This public high school built a film program from scratch. Now it’s a global force
Inside PPAS FILM, where teens are winning top prizes at major international festivals
“As democracy depends on civil society, so civil society depends on the arts.
A government that supports the arts and humanities is not engaging in philanthropic activity but assuring the conditions of its own flourishing.”
Formal film education in the United States was slow to arrive.
Though Columbia taught film studies classes starting in 1915, it wasn’t until 1929 - some thirty-five years into the life of the medium - that the first American film school appeared at the University of Southern California.
To this day, most film workers are not scholars, but technicians who learned on the job, overseen by masters of the craft.
In 2026, there are over a hundred active film programs in the United States. As someone who did not attend film school, but hacked his way to competence on set, only to somehow end up teaching at a film school (the NYU Tisch residency, Stonestreet), I’ve come to believe the following: a good film program functions less like a lecture hall and more like a studio - one that allows students to make movies under the guidance of working professionals.
The Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS) is just such a place. Since 1990, the unassuming public middle and high school in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City has been a place for young actors, singers, and dancers to learn their craft from professionals in their chosen fields, in addition to standard academics.
It was only four years ago that PPAS launched a film program. Overseen by Stephen Scarpulla, a PPAS alum and Broadway actor-turned-filmmaker, PPAS Film set out to do the impossible: enable students to produce festival-quality films on a public school arts budget.
Not only did PPAS Film pull it off, they’re now outranking the most well-funded private high school film programs in the world.
Last October, PPAS Film students won top awards (Best Film and Best Cinematography) at the largest and most competitive high school film festival in the world - The All American High School Film Festival. Out of thousands of submissions, judges like Kristen Stewart, Ed Burns, and John Legend gather to anoint the very best short films made by high schoolers, and in one night, PPAS Film students won access to more than $100,000 in scholarship opportunities.
About seven months ago, I was graciously invited to teach a six-session course on visual storytelling and screenwriting to PPAS seniors. Last month, I returned to help select the thesis film projects, and workshop the chosen scripts with students. Having spent many hours working with them now, I am pleased to report that a swell of seriously dangerous filmmaking talent is rising fast.
That being said, PPAS is a sliver of light on an otherwise gloomy horizon. 55 percent of school districts have either eliminated or massively decreased funding to the arts. The Hechinger Report revealed that public schools, particularly those in low-income Black and Hispanic areas, received 40 to 49 percent less exposure to arts education.
Meanwhile, study after study has revealed the outsized benefits of a basic arts education: overall improvements in GPA, higher levels of civic engagement and social tolerance, increased levels of motivation, critical thinking, and social-emotional skills, to name only a few.
Is it a surprise, then, that as arts education is getting slashed, test scores are plummeting and mental disorders are spiking?
To find out how to build a world-class film program on a shoestring budget, and why restoring arts education to our public schools is a vital step toward a brighter future for everyone, I talked to PPAS Film Founding Director Stephen Scarpulla. You can read our conversation below. But first, the news.
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News Reel
“Fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs and less choice for audiences in the United States and around the world.” On Monday, more than 1,400 Hollywood writers, directors and actors signed an open letter voicing their opposition to the proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery: “Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement.” For what it’s worth, I couldn’t agree more. Which is why we need…
New Directors/New Films! ND/NF is one of my favorite events on the film calendar. Founded in 1972 and jointly hosted by Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art, ND/NF showcases bold films by emerging directors. Thanks to Maddie Whittle and John Kwiatkowski from Film at Lincoln Center, I’ve been able to catch a number of great films this week, which I’ll be covering more in the weeks ahead. ND/NF runs through Sunday, so if you’re in NYC, be sure to catch one of these final screenings.
How does a teenager in 2026 fall in love with film? Sophie from That Final Scene investigates by interviewing Benjamin Hegedus, a 17-year-old film writer she found here on Substack. Sophie has some sharp (and sobering) insights for studio heads - I hope they’re listening (they’re not): “If you’re running a studio, I want you to know that your discovery infrastructure is mapped to the wrong generation. You’re spending money on Entertainment Tonight segments and Variety covers and premiere red carpets, and people like Ben found Ford v Ferrari because someone on r/oscarrace mentioned it had good sound design.”
“High school students often feel like they’re waiting for their lives to begin. I find myself asking them all the time: What are you waiting for? Do it now. What you have to say matters right now.”
A conversation with Stephen Scarpulla, director of PPAS Film
Alex Rollins Berg: PPAS is a scrappy public middle and high school - not a fancy, deep-pocketed private institution. Nevertheless, its alums include many wildly successful singers, actors, and filmmakers. As a PPAS alum yourself, tell us about your experience going there, and what makes it special.
Stephen Scarpulla: PPAS serves a little over 500 students, and that scale creates a real sense of community. Students are seen, genuinely seen, and supported in a way that’s hard to replicate in larger institutions. No one disappears into the background.
