SALISBURY — Henderson Independent School students found a creative outlet through an Art & Soul Rowan partnership and were recognized at a film festival in Charlotte for their work.

The Mad Monster Film Festival concluded last month, and when the dust settled, a group of young filmmakers from the Salisbury-based school were recognized for the best script for their film, “The Horror of Trauma.”

“The tagline is, ‘What you don’t address can haunt you,'” said Shane Manier, a creative coach, visual artist and trauma-informed care instructor, among other positions, who is serving as a spoken word and art teaching instructor at Henderson.

“We work with the school all year long, and we run a poetry and art program where we work with the students, and it’s basically poetry and art mixed with personal development,” Manier said. “Through artistic expression, we explore identity, rewriting the narrative of your trauma, through critical thinking, anger management, conflict resolution and social-emotional learning … The arts are a vehicle for them to explore those things.”

As Manier and her students set out on that creative exploration, submitting the movie to a film festival was the farthest thing from their minds. At the time, it was just about finding creative outlets.

“So we decided to make a film … and I was like, ‘What about a horror movie?'” Manier said. “The whole class was like, ‘Yes.'”

Manier indicated it was an all-hands-on-deck effort.

“We all helped write the script,” Manier said. “We all helped direct the film, do the effects, everything.”

Manier said they had to shoot everything at the school.

“By the end of everything, we only had four weeks, one hour a week, which really, if you, if you look at how long we were laughing and trying to get the shot, we really only had about 30 minutes of filming, like for four weeks,” Manier said. “We didn’t have a lot of time at all. We had no, like, no budget to go on, and one crappy Rebel Canon camera and lots of sugar. And it just came out so good, so funny, but also impactful.”

What Manier witnessed unfold with the students proved noteworthy.

“It was so much fun, and it was so amazing to see students who also didn’t really get along cheer each other on, which was really amazing,” Manier said.

So now they had a movie, but what next?

Mad Monster is a horror convention in Charlotte that Manier had gone to in the past. There is a film festival element of the convention, and after some encouragement, they decided to submit Horror of Trauma.

The students got passes to the festival and were able to attend through collaboration with Nazareth Children’s Home. Manier said they got to meet some celebrities that were there and participate in a film forum, among other things, at the convention.

Then the awards came. Out of 27 films, with five awards up for grabs, Horror of Trauma received best script. Manier said the outpouring of support that followed was incredible.

“All of the filmmakers were so supportive,” she said. “The love that they poured into those students while they were there, too, was just so beautiful. They were very engaged. A lot of people came out to watch the film during the festival, so it was really cool for them to see the world does see value in us. These people don’t know us at all. They don’t know our story, and they thought that our creation was good enough not only to be in the festival but also to have people show up for it and then win an award.”

Manier indicated that Henderson has been a tremendous partner.

‘They’ve been super, super supportive,” Manier said. “With this film, the principal tried to reach out to the other students who aren’t at the school anymore because they got to go back to their other schools, trying to get in touch with those students so that they could come to the festival and all of that.”

Manier mentioned that you really can’t overstate the value that the whole exercise affords to the students at Henderson.

“It completely changes the trajectory of their life, and it goes several layers deep,” Manier said. “So the first layer is, you know, self-expression and exploration. If you have been told that you’re a bad kid for all these years, you’ve got abandonment issues and trauma.

“You’re in and out of facilities when someone comes along and gives you tools to be able to process those difficult emotions without it being triggering and it being like a way to regulate your body through art and through poetry; it’s just a huge release for them.”

Manier explained that in addition to the cathartic aspect, there is also an exploration aspect for the kids, “where they’re like, oh wait, the way I view myself, that’s actually not me, that’s my previous experiences. That’s what I think the world has told me, and I don’t have to own that.”

Manier said that leads to a sense of ownership and the “ability to change the narrative of their story and really have agency on their own choices” and “what they want their future to be.”

The benefits don’t stop there, though.

“They’re building new neural pathways in the brain because art and creativity do that, and we’re talking about how teens, who are operating in a body that is going to explode when triggered, are going to react. What arts do is allow there to be new neural pathways to be built so that they can insert a pause; they can do something different rather than lash out or explode. And so there’s really cool neuroscience happening in the brain as well.”

So, their grades improve, and they stop getting into trouble.

“We’ve had huge success stories from the program,” Manier said. “We’ve had teens leave gangs and go on to be successful. And I mean, it’s, it’s been amazing.”

Manier indicated that success looks different for every student, whether it’s graduating or returning to their original school.

“If they are allowed to go back to what we call their home school, that’s a huge success,” Manier said because it means the students’ behavioral challenges have healed enough to be in a public school.

The success stories that Manier has witnessed all look a little bit different, but as she shared, each one deserves its own award. What lies ahead is anyone’s guess, but for now, Manier said she’s just eager for the next project.