In a world where young people can sometimes feel they don’t have a voice, a new film festival is looking to provide local teens with a platform to get their views and opinions heard loud and clear.

Bermuda National Gallery’s Youth Council will be hosting its first Youth Film Festival, featuring works from five young filmmakers next Saturday, June 7.

Students Isaiah Caisey, Marquedelle Rodriguez, Keenan Bailey, Ethan Rogers and Brandon Franke will be sharing their latest film works with the public — in part to entertain, but also to inspire.

According to Berkeley Institute student Mr Rodriguez, 17, this is an exciting opportunity to show people what young people are capable of.

“When I first heard of the initiative I was very turned on about the idea because I love to help out the youth,” he said. “I try and be a role model for people who think ‘I am young, I can’t do much’. In my opinion the youth have a voice.

“I want to show adults that young people can do something, we can do anything. Age means nothing. It’s all about experience and how you can use and develop it.”

Mr Rodriguez’s film Bermuda Was Another World explores the impacts of consumerism on the island; while CedarBridge Academy students Ethan Rogers and Brandon Franke, both 18, took a more lighthearted approach in their film.

Mr Rogers said he spent the past three months working on the project in order to take part in the festival.

“Me and a friend got together and decided we wanted to do something creative. We were more testing our equipment and having fun with it,” he said.

“And it’s funny we started out with the goal of making a very serious dramatic sort of film, but gradually it became more funny until it turned into a comedy by accident.”

His film is a fictional story about a cyber hacker who gets into a Government computer system and accidentally causes chaos. The only way to fix the problem is to break into the Government building and get back into the system.

“I just hope people enjoy it,” Mr Rogers said. “At this point I haven’t started my career yet, but I want to get to a point where I can make documentaries to open people’s eyes about what’s going on around the world.

“I want to help people with my filmmaking and show people the truth about what’s happening in certain places.”

BNG’s Youth Council has been officially running for the past year. Its young members are charged with organising artistic, creative events to expose and inspire their peers in the arts. They hosted several successful events, including a masquerade ball.

The idea for the film festival came from youth council member Kayla Williams, who thought it would be good to showcase the work of young filmmakers.

Eighteen-year-old Jokiah Richardson, a BNG Youth Council Member, said if the event is a success it might encourage other young people to pick up a camera and start filming.

“We are hoping if this is a big hit we can expand on it,” she said. “If it’s a success, it will be more recognised the second time around and maybe bring out some more young filmmakers as well.”

Dany Pen, the gallery’s education and communications officer, said none of the young filmmakers featured in this weekend’s festival had private training in their craft. “They were all self-taught on how to use some of these film and editing programmes,” she said.

“I am inspired by them because at their age level they are able to learn these entirely new programmes and skills. I found out [filmmaker] Isaiah [Caisey] taught himself in computer club at CedarBridge and he actually plans to go into the culinary arts in college.

“I’m just inspired by how committed these young people are to their projects,” she said.

The youth film festival, done in partnership with Bermuda Docs and BIFF, kicks off next Saturday from 12.30pm until 5pm.

The event is free for members; $5 for student non-members and $10 for adult non-members.

Useful website: www.bermudanationalgallery.com