4/30/12 2:37 PM<b>Lights, Camera, Action!</b><br><i>Girls write, direct and star in their own film</i>

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printLights, Camera, Action!Girls write, direct and star in their own filmby Pamela Hitchins04.21.12 - 01:00 am

Little girls dream of being in themovies. Few grow up to do it — fewerstill as writer, director and actress.

Vicksburg’s Cameron Kitchens, 12,and her cousin Kirsten Kitchens, 16, aClinton native, have done just that.

The girls’ 35-minute film, “Fire It up,”made in their grandparents’ backyardin Flora and edited with Apple’s

iMovie software, was screened April 13 at Mississippi’s Crossroads FilmFestival.

“It’s about two young warriors taken from their life of security, their normallives, and taken on an adventure,” said Kirsten, reached by phone in Charlotte,N.C., where she is in the pre-professional ballet program at the North CarolinaDance Theater.

“Fire It Up” was one of 18 films shown in the “Shorts: Films 4 Kids” division atthe Malco Grandview Theater in Madison during the festival.

“My dream since I was in the first grade has been to become an actress,” saidCameron, who has been in school plays and Vicksburg Theater Guild Fairy TaleTheater productions. “Seeing myself on the big screen — it was like heaven.”

Cameron, the daughter of Andrea and Chris Kitchens, is a seventh grader atWarren Central Junior High and previously attended Bowmar AvenueElementary School. Cameron’s sister Ragan Hunter, 20, is a student at HindsCommunity College.

Kirsten, who is home-schooled, is the daughter of Mark and Cathy Kitchens. Thefamily moved in June to Charlotte for Kirsten’s ballet studies.

The girls started turning stories into scripts about four or five years ago, saidAndrea Kitchens.

“They started off with puppets behind the couch,” playing around with a coupleof “Hippity” Beanie Babies, she said. “From there they graduated to using videocameras and writing scripts.”

The girls created music videos and taped interviews before making “Fire It Up.”

4/30/12 2:37 PM<b>Lights, Camera, Action!</b><br><i>Girls write, direct and star in their own film</i>

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The movie features grandparents Larry and Mellany Kitchens — and their Florahome and lake-side yard — and other relatives including Cameron’s dad.

Cameron said they were at their grandparents’ house when she “had a big idea”to attempt a professional-looking film with a big story line and special effects.

“She came up with the basic plot of the two necklaces (that the two warriors weretrying to recover),” Cameron said. Each of the girls created their own charactersand names. Some of the dialogue was written, some ad libbed.

“Every time they get together at Nana and Papa’s they are working on this kindof stuff,” Andrea Kitchens said.

After seeing a trailer of “Fire It Up” on YouTube, a friend of Mellany Kitchenswho works with Crossroads told them to submit it for consideration.

“It was an honor just being accepted,” Andrea Kitchens said. “But it’s also such agreat way to let them know that stuff like Crossroads is out there, for them toeven know something like this is possible. The kids that we saw there werehaving a blast. You could just see it in their faces.”

Acting and making movies is “a passion,” Cameron said, but more important isdoing it with her cousin.

“We’re like best friends,” she said. “I love her to death. I couldn’t do any of thiswithout her.”

Mississippi’s Crossroads Film Society “celebrates the art of filmmaking in all ofits diversity and depth,” its website states. The festival presents films related toMississippi and the South and also seeks to provide workshops and othereducational opportunities and “facilitate general discussions for film lovers andaspiring film makers.”

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