AWFJ’s High School Mentorship Program – Cortland Jacoby reports
As 2025 winds down, I want to report on the film critic mentorship program AWFJ piloted in partnership with my former high school teacher, Drew Marvin, at Woodson High School in Northern Virginia. Students age 15 through 18 years old, in grades nine through twelve participated in Mr. Marvin’s after school film club. We convened every other week or so during the course of nine months.
At each session, a varying number of eager young young cinephiles gathered in Mr. Marvin’s classroom to watch and discuss films, and learn to analyse and write about them. Those who were consistant participants were offered the opportunity to have their reviews published on AWFJ.org. This would showcase young aspiring writers to our readers and followers, while allowing them to start developing portfolios of their published work.
Going into this experience with AWFJ’s backing, my main goal was to get the students to think critically about the art they were consuming on a daily basis. Mr. Marvin and I decided early on that the films we would watch and chat about would be recent and well-known. The list of films we showed ranged from Black Mirror episodes to Thelma, and included the students’ own choices which ranged from Uncut Gems to the Netflix holiday film Our Little Secret.
What impressed me most about these kids was their love of cinema and their eagerness to share their opinions – whatever the topic. Some of them brought a wealth of knowledge (ex: one young man was eager to debate me about Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar for an entire meeting), and others came in ready to apply analysis to films that are well-loved yet were poorly reviewed. Mr. Marvin and I agreed that our job was to teach the students to the find value in every frame and learn to critique the films’ storytelling style and cinema craft, no matter what they were watching.
As promised to the students, AWFJ.org is publishing reviews that resulted from the program. Each review showcases the author’s unique voice and personality and perspective. I am very proud of the accomplishments of every one of the students I worked with. Their dedication, passion and energetic quest for knowledge about the art make me very optimistic about the future of film criticism — especilly if these kids represent the kinds of communicators who are at the helm.
ENJOY THE REVIEWS:
