Courier Post - 10/25/07

Changing Our World Project video accepted by Del. Val. film festival

By WASHINGTON TWP. SCHOOL DISTRICT

A music video depicting the Changing Our World (COW) Project at Washington Township High School has been accepted into the Delaware Valley Film Festival.

Produced by Washington Township High School graduate Michael Licisyn, "We Can Change Our World" will be shown during Session IV from 1 to 5 p.m. on Nov. 4, at the Village Players of Hatboro Theater, 401 Jefferson Avenue, Hatboro, Pa.

"The COW project at Washington Township High School is a wonderful example of how to really build respect and tolerance for all people," WTHS Principal Rosemarie Farrow said. "Eileen Lucarini and Deb Chamberlin and our students are truly dedicated to promoting the possibility of peaceful relations among all people in our community, and I am very grateful for the work they do."

The COW Project was intended to be a one-time project using the creative arts as a vehicle for teens to express what they care about most in the world, and to make a positive impact through some kind of project they create and share in the community. More than 25 kids from Washington Township High School joined the project, where they wrote a 50-minute short play about a teen girl with high academic performance, who felt so much pressure and stress in her life that she committed suicide. The rest of the play was about how her death impacted her friends and family.

The project turned into a full-time club that produced two more original plays. In 2006, the group hosted a delegation of Arab and Jewish Israeli teens from the Peace Child Israel organization, which uses theatre to teach co-existence.

Co-founder Deb Chamberlin, a singer-songwriter, co-founder and WTHS teacher Eileen Lucarini, Chamberlin's husband and WTHS teacher Todd Oberholtzer took lyrics Chamberlain wrote for a COW play script and turned them into a song, which became "We Can Change Our World." The song was recorded, sung by COW kids, as well as Philadelphia recording artists. The group performs the song at many events throughout New Jersey.

Licisyn, a filmmaker, agreed to produce a video for "We Can Change Our World" with his company, Mixed Nuts Productions, as well as a documentary, and his connection to the local film festivals has helped the video gain acceptance, Chamberlin said.

Tickets to the festival are $10 per session, or $25 for all four sessions (there are two sessions Nov. 3). To order tickets, e-mail to delvalfilmfest@verizon.net. For more information and list of films screening at the festival, go to www.geocities.com/delawarevalleyfilmfestival/DVFF.htm