Overview:
DPS students showed off their work at the Bi-Frost Film Festival & Art Show, which celebrated creative expression throughout the district.
Inside the MCA Denver Holiday Theater on Tuesday, April 14, the lights dimmed and the screen flickered to life with short films created by Denver Public Schools students. Tables and walls in the lobby and nearby gallery showed ceramics, photography, paintings and drawings that young artists made for the event.
Together, the works formed the heart of the fourth annual Bi-Frost Film Festival & Art Show, a districtwide celebration of youth creativity held at MCA Denver’s Holiday Theater in the Highland neighborhood.
“Participating in the festival was exciting and inspiring,” said student Autumn Krinsky. “It felt great to share my work and see other students’ creativity.”
While the evening’s centerpiece was a curated lineup of short films created by DPS students from elementary through high school, the festival also included visual artwork produced in classrooms across the district. The event, which features work from hundreds of students from over a dozen schools, allows young artists to share their work in public while also demonstrating how arts programs enable students to explore identity, culture and storytelling.
Films span genres including drama, comedy, horror and stop-motion animation, reflecting the wide range of ideas students bring to the screen. Organizers say the goal is to give students an opportunity to share their voices and perspectives through storytelling.
This year’s festival also introduced a new category called “Anti-Hero,” created in partnership with MCA Denver. The category invites student filmmakers across Colorado to tell stories that highlight perspectives often overlooked in traditional narratives, particularly those of women and BIPOC. The goal is to challenge cultural assumptions and create space for new voices and experiences.
“The Film Part was really fun because it showed how creative students can be,” said Jennifer, a senior at North High School. “It was cool to see different stories come to life on screen.”
While the films played inside the theater, visual art displays throughout the venue drew crowds of students, families and educators. Among the featured artists was Lily Gambino, a senior at North High School, who had three works selected for the show.
Her favorite piece, a ceramic vase she calls the “Lily pot,” took about two weeks to complete and was inspired by a classroom prompt encouraging students to incorporate personal symbolism. One side of the vase appears cracked and weathered, while the other side remains smooth and decorated with blooming flowers.
“This contrast shows that nothing is permanent, even beautiful things,” Gambino said. “And you can still find beauty in dead things.”
The piece also reflects Gambino’s childhood experience in ballet. Through sculpting and painting, she said, art has become a way to express emotions and process personal experiences.
“Art makes me feel something that I can’t always put into words,” Gambino said. “Now it feels calming, especially through sculpting and painting.”
For Kari Searls, who teaches Drawing and Painting I, II and AP Design at North High School, seeing students’ work displayed outside the classroom is one of the most rewarding moments of the year. Searls explained that advanced students spend months developing portfolios, creating many pieces and ultimately selecting the works they feel best represent their artistic voice.
“I’m really proud of my students,” Searls said. “Their work shows how hard they’ve been working, and it’s amazing to see their art recognized and appreciated outside the classroom.”
Other students used their art to explore everyday life and cultural traditions. Anjelique Jardinez, also from North High School, created a ceramic plate inspired by pan dulce, the sweet bread commonly found in Mexican bakeries.
The idea came from her daily routine of stopping at a bakery near school. Because pan dulce has been part of her cultural background since childhood, she wanted the piece to reflect both her heritage and a small moment from her everyday life. The ceramic work took about three weeks to complete and features carefully sculpted pastries designed to look realistic.
“I wanted people to think it looked real and notice how detailed and realistic the piece is,” Jardinez said. “Art helps me express my background and my culture, especially being Hispanic. It allows me to share that part of who I am with others.”
Renee Talmich, the Career and Technical Education director and assistant principal at North High School, said she was impressed by the variety of work on display, from films to ceramics. Talmich also pointed out that art gives students a powerful way to express their lived experiences.
“You might look at a piece of art and not understand it at first,” Talmich said, “but once you hear the artist’s story, it makes sense and you see it in a completely different way.”
Teachers say the festival is also a reminder of how quickly students can grow artistically. Jordan Kulis, a drawing and painting teacher at North High School in her second year of teaching, said many of the displayed portraits were created by students in introductory art classes.
“I’ve seen my students grow so much in confidence and skill, and they’re already exceeding expectations, especially for being in level one classes.”
Across Denver Public Schools, students have access to a wide range of creative courses, including ceramics, drawing, painting, photography and video production. Schools such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Overland, East, South and North High Schools all offer these types of programs.
The films shown at the festival represented work from several of these schools, offering a glimpse into the creative projects happening across the district. Events like the Bi-Frost Film Festival give students a rare chance to see their work presented in a professional setting and to share their ideas with a larger audience.
“Being part of the festival means a lot to me because I got to share my work with others, feel proud of what I created and see how people connected with it,” said student KT. “It was really inspiring to be surrounded by so many talented students and different forms of art, and it made me feel more confident in my creativity and what I can do in the future.”
