For the past two years Forster Public School has hosted an amazing showcase of talent through the medium of film.
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The film festival, Film by Pebbly, which has been embraced by the Great Lakes community, has had films submitted from Pacific Palms, Tuncurry, Bungwahl, Hallidays Point, Wingham Brush and Forster public schools and Great Lakes College.
The students are learning an amazing array of future-focussed skills that will see them thrive in the digital world.
Students are acting, animating, filming, editing and creating original story lines for a range of exciting films.
Last year Film by Pebbly was visited by Glen Carter, who started Film by the Sea in Sydney 10 years ago.
Film by Pebbly is one of 20 festivals that have sprung up around NSW from the original Film by the Sea.
Glen was searching for outstanding movies to put into a 'Best of the Best' festival called Film by Invitation.
Two homegrown movies from the Great Lakes made it: 'Revenge of the Handball', which was an animated movie by a group of Year 5 Forster Public School students.
It used green screen, clay figures and live action to tell the tale of a handball that grew tired of being thrown around and decided to take revenge.
Their teacher, Susan Gonzalez, won an award in recognition of the success of Film by Pebbly, which included free training (worth more than $2000) for 15 teachers in film-making.
'Fill your Hat' by Sharon Ekins and the talented students of Bungwahl Public School was a beautiful tribute to the power of a small community who wanted to help the farmers facing drought.
Part of the film's beauty was in its final plaintive appeal to audiences to fill the hats being passed around.
This film was taken to many other student film festivals around NSW and it raised more than $6000 for drought stricken farmers.
This tiny school community of 32 students wove their way into the hearts of many through the power of film.
What a powerful life lesson those children learnt.
Teachers, parents and students travelled down to Sydney for the festival and were lucky enough to meet the patron of Film By, actor Bryan Brown.
He is a passionate supporter of the Film By festivals.
What would he think of Film by Pebbly?
It is fast approaching on Wednesday, October 23 and Forster Public School can't wait to see what talent is showcased on the night.
Perhaps Bryan Brown might take a trip up to Forster to find out.
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