Magic CampSaturday, 11am‘Magic Camp’ gives off a warm glow from the opening seconds of footage to the final curtain at the end of a week-long summer camp for budding magicians.These young people are not your everyday American schoolchildren. Many of them are naturally introverted and shy. Yet when they get together with like-minded souls to hone their skills and share their enthusiasm for performing magic tricks, they are transformed — dare it be said — as if by magic.They converge on Tannan’s Magic Camp in Pennsylvania, an old mansion-type building that would not look out of place in a Harry Potter movie. Here, they are allowed to be themselves, explore their passion, learn new tricks and aim to be the next magician sensation.Household names such as David Copperfield and David Blaine have performed on the same summer camp stage. The 100 or so attendees at the Magic Camp dream of being the next superstar illusionist, and they have a golden chance if they can impress their tutors and win one of the four coveted places in the Magic Camp stage competition final.Director Judd Ehrlich follows the experiences of not only the chosen four, but also turns his attention on other interesting characters at the camp and their own personal stories and challenges. One student discovers a release from the rigours of Tourette’s Syndrome through his focused approach to magic-making, while others speak of “finding” themselves by performing on stage.Learning magic and how to be better stage performers also teaches the young magicians self-confidence and self-respect. “I like the elegance of magic,” says one of the campers, while another states that being up on stage in front of an audience “helps me to be myself”. A tutor reinforces the message, telling the students not to run away from their quirkiness, but to revel in it.However, it’s not all sunshine and happiness at the Magic Camp. Homesickness is an issue for at least one participant, while another learns that his father has been badly injured in an accident. One student admits that magic helps them “escape from the stuff going on at home”. Emmy-nominated director Ehrlich skilfully weaves together these vignettes into the bigger story, while maintaining a sense of anticipation as the week-long camp builds towards a climax with the stage competition final for the top four students.While the secrets and sleight-of-hand mastery behind most of the tricks remain just that, secrets, ‘Magic Camp’ was clearly not intended to be a how-to into the art of magic. Instead, it is a well-presented, uplifting, family-friendly story likely to leave the viewer agreeing that “nothing is impossible”.