sunday was the last day of shooting. The film was then submitted to the judging panel.

In November the finalists all presented their films. Stephan’s entry was the first to be viewed.
Three judges critically watched each movie several times. The panel took some time to come up with their final decisions.  The winner of the Digital Dreams Video production was Sulaigha Winkle, second place was given to Dexter Piere Point, and third place was awarded to Stephan Playfair.

As   third place prize winner Stephan was awarded a three month internship at the NSS studio (Now named Star Nieuws)   The two other winners were awarded tickets to the Netherlands where they competed for a European prize.

Middle School Students Donate Art Supplies and Teach Handicapped Students

By: Karlijn van Houwelingen in 
De Ware Tijd 

 Paramaribo - one morning at the Kennedy school and the Mytyl school, two young art teachers stood before a class . With the proceeds from their art exhibition at Gallery Steinhoff, Emily Jong Tjien Fa (9) and Alysha Wazir (11) bought art supplies. They then volunteered to give painting lessons to their handicapped peers.

“We show the children how to draw”. “First we make lines with a black marker“, Alysha instructs. “Then we color in the blank spaces within the lines with chalk. At the Mytilschool they learnt that very well”, said the young artist. “The children colored beautifully”.



 Below: Emily (l) shows a pupil from the Mytyl School how to color neatly while Alysha looks on and smiles. Yesterday, the two little teachers gave the students of the Kennedy and Mytyl Schools- which are both institutions for mentally and physically handicapped children- an art lesson.














photo courtesy of De Ware Tijd/Stefano Tull
A teacher at the Kennedy School translated Emily and Alysha’s story via sign language to the students. “I think they are the first Surinamese children who promote themselves as artists and have had their art displayed”, says gallery-curator and artist Sabina Steinhoff-Ensberg, who has taught Emily and Alysha and displayed their art pieces. “The exposition was a success: several of their drawings together raised 500 US, and it was their own idea to donate a half of the money in the form of art supplies”, Ensberg proudly relates.



While the students are usually assigned things to draw, the idea was to promote ‘free expression’, which is something new for them. “We want to show them that things can be done differently too”, says the gallery curator. She hopes that that will mean something to the children. Drawing and coloring is relaxing and inspiring, because it stimulates you to observe your surroundings. The children then think, “I can do that too”.

 

Translated into English by: Vijoya Taylor