Love Springs

by Luis Mora

I am proud of students at WHEELS writing and performing their first short film. We titled the film "Love Springs" because it follows different love stories from the perspectives of young people in NYC. Originally this project was meant to be a live performance. However, we quickly realized that the logistics of a live performance at school would require much more planning than we anticipated. We needed to book the auditorium, create marketing in order to get audiences in the seats, and we would need a lot of support from school staff and administration during a very busy time. This is when we decided to pivot to a short film format. We recorded all the scenes and monologues that otherwise would've been performed live and we recorded them in two afternoons in different locations around the school.

When you work with young people you have to be very aware of the things that spark their interests. Through check-ins, lots of conversations, and a lot of observation, I noticed that the theme of relationships is something that they naturally gravitated towards. Boyfriends, girlfriends, and all the high and lows of young relationships is something that was often brought up. That's when I decided to lean into that idea and encourage young people to write material about the subject. A narrative was formed naturally and that's how our project came together.

I find that it's very easy for adults to dismiss teenagers when they speak about their relationships. But I couldn't help myself to care as I remember how important those early years were for me. Relationships seemed crucial, important, and life-changing. Some of them were. So it's very important to me to acknowledge these feelings in young people and to give them a chance to process their feelings, while also providing feedback as an adult with a specific set of lived experiences.

Young people today don't have a lot of adults that they trust to speak about these type of subjects. They often feel judged by parents and teachers. Additionally, they are bombarded with content on social media and tv/film that pressures them into relationships very early in their lives. This creates toxic relationships, early traumas, and unsafe situations. It was such a reward to get to guide them through this process, tackle sensitive and important topics, and wind up with an amazing film at the end of it.

Dear Academy, we’ll take our Oscar now!