What Is Belonging? A Film Screening Event

What is belonging? That question weighed on the minds of many Boston-based students in the METCO voluntary busing program at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School (LSRHS). Though they share classes and buildings with their peers who live in the suburban towns that give the school its name, they did not always feel like they fully belonged in that space. They asked for a way to tell their story – and Filmbuilding and EMA Foundation worked with LSRHS and METCO to make that happen. During Spring 2024, students at LSRHS came together across diverse lived experiences to co-create short films exploring the essence of ‘belonging.’ Working in small groups throughout the duration of this six-week workshop, these first-time filmmakers relied on each other’s ideas and personal stories to guide them through a discovery-based process as they developed, filmed, and edited their projects. Each group represented LSRHS’s diverse student body, consisting of members from Sudbury, Lincoln and various communities within Boston. This initiative aspires to demonstrate how collaborative visual storytelling can be a powerful tool for building bridges, empowering youth and creatively exploring meaning and solutions to challenges that affect us all during times of uncertainty. The project culminates in an event on June 5 at which the filmmakers will screen their films and discuss their process with the audience. The program will also feature a behind-the-scenes documentary. Admission and refreshments are free. We encourage anyone interested in education, equity, youth agency, storytelling, and community building to join for a celebration of belonging – to see what these young filmmakers learned about belonging and the nature of community.

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