Licence to thrill for Ballymena’s Rosie!

BALLYMENA Academy pupil Rosie Gaunt was one of seven lucky teenagers from Northern Ireland to find themselves centre stage at a question and answer session with Pierce Brosnan recently at the 3rd Cinemagic Los Angeles Film and Television Festival for Young People.

The Irish born actor and patron of Cinemagic opened the Festival and shared his career experiences with young film and media students in Pepperdine University’s Center for Entertainment, Media and Culture at the end of last month.

Rosie was part of the audience along with six other NI students and two teenagers from the Republic of Ireland.

They had all participated in Cinemagic’s International Film Camp in Belfast last August which aimed to bring young people from different cultural backgrounds together to work on a common goal and the young people produced a short film in five days.

As a result of the film camp, seven teenagers from Northern Ireland and two teenagers from the Republic of Ireland were selected to represent Cinemagic during its week of events in Los Angeles and to showcase their short film to the young audiences there.

Cinemagic has been working in partnership with a number of film and television organizations in Los Angeles that include The Jim Henson Company, Walt Disney Animation Studios, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, HBO, 20th Century Fox, Remote Control Studios, Pepperdine University, New York Film Academy, Variety and Inner-City Arts to entertain and educate  young people through film and offer them the opportunity to attend educational Q&A’s, film screening, workshops and special events with leading industry professionals such as Pierce Brosnan and Oscar winning composer Hans Zimmer.

Joan Burney Keatings, Chief Executive of Cinemagic International Film & Television Festival for Young People, said “The Cinemagic Festival gives young people the opportunity to work with others from different cultural backgrounds and to create new channels of communication through the medium of film. The workshops help develop not only the young people’s film making skills but also their inter-personal skills, and the overall process of film viewing contributes to a deeper understanding of cultural difference.”

Pierce Brosnan, Cinemagic patron said “Cinemagic offers a unique educational experience to students who might otherwise not receive the chance to learn about the entertainment industry”.