After Travis DeFraites ’13 graduated from Denison, he thought he might end up in L.A. to make films or head to graduate school for philosophy. But the Maryland native who double-majored in cinema and philosophy has found a new calling, right next door in Newark, working with disadvantaged high school students and helping them to learn and to articulate themselves through film.
DeFraites didn’t set out to become a film teacher, but it turns out that he’s quite good at it. After a summer of ultimately unsatisfying work on independent film projects, he fielded a call from former roommate Shane Richmond ’13. Richmond was working on an exciting new initiative in Newark, called Project Main Street, and he recruited DeFraites to create a documentary about their work.
Project Main Street is a nonprofit organization that works through community partners on projects that span from housing to job creation to food. One of their partnerships is with a local program that helps disadvantaged high school students to close their achievement gaps. Some students learn best through nontraditional mediums, and visual learning is a key for many of them. So DeFraites quickly found himself being enlisted not only to film a documentary but also to teach students about film.
“I never had any teaching experience,” said DeFraites. “But early on, I learned that a good way to reach young people is through art or technology. Filmmaking combines both, so it was a natural fit for these students.”
DeFraites and his teaching partner Doug Swift, a local photographer and videographer, created a 10-week program with a goal for each student to write, direct, tape and edit a three to eight minute documentary about the subject of their choosing.
Beginning in early March with the basics of filmmaking, how to operate the camera and respecting the equipment (which was donated), the class then quickly moved into taping their ideas — and that’s when the magic began.
“Once the students saw their work on the screen, they were even more excited to create,” said DeFraites.
“When we started teaching these kids, I wondered how I was going to be able to reach them. I wasn’t from the area – or even Ohio – and I was a college graduate,” said DeFraites. “But one day, one of our students came up to me and said, ‘I’ve got a really great shot that I can’t wait to show you,’ and that’s when I knew that we had something here that was working.”
The nine students in the class chose topics that had deep significance to them, and the subjects reflect their diverse personalities. One student loves BMX bike riding and wanted to show that, contrary to popular local opinion, these kids just want to have a good time on their bikes. Other themes include teen-age pregnancy, inspirational teacher-student relationships and video games and a family health crisis. All the stories were personal and they engaged the students.
“I was amazed at how much teaching about filmmaking was also about teaching some good basic skills,” said De Fraites. “Through editing, learning how to make transitions between scenes and adding titles, they learned how to put together a good story, some good technical skills on the computer and that what matters to them can be communicated to other people. They are empowered now.”
The student films and DeFraites’ 30-minute documentary about Project Main Street were screened at the Midland Theatre in downtown Newark, a beautifully restored theatre, circa 1928, at the Newark Film Festival, hopefully the first of many such festivals. DeFraites’ students brought all their families and friends to the event.
DeFraites has signed on board to teach another filmmaking class next fall, and he’ll continue working independent film projects and making commercials and event videos. “I didn’t realize how personal teaching is,” he said. “I worried about each of these students, whether they would get their work done, how I could help them more.”
“These kids have shown me that sometimes you just have to take a chance. Even if you don’t know where it might lead, you won’t know unless you try.”
