Tribeca Film Fellow develops passion for filmmaking

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Each year a select group of high school students from the New York area is selected by the non-profit Tribeca Film Institute to participate in a six-week program designed to get them ready for careers in film, TV and new media.

A senior from Brooklyn's Midwood High School, Stephanie Cherng, said the experience changed her life.

"I'm really, like, low-key about lots of things and I don't really talk about what I do," she said.

But she has plenty to talk about after spending time as a Tribeca Film Fellow. "When I make films, I am in control. I have a say. Whatever I want to do, I have a

say, and no one can stop me."

She hopes to study filmmaking in college, but is concerned about the lack of diversity in Hollywood. "'Course it bothers me, but it's not something that stops me from whatever I want

to do."

Her first movie, made when she was just 15, is a documentary about her dad who fled the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

"Throughout my whole life, my father and my family always talked about just the Cambodian genocide," she said. "They were always open about it, but making that film, I was able to know details."

When it came time to make her first dramatic film, she stayed close to home and once again wrote about what she knew. "Naked Sister" is about a wayward young woman and was inspired by events in the filmmaker's own family.

The movie, developed and completed while she was a Tribeca fellow, gave its director self-confidence, she said. "You put a lot of love and tears and dedication into it and then when someone comes up to you and they love your work, that is the most amazing feeling ever."

Cherng said she is so grateful to the film institute and to another non-profit group in Brooklyn called Reel Works where she learned the basics of filmmaking.