Spanish students place at foreign film festival

By: Abby Ridgel, Contributing Writer

On Friday, April 14th, Centralia High School (CHS) Spanish III and IV students traveled to Warrensburg for the University of Central Missouri Foreign Film Festival. 

Mrs. Julie Exendine, CHS Spanish teacher, and her classes have been participating in the festival for ten years. This year, Exendine took three students; Josh Dishman, Susanna Nix and Olivia McGuire. 

Requirements were that the film must be ten minutes or less and the students must speak completely in Spanish. There are various categories students can choose to enter such as comedy, documentary, drama, mystery/thriller and social justice. Exendines classes chose to create a film  about two friends who visit an Argentinian restaurant but the owner seems suspicious. The friends must decide if it is safe to eat there. 

The students picked their genre and wrote the script during first semester. At the beginning of second semester the students worked on filming and editing for several weeks. The film is set in a restaurant so the students had the opportunity to cook empanadas and then eat them in the film. McGuire said that her favorite part about making the film was, “baking the empanadas.” 

The CHS team  received first place for best mystery at the intermediate level and second place for best overall Spanish film at the intermediate level. 

When asked about this experience for her students Exendine said, “It is a chance for students to demonstrate what they have learned in a creative manner. Attending the festival they get to see other language videos and celebrate what they have learned.”

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