By Andrew Jenks, as told to Kase Wickman

Before I started the All American High School Film Festival, I was a young filmmaker myself. When I was a junior in high school I would make all these short films with my friends and we'd then edit them on this big computer. I would show them to my friends and my parents basement and that was about it. But something was bugging me: I'm the same age as LeBron James, and I would turn on ESPN 2, and I would see him. His games were being televised live and there were magazine covers of him, and I was thinking in my head, I'm a basketball fan, and why is LeBron James getting this recognition when we have high school Spielbergs roaming around somewhere?

So I asked my principal if I could start this little film festival for the high school kids, not that there was that many of us, and he said sure. The first year I think I got Domino's to give us free pizza, which is probably why the people who came, came. It was a small public school, no air conditioning, so everyone was really hot and sweaty. Then the second year the principal said you can do it, but you need to have a teacher for your advisor. So I got a teacher to sponsor me and we held it again.

And then, over the next six or seven years, the festival grew. We were getting more and more films despite art programs getting cut, and the films were coming from all over the country and then all over the world. They were not only starting to visually look so much better, but also story-telling wise had so much more depth, the actors were so much better and the producing was so much better. So by 2012, I was talking with [AAHSFF co-founders] Tom Oliva and Brian Lindenbaum and the two cofounders and thought, "why don’t we do the All American High School Film Festival, give these kids what they really deserve?"

Our first year was awesome. We held it at AMC Theater in Times Square, and at the risk of sounding cheesy, there's one moment I remember very well. It was a Sunday, and one of the students came up to me and said -- he was a small little guy, kind of reminded me of me in high school, kind of awkward -- and he said, "Hey Jenks, I just wanted to let you know on Friday when I was leaving school kids were picking on me, and I can't find a girlfriend for the life of me, the normal stuff -- and Friday night I was on the red carpet and Saturday I talked to a bunch of colleges that are interested in me attending and on Sunday I saw my movie played on the big screen. Tomorrow I'm going to go back to school and people can pick on me all they want, but I know that I can be a filmmaker."

And that, even talking about that now, it gives me chills. That’s what this is all about. Now that the festival is in its third year, to think that it's grown to the point where we now we have over 30 colleges attending the college fair to recruit these kids, this year alone giving over $200,000 in scholarships, having submissions from 32 countries, 48 states...it's been overwhelming, it's really in a sense the coolest project that I'm a part of.

What's so refreshing about these students is that the films are so great and the filmmakers are so smart in how they understand story, and yet when you talk to them they're incredibly humble. They know they still have a lot left to learn, and they're eager to learn. Even though the film festival is in some ways a competition, these students show more than anyone else how it's not really about that. The winners of all three years of AAHSFF, when accepting the award, have said that they just enjoyed and are honored to be around other students that are so talented and that they're learning with them and connected with them. To me, that’s the biggest takeaway. I knew the talent was there, but the perspective and humility these students show is so f--king cool.

We're planning to reach even more students with our traveling roadshow. We’ve already done pilot programs in six states from New Jersey to California. It's an interactive presentation that focuses on digital and visual literacy using peer-created films. Participating students walk away inspired to use film as their medium to tell their stories. So rather than just going to class in high school and watching a movie, it's peer-to-peer learning, you're watching movies from other students and you're learning about the techniques of storytelling. We also have an initiative that we started with San Francisco Film Society which is called "Movie in a Backpack." The idea is to find areas that aren’t as financially fortunate and bring these movies in a backpack to these communities, with not just a camera but also a laptop on which you could edit, and helping make sure that filmmaking isn’t a rich person's game. We're very, very conscious of that.

We also just piloted our Film Invitational-- a 10-week competition with teams from all over the country competing for a $5,000 prize. Teams work with professional actors and mentors on pre-production and then come to NYC three days before the fest to shoot and edit at locations like Grand Central Terminal and Washington Square Park. This year it was an amazing success and we will be including more schools in 2016.

We are also starting to take the festival on a regional level and then culminating it in the big event in New York City in October. We'd love to have one in the Southwest, Southeast, Northwest and Chicago.

This is a passion project. When going to the event, or seeing video or photo and seeing the celebrity judges, people obviously get pretty amped up about Kristin Stewart or Ed Burns or one of these guys, but I think what's no one's really I don’t want to say understood, or maybe it's because the guys are so humble, but this event looks like a million dollar event. Sunday night at Kings Theater, Saturday at AMC Theater in Times Square, Friday at Planet Hollywood. We watch every film, and this whole thing is put together by two guys, we're running on an operating budget of very, very little. These students, they don’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk. They're hoping one day they can make a living out of it, but it's pretty impressive what they’ve been able to do, really just for love of the game.

To learn more about the All American High School Film Festival and get involved or make a donation, visit their website.