6-Year-Old’s Climate Change Film Makes White House Debut

whitehouse.gov/film festival
whitehouse.gov/film festival

Montana first-grader Noah Gue will travel to the White House Friday to premiere a short film he made about climate change for the White House Student Film Festival.

The second annual White House Student Film Festival will feature 15 short films from teenage filmmakers in 12 states, according to the Associated Press. Projects expected to be screened in the East Room Friday afternoon include Los Angeles high school senior Riley Beres’ “sockumentary,” and a documentary about 18-year-0ld Archer Hadley’s fundraising effort to install wheelchair-accessible doors in his Texas school.

Six-year-0ld Gue is by far the youngest budding filmmaker to make the trip to the White House Friday. His short film explores the effects of climate change on his hometown of Bozeman, Montana.

“As a six-year-old, I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” the pint-sized documentarian says of climate change.

“The glaciers are receding and soon could be gone forever,” Gue continues. The boy then dons a pair of skis and hits the slopes, but soon encounters patches of brush among the snow. “February in Montana at 9,000 feet. What a shame,” Gue says.

“It’s time for the world to see conservation through a kid’s eye,” Gue continues, walking in the mountains of Montana. “My hope is that the pictures we are taking will inspire others to protect the environment.”

Gue reportedly got help with his film from his wedding photographer mother and firefighter father.

“He’s so little. I didn’t know he’d have the stamina to do it,” Amy Larson Gue told National Geographic. “He memorized what he was going to say. But when he got in front of the camera, he added in his own comments.”

The theme of this year’s White House Student Film Festival is “The Impact of Giving Back.”

Also on Friday, President Obama will announce a joint initiative through United We Serve, along with the American Film Institute (AFI) and SAG-AFTRA called A Call to Arts: The One Million Mentor Hours Pledge. The project aims to provide guidance to young filmmakers through one-on-one teaching partnerships, educational seminars, and a three-day mentoring event at the AFI Conservatory this summer. Additionally, each of the 15 filmmakers whose films were selected for the festival will participate in workshops Saturday at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

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