Local filmmaker inspiring change
By: Meghan Backus
Updated: February 28, 2008
A local filmmaker is trying to inspire changes through the movies she creates.
When Rehema Trimiew was in Kindergarten, she faced injustices in the classroom. She is continuing a fight her parents started then.
“They had to confront my kindergarten teacher because she wouldn't believe that I could read,” Trimiew said. “At the time I could read.”
The New Jersey-native portrays the incident in her film, “Sticks and Stones.” It's award winning and has recently been shown at The Little Theater and in film festivals around the world.
“Unfortunately every time the film shows, people come up and say, ‘my son went through the same thing’ or ‘my daughter went through that, and they put him in special education because he wasn't as smart as the other kids.’"
For close to six years now, the 29-year-old has lived in
Rehema has profiled two teens and the struggles they face on the streets and in school. At the same time, she has been teaching them how to show their own voices through film. She will be doing the same in
“Rehema’s very good at challenging girls to get the beyond the I can't to the I can,” said Sheila Driscoll, the special projects manager at RCTV-15, the local community station helping out with the project.
“I'm always trying to look at why these things are happening,”Trimiew said, “so I'm looking at two kids here and two kids that look like them but are in a totally different culture and what are their differences in their mindsets.”
The final product will be called, "Inspirations of Life." And like “Sticks & Stones”, she hopes it inspires change in the way people think and act.
Rehema leaves for Africa in May. She says the film should be complete sometime in the fall.
