That was the premise the BIFF Kids Film Festival presented to students on the island between the ages of 11 and 14.

Several took on the challenge, critiquing ? either pictorially or in writing ? any movie of their choice, as long as they'd seen it in the last two years. Thirteen names were drawn at random. The result? , a ten-minute film which will screen this weekend as part of the island's first film festival for kids.

Emily Collins, Elizabeth Watson, Andrew Edwards, Rowan Vickers, Justine Hamer, Brittany de Frias, Brian Gonzales, Claire Hirschberg, Christopher Dyer, Emily Dunne, Nicholas Rinehimer, Antwan Edwards and Vanessa James spent last weekend at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI) making their film debut under the tutelage of three who are arguably more well-versed ? Canadian film-maker Erik Goulet, Bermudian film-maker Lucinda Spurling and former film professor Vicky Zabriskie. This week, all spoke highly of the experience.

"Lucinda and I have both gone to film school and been on film sets ourselves so in terms of what the undertaking of making a movie is, we knew," said Ms Zabriskie. "But we had never done it with younger people. It was really impressive how each participant took their role very seriously.

"Everyone did a great job and we pulled together. I was very impressed with the amount of teamwork. That's one of the biggest learning experiences, I think, in making a film. It is truly a collaborative art form. If you don't have respect for the other person's portion of the film then you don't have a good product and the kids were amazing that way."

Although there was assistance given, the children bore the lion's share of the work involved in the two-day project. Each role was fought for, with the successful person expected to assume all responsibilities that came with it.

Explained Ms Zabriskie: "We tried to let the students run it as much themselves as possible. There were so many kids who wanted to act that originally, our suggestion was to draw names. But they voted to audition for their roles ? the technical and the acting end of things."

One of those who won the right to appear onscreen was 12-year-old Claire Hirschberg. Apparently a shoo-in ? by her own admission, acting wasn't a new experience for her.

"I played the role of Jinx," she said. "Me and my friends act at home and I've been in a pantomime before."

Another actor, Rowan Vickers, was equally at ease performing his role as president. His resum? was as follows: the roles of John Darling and Peter Pan in a play at the Grand Theatre in Canada and he played Macduff's son in , at the Stratford Festival, a leading Shakespearean theatre festival in Ontario, Canada.

"It was a really fun experience for me," the 11 year old said. "I'd mostly acted on stage before, never in front of a camera except for making home movies with my friends. And it was really fun to do with all the technical aspects, the lights and things. I really hope to continue acting."

Brothers Antwan and Andrew Edwards had attended acting camp in New York but were just as excited to assume new roles.

"I was in charge of the lighting. I thought I did a pretty good job so I sort of bragged all over the place that I was good at it," laughed 13-year-old Antwan. "I had never worked on lights ? ever. This was only for one weekend so Erik, our producer, just taught me how to change the different colour gels, how to make the light more intense or more dim. And the director, Nicholas, basically told me what to do in the movie. And that's how I did it."

His brother turned to the crew for advice as well ? turning to assistant director Vanessa James for help with one of his tasks ? make-up.

"I was the sound and makeup person," the 11 year old said. "I got to help dress up the people. I actually put make-up on people. Mostly in sound I just took something called a boom arm which I took and held over people without being seen by the camera. It was real fun because I got to listen to other people on the set."

The experience for 14-year-old Vanessa was bittersweet ? with the workshop age limit set at 14, she won't be able to participate next year.

"It was a learning experience," she said. "It was something I would do again but probably won't have the opportunity to because I'll be 15 this year. Basically, I helped Nicholas ? the director ? portray his ideas to the actors to help ease his workload."

She admitted to having launched a campaign for the role of director: "We had to give a speech to the actors and producers and everybody voted. The person with the most votes was named director and the person with the second most votes became assistant director.

"I said that I was mature. That I was hard-working, open-minded and that I would take the actors' ideas into consideration but I would not always promise to use them."

Thirteen-year-old Nicholas Rinehimer said he believed his past experience helped secure him the role of director.

"I'd worked on directing other things before, mostly with my friends," he said. "I also directed a school play that I'd written with a couple of other students. I really enjoy directing. I'm actually making a movie right now which I'm directing involving about 40 people."

The script, was written by Mr. Goulet in 1986.

"He wrote it about something that would have a general appeal to (a certain) age group and how amazing it was it didn't need to be changed, 20 years later," said Ms Spurling. "And I was really impressed. At the end when we watched all the rough takes, I was really impressed with how well it came off."

The team spent two days together, eight hours of which was actually spent filming. Forty minutes of footage was eventually whittled down to ten ? the final product a mystery to everyone but Mr. Goulet who flew back to Montreal for final editing.

"It's often a learning process for an adult to see how a younger person handles a situation creatively, but also through teamwork," Ms Spurling added.

"I think it was a good lesson for (us). Adults don't usually behave as well as (these) young people did. They took on their roles without fear. We had a female camera woman ? something you don't find very often in the actual film industry ? Andrew did makeup. That could teach us something."

Added Ms Zabriskie: "I've taught a number of film classes but never to youth. I was excited to see what they would do with it. It was refreshing I thought, in the amount of power that was given to the kids as opposed to the adults telling them: 'You do this'.

"We explained to them what they could do but allowed them to do what they wanted. It's also great, when you have a collaborative art form, to see how well a team will gel together. Our two brothers here obviously knew each other but beyond that they weren't a bunch of kids who were friends, so over the course of two days became a real, honest working team. It was great."

q will screen twice during the BIFF Kids Film Festival ? before the French feature film HOP, at 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 16, and before Arif Hossein ETV Dhaka, Quiero Ser and Stoffer's Moment on Sunday, October 17 at 2 p.m.

The BIFF Kids Film Festival runs tomorrow and on Sunday at the BUEI theatre. Films will be presented for two age groups ? seven to ten and 11 through 14. Screening times will be at noon, 2 p.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. each day. For more information, telephone 293-3456.