Carl Sandburg High School freshman Aeris Danet says she’s been writing stories and screenplays for as long as she could hold a pen.
So when the 15-year-old found out Sandburg planned to host a film festival in February, it felt like a sign to put her skills to the test and create her own horror film.
“I was like, ‘oh wow, this is actually giving me an opportunity to start,’” Aeris said Wednesday.
With no budget and strict limitations for shooting locations and film rating (keeping it appropriate for high school viewing), creating “Nebulous” was no easy task. But Aeris persevered, directing, writing, editing and acting in the 10-minute short film herself and recruiting classmates to make up the rest of the cast.
But the metaphorical rug was pulled out from under Aeris when Sandburg unexpectedly canceled the film festival due to lack of participation.
“I have this entire film edited; I’ve licensed all this music for it to be able to get into my high school film festival,” Aeris said. “I was like, what do I do with this now?”
Serendipitously, “Nebulous” happened to qualify for not only entrance, but for awards for a much bigger event. The Chicago Horror Film Festival, which recently expanded under new ownership and is vying for a world record for most indie films shown over three days, recognized Aeris for her general prowess among filmmakers of all ages from across the world.
Chris Vecchio, the festival’s promoter, said Thursday Aeris’ film was among the 224 accepted among over 600 entries.
“We go by directing, story, editing, cinematography, stuff like that,” Vecchio said. “It’s basically the mini Oscars — the Oscars for horror.”
And Aeris could win two of those mini Oscars. She was nominated for best horror first-time director without festival directors knowing her age or background.
“I started when I was 50, and I’m 57,” Vecchio said. “And for her to be 15, and just watching her film — it kind of blew me away.”
The concept behind “Nebulous” is intentionally meta, “filmmaking that turns deadly for a group of unsuspecting high school teens,” Aeris said matter-of-factly. She said her goal is to see it on the big screen, eventually as a franchise.
“I want to make it into a film, a movie where you can be like, ‘oh year, I’ve seen that when it was in the theatre, you know. I want people to be able to say that.”
Aeris’ film will debut right before noon on Sunday at Chicago’s Logan Square Theatre, 2646 N. Milwaukee Ave. The full schedule of films playing from Friday through Sunday is available at www.chicagohorrorfilmfest.com/.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
