feature: teen profile his summer, in a student-made film on student suicide, a troubled high school valedictorian shot and killed himself in front of his classmates at commencement ceremonies. Budding producer-director-cameraman Danny Agar, 15, captured the scene on film. Danny, along with 10 other Detroit teens, was chosen to be on the Fresh Films 2007 Detroit Team. From June 24-30, the teens, four interns and executive producer Kelley Maher created a short dramatic film called The Commencement. learning Each teen practiced different roles of filmmaking. Danny, a sophomore at North Farmington High School, had no prior skills; but he experienced the various duties. Each day was a new adventure as the teens learned the difficulties of the business. the ropes of "One day we were on the phone the whole day finding loca- tions for the shoot," Danny said. filmmaking They had trouble finding a location because their film was about suicide. Eventually, Danny met with Principal by Stephanie Steinberg Rick Jones, who let the team shoot scenes in the North Farmington auditorium and on the football field. The shoot day lasted from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. "That went really long because we had a lot of camera problems," Danny said. "By the end, we were rolling pretty fast." The most difficult part was dealing with a script they didn't write. The teens were given the general topic of drama and submitted script ideas to a professional scriptwriter. "Someone might have put something about a high school, someone else about killing themselves — and the scriptwriter all put that together," Danny said. "I'm just proud of finishing the movie because we had a little bit of time, and we didn't have all the resources like a professional film company. We didn't have millions of dollars." Danny also is delighted that the film received juror's pick. Each film category — drama, action and comedy — contained three films shot in different cities across the country. Viewers in the U.S. T2T torah: nitzavim logged onto the Fresh Films Web site Aug. 2-8 to watch the movies and vote for the best film. While The Commencement didn't win, it won jury's choice for drama. Jury judges included Jeremy Coon, producer and editor of Napo- leon Dynamite; Katherine Brooks, director of TV's 1 he Real World and The Osbournes. Having a film judged by famous producers and direc- tors "made me think that I really have a chance to make a name for myself in the movie business," Danny said. He is considering going into filmmaking. "I'd rather be a direc- tor because they have so much more say, and they work with the creative side of movies," he said. Danny already has gotten a start on his career. He and two friends, Baxter Trapp and Jeremy Burnstein of North Farm- ington, have started a production company called Tab Productions. The teens create video montages for b'nai mitzvah and videotape the events. Stephanie Steinberg, 17, is a senior at North Farmington High School. Log onto www.fresh-films.com to view The Commencement. Visit tabfilms. corn for more information on Danny's business. by Seth Samuels all of us standing at Sinai I knocked on the door and she said, "Let me just get know? Programs like the North American Federation of into my chair." Temple Youth's (NFTY) Mitzvah Corps, where I spent my ally opened the door, I looked down at a frail old lady High School { web surfing/Jewish sites abound by Ariella Yedwab I heard a faint groan from within. When she eventu- Danny Agar, 15, on location at his school, North Farmington summer and met the woman I described, are thriving with teens taking control and making changes. sitting in a wheelchair. I handed her the food I had Then, when I came home I joined a group of lo- brought, knowing that this would probably be her only Nowadays, one staple of teen life is a computer, and with it comes the Inter- net. Whether it's Instant Messaging with friends, looking up a historical event for homework or perusing the latest styles in an online catalog, teenagers have found a plethora of Web sites to not only interest them, but also to fit their exact needs. Along with daily necessities such as Google and Wikipedia, numerous teens have added Jewish Web sites to their online surfing arsenal as a new form of cal teenagers working with "Summer in the City," an learning about our rich culture, history and tradition. Check these out: • Jewish-languages.org: Teaches about the Jewish languages that were meal of the day and that I would most likely be the only extraordinary teen service group here in Detroit. And widely spread across the globe, how each differs and how they each subtly person she would see. this spring, my youth group, YFTI (Youth Federation of developed over time. After our short visit, I got up to leave. She looked Temple Israel), will be traveling to Costa Rica on an me straight in the eyes and smiled brightly. No words alternative spring break program. Juniors and seniors were necessary. will travel south, not to party, but to be part of the solu- In the Shabbat Torah portion just preceding the High tion to help poverty and illiteracy. Holidays, Nitzavim, we find the famous line, "You stand I know that there is much to criticize about my gen- this day, all of you, before the Lord your God." The rab- • Ktay.com: This site is a Jewish version of amazon.com , selling many different books, haggadot and holiday toys. • Jewfaq.org: An online teacher about Judaism, its holidays and the Jew- ish calendar. With these are four different levels of teaching, ranging from the basics to gentile knowledge. eration. We can be lazy, disrespectful and materialistic, • Jewishblogging.com: A large blog about Jewish topics, such as holiday bis believed that because the Torah is the word of God and adults probably don't like our music very much; and therefore perfect, it cannot be redundant. Because but I also believe that many of this generation realize cooking, Jews in business, the Jewish religion and even Yiddish. • Jrants.com: A Jewish blogging site that focuses on happenings in Israel the first word "you" is plural, why then the need for the that it is like we, too, were standing at phrase "all of you"? According to the midrash, "all of Sinai receiving God's commandments and the Jewish World. We want to know your favorite sites — Jewish or not! Send us an e-mail at you" refers not only to the 600,000 Israelites standing ... all of us! kcohen@thejewishnews.com with Web addresses of your favorite sites and there that day, but to all of us as well. Arlene Yedwab, 16, attends West why you like them and we'll share therii with Teen2Teen readers. Put "T2T I believe my generation understands this 3,000- year-old responsibility of mitzvot deeply. How do I 2 Bloomfield High School. Web sites" in the subject line. Seth Samuels, 16, is a junior at Birmingham Groves High School.