What does it mean to grow up?

That's the question at the heart of Around the Campfire, my debut short-form documentary that explores the impact that my years at summer camp had on me.

Camp gave me a second family, and it became an incredibly foundational part of how I grew up and what values I took through life.

As I began to apply for colleges, I was reckoning with the fact that I was probably going to be calling somewhere other than Chicago 'home' for the next four years. What did that mean for me going into the next stage of my life? Through the lens of my time at Camp Anokijig, I was able to examine the question at the heart of that problem:

When a place becomes so important to you, what happens when you're forced to leave it all behind?

Around the Campfire was a great craeative exercise for me, and I pushed myself in every facet of the production process, from scripting to cinematography to narration and especially editing. It helped me to:

• Build on my years of experience in Premiere, Photoshop and in camerawork
• Start to build my foundation of experience in After Effects and Audition
• Experience parts of the filmmaking process I wasn't familiar with, like promotion and release to a general audience

Around the Campfire was awarded as an Official Selection - Documentary of the 2021 All-American High School Film Festival, the premiere film festival for young filmmakers with >2500 submissions per year.

As a part of the festival, it was screened to an audience at the AMC Theater in New York's Times Square.

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