Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm) announced its official “Living Reel” Project’s 2024 film, a short music video and documentary in collaboration with Youth Villages and Moraine Music Group.
The 2024 Living Reel Community Project short documentary will screen ahead of the presentation of “Diane Warren: Relentless” on Saturday, September 21, 2024, at the Regal Green Hills.
This marks the 20-year anniversary of Nashville Film Festival’s Living Reel program serving Nashville’s at-risk youth. This year’s program is a female-led initiative that brings professional talent together with teen girls in foster care in the Nashville area to help them learn to work together as a team while learning about various aspects of music recording and filmmaking.
NashFilm partnered with Youth Villages, a national leader in children’s mental and behavioral health committed to building strong families with a local chapter in Nashville, and local music publisher Moraine Music Group to give at-risk teen girls in foster care hands-on experience in filmmaking and songwriting.
The program not only documents the process of songwriting but also demonstrates the various aspects of filmmaking and recording in the music and film business in an homage to Nashville’s rich musical history. The project consists of after-school hours dedicated to the writing, composing and recording of a song that tells the story of the teens’ triumphs and struggles with the help of professional musicians and songwriters. This female-driven project serves as a healthy outlet for the teens to express themselves and further explore their strengths in an environment where adversity is celebrated.
This year’s song, “Love Is Always There,” is an original piece co-written by Nashville singer-songwriters Kyshona, founder of Your Song, an organization working with vulnerable communities to help them find their voice through music, Steph Jones, co-writer on Sabrina Carpenter’s #1 Billboard hit, “Espresso,” and the teens of Youth Villages, also known as the AURORA.
“The songwriters were really inspirational and encouraging, inviting us to open up and dig deep to create insightful, original work,” said Abigail Holland, a Living Reel youth participant. “The entire experience brought me closer to my peers and gave me a new outlook on the arts. I didn’t realize I liked songwriting before this project, so it was fun to have the opportunity to write and sing, and it even inspired me to start journaling.”
“My mission is to be a voice and a vessel for those who feel lost, forgotten, silenced or hurt,” said Kyshona, songwriter and music therapist. “I’ll jump at the opportunity to help young people, especially young women, find their story and their voice. I also enjoy working with Youth Villages because these young ladies are always ready and willing to hop right into the process and discuss the hard things, the embarrassing things and the vulnerable things to write a masterpiece together.”
Student education screenings take place at the Frist Art Museum, offering Metro Nashville Public Schools students the chance to see independent films that they might not otherwise have the opportunity to view and engage with.
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