The Talented Theatre students from Amite and Sumner High Schools are once again making movies, stated Talented Theatre teacher Charley Vance.

For almost a decade, the Talented Theatre students at these schools have been receiving grants from the Louisiana Division Of The Arts to create movies. Each year, the students create three movies. Each movie is between 20 and 30 minutes in length. Over the years, the project has won two national awards.

The stories for each movie are created and developed by the students through a series of screen treatment sessions, said Vance. Each story explores a social problem facing students. Filming for this year’s movies will begin October 21.

The students also will be the featured performers in each movie. The adult roles are portrayed by local actors. Butch and Kirk Lee of Vivid Video shoot and edit the movies. Partial funding is provided by Peoples Bank and The Bank of Greensburg.

Once completed, there will be a World Premiere night in late January 2009. The public will be invited to the World Premiere. Following the World Premiere, the movies will be broadcast throughout the year by Hammond Cable Channel 17.

The Amite High movie, Piano Lesson, explores Asperger’s syndrome. A student who battles with Asperger’s syndrome moves to a new school. Music is his comfort. He is unjustly accused of improper behavior by several gossipy students.

Featured in the Amite High movie are Kasey Petitto, Brady Lewis, Victoria Davidson, Melody Chandler, Jalena Sutton, Creyuanna Johnson, Nicholas Logan, Lauren Morgan, Breanna Higgins and Sierra Hart.

The Sumner High students create two movies.

In the Sumner movie Pranks, we watch as freshmen and seniors take innocent pranks too far. One of the seniors becomes enraged over retaliation for one of his pranks and brings a gun to school.

The students participating in Pranks are John Miller, Cody Stevens, Aaron Portier, Cameron McElveen, Ben LeBlanc, Areal Beadle and Aaron Davis. Talented Theatre student Lauren Verberne helped create the story but will not be able to perform in the movie.

In the second Sumner movie, Blackmail, a girl student confesses to a MySpace friend that she is distraught over her family situation and that she is pregnant. The girl thinks the friend is another girl, but the friend is a boy who is stalking her.

Performing in Blackmail are Nicole LeBlanc, Scarlett Splane, Emily Dykes, Emily Daniels, Dakota Shaffet, Lauren Kent and Josh Harriman.

Adult roles are being played by Ed Hoover, Christina DeRosier, Carole McAllister, Victoria Daigle and Deanna Simmons. Also performing in the movies are Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff deputies Frank Dibenedetto and Sam Vilardo.