Reel talent: Youth festival featuring CCHS filmmakers

Two Acton-Carlisle High School students are shooting for the big screen. 

Movie buffs can check out short projects by CCHS seniors Charles Mastromarino and Claire Roeser at a youth film festival this week. 

Emerging Voices: An Evening of Short Films, set for May 7 at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, will feature student films from CCHS and other MetroWest schools, along with a live Q&A, and an award recognizing standout work.

Mastromarino’s film, “Perfect Crime,” began as a class project. The short follows two detectives investigating the murder of a snack company mogul, blending mystery with comedy.

“I liked doing a genre parody,” Mastromarino says. “It gave me a really good baseline for the look of the movie.”

He described the film as “a detective movie with visual style and twists and turns,” adding that it takes a lighthearted tone to the recognizable tropes. 

Mastromarino said his interest in filmmaking developed over time, starting with “watching Oscar-nominated movies and getting into the art form from there.”

Roeser’s “Comme Fille” explores an intimate relationship between family members. 

“I really just wanted to show the link between mother and daughter, not only the parental link, but also being of the same sex,” she says. 

Roeser says her inclusion in the film festival has been a confidence boost. 

“I think getting this recognition,” she says, “has really pushed me to just be like, ‘Yeah, I did that, and it was pretty cool.’”