All boys. All boarding. Grades 9-12.

Claws and Teeth to Publish Student-Made Films

Watching student-made films “broadens our vision of the world and our community,” says Michael Deng ’16, leader of LemonTree Film Club, formerly the Film and Photography Club. So the fourth former has launched a new online publication called Claws and Teeth, a collection of films made by Woodberry Forest students.

The nine films in the inaugural issue represent a diverse range of artistic genres, settings, and purposes. Some are documentaries, like Michael’s own piece, Family Under the Roof, which tells the story of an impoverished family in a remote area of his home country, China. “We also have a film Graham Goldstein ’16 and Garnett Reid ’16 made about building ukuleles as their Senior Distinction project,” Michael says. Other films are fictional; Iain Leggatt ’16 made three short films in the styles of three different directors as his Senior Distinction. Tuan Anh Nguyen ’16 is including an experimental film that uses montage to illustrate tensions created by industrialization.

Michael intends to publish semi-annual issues of Claws and Teeth, a title that references not only Woodberry’s mascot but also the teeth and cogs that pull old-fashioned film through a camera. “I hope lots of people will submit films to the collection,” he says. “This will be a resource for filmmakers who need a way to get their films in front of an audience."

View the Claws and Teeth booklet

View the Claws and Teeth film collection
Woodberry Forest admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, and national or ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs. The school is authorized under federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.