Everett educator provides tuition-free classes in filmmaking to local youth

EVERETT — Ever wanted to make a movie?

At the Teen Storytellers Project in Everett, local youth get the chance to do just that.

Chris Gove first had the idea for the program around 2018. After his church in Snohomish opened a drop-in center for teens near the local high school, he was looking for ways the children could develop new skills and tap into their creative talents.

As someone who went to film school and worked as a freelance videographer, Gove decided to start his own film classes, tuition-free. Since he opened the program in Snohomish in 2019 before moving to Everett in 2022, young people ages 13 to 19 who went through the program have created more than 20 short narrative films and documentaries.

Classes take students through the entire process of making a film, from pre-production planning to post-production editing. The topics of their films have ranged from real-life stories of historical buildings in Snohomish to a ridiculous tale of a wizard traveling through time to find a MacBook.

That film, “Will the Wizard,” was the first project 14-year Emmalee Brazier worked on as part of the Teen Storytellers Project. She, along with others in the program, remembers the film fondly while recognizing its oddball nature.

“It’s, like, the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Emmalee said.

It was made as part of a 20-hour film challenge put on by the program, forcing the students to come up with ideas for a movie on the spot. Part of the point of the film classes is to entice that sort of creativity, Gove said.

“With the kids, there’s not a client that has a deadline, there’s not a big goal for the project other than to just make something and make it as cool as we can,” he said. “That’s really fun because kids get an idea they want to try, and every now and then I just bite my tongue and say ‘That probably won’t work, but why not try it?’”

The program runs about two to three classes every week during the school year. Apart from the organization’s main location in north Everett, the Teen Storytellers Project also hosts classes in the Casino Road neighborhood and in local juvenile detention centers as a provider of diversionary programming.

“Those have been really rewarding to do,” Gove said of the classes in juvenile detention centers. “It’s an opportunity to bring some resources and some opportunities to kids that don’t really have access to much outside of their schooling that they’re provided through the detention system.”

Some students joined the program because they want to go to film school, maybe becoming a director someday. Others were just looking for a fun way to pass the time.

But all the students in the current documentary filmmaking class — made up of those who have been in a few classes through the Teen Storytellers Project — say they’ve learned something from their experience.

“It’s the same way why some parents want their kids to do sports,” said Jonothan DeYonker, an instructor at the nonprofit. “Not because of the sport itself, but because of the teamwork and pursuing a common goal.”

Diego Jarillo Odegaard, 18, has been a part of the Teen Storytellers Project for more than two years. His immediate goal is to attend film classes at Shoreline Community College and he eventually hopes to become a director. The skills he learned through the nonprofit’s classes will help him do so, he said.

“It’s basically improved my film knowledge,” Jarillo Odegaard said. “I’ve learned how to edit better, set up three-point lighting, set up a camera.”

Emmalee had always enjoyed movies before starting the classes. But since she’s joined, they’ve helped take her out of her comfort zone, as she’s interviewed people as part of documentary projects and taken on the role of co-director on a short film.

“It’s fun to have something that makes you feel smart,” Emmalee said of the classes. “But not actually, because it’s so simple.”

In April, Everett’s cultural arts commission presented Gove with a Mayor’s Arts Award for his work with the Teen Storytellers Project.

In the future, Gove wants to bring more than just filmmaking classes to local youth. He hopes to offer classes in photography, music and graphic design, while also opening a creator space that people could rent to create or edit filmmaking projects.

“Our dream is to create a space where we could be a hub for filmmaking and digital arts creation in Everett,” Gove said.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.