The Milwaukee International Film Festival and Bucketworks are proud supporters of the Milwaukee Spotlight Student Film Festival, scheduled for May 2006. In preparation for Brew City's only youth film festival, seven filmmaking workshops will take place at Bucketworks, 1319 N. Martin Luther King Dr., on Sunday, Nov. 20.

"We hope to have as many as 200 students participating, from the Metro Milwaukee area," says Dominic Inouye (in photo).

Inouye is the executive director and co-founder, along with Bucketworks director James Carlson, of Milwaukee Spotlight.

Inouye says the goal of the program is to introduce students to the filmmaking process--from script to storyboard to lighting to special effects to editing -- and to give them the tools and resources they need to get their artistic vision onto the big screen.

Last year, the festival featured 35 films from 11 area schools, and Inouye expects to double those numbers this year.

Inouye is the co-chair of the English Department at Pius XI High School. Milwaukee Spotlight fosters partnerships with numerous local educators like Jeff Cartier, a local educator volunteering as a Milwaukee Spotlight educational outreach coordinator.

Cartier says the program helps to not only nurture creative expression, but to teach kids about "media literacy."

"There is a concern, particularly by educators, that media producers are becoming more and more manipulative and predatory in their efforts to persuade young consumers," says Cartier, who works to help kids become more critical of the media and to understand how it impacts their lives.

Students who attend the Nov. 20 workshops will be on track to participate in the student film festival next spring. Last year, The Milwaukee International Film Festival screened three Spotlight flicks, including "Impersonator II" which won Best Picture.

"The Milwaukee Spotlight Student Film Festival is the first film festival dedicated to Milwaukee youth," says Inouye. "We hope to have more schools and a more diverse range of students participating this year."

Milwaukee Spotlight's Web site is: milwaukeespotlightfilms.org.