HBCU Power Morehouse College has formally announced the Powerhouse Film Academy, which will be held at Morehouse College this summer. The film academy is offering a two-week intensive program designed to help high school boys develop their leadership and creative voices. The initiative will expand its cohort in storytelling, social impact, and entrepreneurship between June 30 and July 14.
The chosen participants will take part in workshops on media literacy, financial education, job preparedness, and filmmaking during the course. Before the young men go on their college careers, it will help them develop their leadership abilities and inspire them to convey tales from underrepresented voices.
“This isn’t just about teaching camera angles; this is about helping young Black men own their voice, craft their message, and step into their power,” said Jash’d Belcher, executive producer and founder of HBCU Power, in a press release. “At a time when representation is everything, we’re investing in the storytellers who will define the future.”
The project will come after HBCU Power’s own foray into the film industry, with Belcher’s executive-produced To Live and Die and Live, an award-winning picture, having a nationwide theatrical run following its Sundance premiere. Inspiring participants to write their own narratives that empower others in proportion to their own empowerment is the goal of the Powerhouse Academy.
Morehouse College is the alma mater of many heavy hitters in the film and entertainment industry such as Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, and Spike Lee have used the tools that they learned at Morehouse to create long and meaningful careers, inspiring the next generations to do the same.
“The theater professors at Spelman [where Morehouse students sometimes took classes] really encouraged us to meet the business side of acting head-on,” says Jackson. “We had to go outside of the school and find agents and book professional acting gigs in and around Atlanta in theater, film, and TV. We were expected to maintain our creative and performance obligations to the Morehouse Spelman Players at the same time. It was great real-world training for us to learn what it truly meant to be working actors.”
Through this initiative, HBCU Power hopes to advance its goal of encouraging Black students to be creative, educated, and leaders. The goal of HBCU Power’s Powerhouse Film Academy, an organization committed to supporting HBCUs and the various academics in its larger community, is to provide young storytellers a new stage on which to display their creative integrity and abilities.
Students that exhibit financial need may still apply, even though the academy is still tuition-based. Sponsored support offers minimal assistance.
The post Morehouse College makes big-time Hollywood move appeared first on ClutchPoints.
