Filmmaker Marquette Williams doesn’t believe our childhood dreams die with age, and that’s part of why he created iFilm, a workforce development training program designed for both young and older adults from underprivileged backgrounds to see their dreams of working in the film industry fulfilled.
“What happens to a dream unfulfilled?” said Williams. “Does it die? It does not. It incubates, it waits, hides. There’s a part of you that’s 60 that’s still 15. We old people are still kids inside.”
iFilm’s workforce development training program looks to fill jobs in Cleveland’s growing film production industry with homegrown, skilled laborers with a passion for filmmaking. The program’s latest film, “Interval”, a sci-fi thriller written and directed by Williams, premieres Sunday, June 22, at Atlas Cinemas in Shaker Square.
‘I will do your project…in exchange, you have to hire them.’
Williams called his training method “a feature film workshop.” On “Interval,” about 80% of the cast and crew were current and former students, he said.
“The actual work was all done by students,” he added. “The goal is to teach them in real time how it works. How do you perform under duress? How do you operate [working] 12 to 14 hours a day? We all work together on everybody’s projects, and you kind of rotate around, so each project, you work on different stuff.”
“Second part is…we try to make sure that you have one employable skill so that you’re always working in the industry,” Williams continued. “You may not be directing yet, but you’re always around it, you’re never away from it. Then, you teach. Every student is obligated to teach the next student, cuz that’s how knowledge is passed.”
Williams uses his own reputation as a producer and director in Hollywood to support the program and get work for his students.
Williams has produced and directed more than 50 commercials and several award-winning films. Williams also created a series of cinema education curriculums for teaching underprivileged students about the film industry.
“I tell them, ‘I can do a lot with [a small production budget] if you use [the students]. I will do your project, you will get all my creative prowess that you may think I have. In exchange, you have to hire them.’ And that’s how we’ve been doing it for three years.”
‘We push them to dream beyond where they actually are…’
Much of Williams’ job running the program is to lift the confidence and self-sufficiency of his students.
“The point is to trick them into believing they can do it,” he said. “We really push them to dream beyond where they actually are, which in Cleveland I think is very difficult. We are trying to break down a lot of these barbaric stereotypes and phobias that have permeated things here.”
“[They’re often told] ‘You need to get a job at Amazon,’” Williams continued. “I understand what their parents, what their community is trying to say to them. [But] we are here to teach you a new market skill. This wall was made, like, a carpenter came in, framed it, and built a wall. That’s construction, just happened to be for movie sets. Same thing with lighting, that’s electrical. So we’re really rebranding core skills that Clevelanders have and showing them they can apply them this way.”
How it works
The Young Adult Apprenticeship Program, for students 20 years old and under, expects one-third of its graduates to be accepted to college with the other two-thirds eligible to begin working on film sets. The Older Adult Apprenticeship Program for adults age 21 and over prepares students for immediate hiring in “below-the-line” work, film crew jobs related to the actual production of the film.
Older and disabled adults also get to chase their dreams through iFilm’s workforce development program. One of Williams’ students was a woman who had worked in theatre all her life before suffering a stroke. Through the iFilm program, she became a script supervisor at 66 years old.
“I’m not trying to compete with CSU or Tri-C,” Wiliams said. “I am purely bringing in people who never even dreamed of going to those places. I am purely trying to ignite a fire you thought you had left when you were a little kid. Life deals you cards, some say your ZIP code determines your outcome. I believe this. What it does not do is determine the fight inside of you. I’m just here to get you feeling like you have something to contribute to something that’s cool. From there, you’ll find your way.”
Check out the trailer for the new iFilm production, “Interval,” here: