Ballard grad heads up ‘nifty’ film festival

Jesse Harris was a 17-year-old Ballard High student when he made his first feature film, Living Life. Now at 23 he’s running one of the largest youth film festivals in the country, The National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY, called “nifty”). Now in its third year, the festival has grown from 14 to 113 films, including four feature-length films. Harris founded the event after realizing there was no support out there for young filmmakers, those under 22. This year, the youngest filmmaker is 7 and will show her animated short on opening night. Filmmakers from 30 states and 8 countries will be showing their films at the now carbon-neutral event. The festival runs Friday through Sunday. A schedule of films and ticket information can be found here. Watch the trailer…