From the written word to the big screen, three emerging storytellers will see their visions come to life this weekend after winning a storytelling contest put on by Art of Me, a local organization that educates young people about writing and storytelling. 

A panel of reviewers selected Cleveland Metropolitan School District students Alexis Ortiz-Camacho and Tae Smith as the contest’s youth winners and Clevelander Angela Ferrell as its adult winner.

With help from professional screenwriters and filmmakers, Ortiz-Camacho, Smith and Ferrell spent months weaving their stories together into one script for a feature film called “Unlocked.” The movie, directed by Cleveland-based filmmaker Devon Collins, will premiere on the big screen this Saturday during the Art of Me Gala at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The event starts at 6 p.m., and tickets are available online. 

“Unlocked” follows a group of teens and the adults who support them as they work to revitalize an old building in their community. Three main characters, each written by one of the contest winners, find kinship in their dreams of positive change, said Stephanie Wahome-Lassiter, the founder and executive director of Art of Me. 

“All three of these characters, they live in the same community, and they just collide,” Wahome-Lassiter said. “They were the only people who really wanted to see change, and they didn’t realize they were helping each other through the process.”

Teaching soft skills through storytelling 

The story of “Unlocked” hits at the core of Wahome-Lassiter’s mission with Art of Me, which she started in 2017. Writing, storytelling and filmmaking are tools young people in Cleveland can use to reflect on social issues impacting them and how to solve them, she said.

Art of Me hosts an annual workshop for educators, usually bringing about 120-150 teachers together to learn about the organization’s storytelling curriculum. The curriculum draws on social and emotional learning concepts, a kind of education focused on helping students develop interpersonal skills and self-awareness. 

Some teachers work the Art of Me curriculum into their lessons while others host after school workshops for students. Teachers spread the word about the annual contest, so each year, about 100 students submit stories. Art of Me also hosts workshops for senior citizens, and they can submit stories in the contest’s adult category.

“Everyone has a story to share, and the more we just listen to other folks’ stories, sometimes we learn a little bit more about ourselves,” Wahome-Lassiter said. 

Ortiz-Camacho, a senior at Facing History New Tech High School and one of the scriptwriters, used his character’s story in “Unlocked” to express his own lifelong experiences with epilepsy, a neurological condition that causes recurring seizures. He wanted to raise awareness about the condition because many people have misconceptions about it, he said. 

“A lot of people that I have told that I have epilepsy, they would seem confused about it,” Ortiz-Camacho said. “I would have to explain it to them, and it made me realize how little a lot of people know about epilepsy.” 

Throughout the film, Ortiz-Camacho’s character learns how to be more open about his struggles, he said. That mirrors his own experience with the condition. 

“When I was diagnosed with epilepsy, when I first heard about it, I was scared,” he said. “Then at some point in my life, I thought, this shouldn’t hold me back from doing what I want to do. It’s better to find a way to work with what you’re struggling with than to just let it block you.”