“I don’t know that there is a film club … Is there a film club?” Manhattan High School security guard Carlos Gonzales said when asked of the club’s whereabouts.

In fact, there is a film club. A club of two members, albeit, but a club still.

Filmmakers meets every Thursday from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Manhattan High East Campus’ Little Theater. It focuses on acting and moviemaking. According to the USD 383 website, Filmmakers is catered towards students somewhere on the autism spectrum.  The USD 383 website also states that middle-schoolers, along with high-schoolers, can join the club.

“The club is about working on being able to do different voices, how to act and stuff like that,” freshman Jodi Matta said.

“It’s early in the year so we’re still working on basics,” Filmmakers’ lead teacher Ellen Burke said. “But as time goes on we will start working on film.”

Last year Filmmakers created a mock commercial. This year’s end goal is more auspicious: a movie. There is currently no target date for the movie’s completion.

On Thursday, the club warmed up by describing the members’ days in languages they made up on the spot. This forced club members to communicate using body language and tone. (Matta croaked like a raptor.) Filmmakers decided that the movie will be about people trapped in a video game and looked for songs to use in said movie. Finally, club members watched two videos: one in an imaginary language and one silent. Afterwards, they discussed what they thought the events in each video were and the feelings the videos conveyed.

Club members were confident and upbeat when describing what they thought of Filmmakers.

“There’s fun that comes out of making the movies … dressing up and everything like that,” Matta said.

“I’ve acted all my life, and this is a natural combination of teaching and acting,” Burke said. “I also get to bring in a lot of watching film, which I love!”

“I’ve never done anything like this before so it’s a good experience for me,” assistant club leader Sherry Brown said. “I think it [the club] will have a good outcome.”