Since graduating from Norphlet High School in 2014, Brooklyn Alexander has been doing what she loves: writing, directing and filming short films.
Alexander said she has always had an interest in the performing aspect of film. She is now in her senior year at Savannah College of Art and Design, where she double majors in film and television and performing arts.
She has won numerous awards since her freshmen year of college, including Best 'Made in Arkansas Film' at a Night of Micro-Shorts Film Festival 2015, Official Selection, El Dorado Film Festival 2016, Best Screenplay — Women in Film, Austin Indie Fest 2018, and many others.
Most recently, Alexander was awarded Best of Fest for her film “Bingo Night” at the El Dorado Film Festival this year.
Alexander spoke about film and discussed how to make short films at the El Dorado Kiwanis Club meeting Wednesday.
“I had always been into the arts throughout school, particularly theater,” she said. “I never made an actual short film until my freshmen year of college. Since then, I’ve made several throughout school that have been shown at many different film festivals and have won many different awards.”
Alexander said a short film’s length is typically anywhere from one minute to 40 minutes.
The first short film Alexander made was called “Still Here” and takes place on the day of “Claire’s” mother’s funeral. Claire is trying her best to take care of her distraught father, who doesn’t acknowledge her efforts, “but when she stumbles upon a video her father was watching, she comes to realize he wouldn’t look at her because she looks so much like her mother as a young girl.”
Alexander said she came up with the idea for this film after watching an old 8 millimeter home video.
When Alexander made “Still Here,” her mother, Jacki, was still in chemo from fourth stage metastatic melanoma, which she had been diagnosed with during Alexander’s senior year of high school.
“It was sentimental for me,” Jacki added.
Alexander said she shot “Bingo Night” over Christmas break in El Dorado last year. The film is about an elderly man with arthritis trying to get himself and his untied shoes to bingo night to meet his girlfriend.
“This film has done very well in festivals so far and as I continue to grow as an artist, I hope to make more films, much like this one, that can do well in festivals and eventually make successful feature films for the big screen,” she said.
Alexander said she enjoys making family friendly films. “What I’m kind of branding myself as, would be family friendly entertainment,” she said. “I like to make films that people can just enjoy with everybody.”
Alexander said her biggest goal is to start a production company for feature films, which she is currently working on. She said she is working on this with a friend from college and they envision the company being a travel production company.
“So we’re going to be going around to different places and making these films,” she said. “I want to be able to own it, but also act in the films, direct the films, write them, things like that.”
Alexander said her favorite part about making short films is seeing the actors give a performance that is “magical.”
“I really like seeing the moments when I’m telling an actor what I want from that part, and they just give me a performance that is just magic on the screen,” she said. “It’s very gratifying.”
Jacki said she is very excited for her daughter.
“We’re having a good time and just hoping for the best,” Jacki said. “She’s giving 100 percent and she’s doing a really good job.”
Alexander plans to enter more festivals in the future and is getting ready to film her senior thesis project, which will be filmed in Savannah, Georgia next year. She said she is hoping to enter that film into numerous festivals.
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].