What also makes it special is that everyone is there because they’re moving toward something in the arts. That shared pursuit becomes a kind of unifier. It creates an environment where students uplift one another—there’s no culture of tearing each other down. You feel like you’re part of something collective and purposeful. That’s a rare feeling.
A number of PPAS students work professionally while attending. For example, while I was a student, I was also balancing a full time job as an actor on Broadway. The school made it possible for me to pursue my career in the arts while still staying grounded academically. It gave me a community of people who were just as passionate and driven. That was life-changing for me.
Alex Rollins Berg: PPAS sits at a unique intersection of education and the professional film world. Students train with working pros rather than career academics. Why was that choice essential when designing the film major?
Stephen Scarpulla: What’s unique about PPAS is that all our arts programming is taught almost entirely by working professionals—people who are actively navigating the industry. That means students aren’t learning a static version of the craft; they’re engaging with a field that’s alive and evolving.
That level of access changes how students understand the work. It stops being theoretical and becomes tangible. And that shift is essential if you’re preparing them to enter the field in any meaningful way.
Alex Rollins Berg: PPAS Film is only in its third year as an official major, yet it’s already gaining national recognition. Filmmakers from the program won the top prize at this year’s Teen Indie Awards, presented by the All American High School Film Festival, one of the most competitive platforms for young filmmakers worldwide. What did that moment mean for the students and the program as a whole?
Stephen Scarpulla: Winning the top prize at the Teen Indie Awards was a defining moment for us. We were up against renowned programs from around the world, many of them with far more resources, longer histories, and infrastructures built specifically for film education.
When I started PPAS Film, we didn’t have any of that. No major institutional backers. No industry partners. It was created piece by piece—through fundraising, donations, and a lot of sleepless persistence. Nothing about it was automatic.
For our students to not only compete, but to lead that field—to win Best Overall Film, Best Cinematography, and earn multiple nominations—was incredibly significant. Now, we have PPAS Film students represented in every top film school around the country. We had another student receive a National YoungArts Award with Distinction this year, one of only 11 filmmakers in the country to be recognized.
I think it reinforces something I’ve always believed as an indie filmmaker: resources matter, but they’re not decisive. Taste, passion, and persistence matters more.
Alex Rollins Berg: Film can be a powerful tool for understanding the world. In your view, how can we encourage young filmmakers to see their work as part of a larger cultural conversation?
Stephen Scarpulla: High school students often feel like they’re waiting for their lives to begin. There’s this idea that later—after graduation, after college—that’s when they’ll finally make something that matters. I find myself asking them all the time: What are you waiting for? Do it now. What you have to say matters right now. And this version of you—the way you see the world at this exact moment—won’t exist again.
Also, the barrier to entry is gone. That’s the biggest shift. Students now have access to tools that allow them to create and distribute work instantly. The question is no longer can you make something—it’s do you understand what you’re making and how it functions in the world?
That’s why media literacy is critical. Students need to understand how images shape perception, how they influence behavior, how they participate in culture.
And alongside that, we need to constantly remind them that their voice has value. They don’t need to wait. They don’t need permission.
Alex Rollins Berg: Recently, PPAS hosted their fourth annual 48-hour film festival. Fifty films were produced on one of the coldest, snowiest weekends of the year. I was at the screening; the joy and enthusiasm for filmmaking was deafening. What valuable lessons do you see students learning from this challenge?
Stephen Scarpulla: The festival has become one of the most beloved events at PPAS. What’s especially exciting is that it’s built for students from across all majors—vocal, drama, dance, musical theater—many of whom have never made a film before. Students jump in on a whim and suddenly realize, I’m actually good at this! For many, it’s genuinely life-changing. We’ve had students who hadn’t even considered filmmaking until that weekend go on to pursue life-long careers in the field.
At the same time, the structure of the festival demands something real from them. They have to manage their time, solve problems, and follow an idea all the way through to execution under pressure. It forces a shift from concept to completion, quickly.
And it’s fun—truly fun. There’s an energy to it that you can’t quite replicate in a traditional classroom. That kind of joy goes a long way.
Alex Rollins Berg: In the U.S., arts and theater programs have been slashed and sometimes eliminated altogether, especially since the pandemic. In your view, why is art central to the core mission of public education?
Stephen Scarpulla: The arts are how students make meaning.
We talk a lot about the importance of social-emotional learning post pandemic, but those ideas are most fully realized through artistic practice. The arts give students a language for experience—especially the experiences that are hardest to articulate.
When you remove the arts, you’re removing one of the primary ways students process the world and understand themselves.
If the goal of education is to develop whole people, the arts are simply foundational. And as we move further into an uncertain future shaped by AI and rapid change, I think that truth will only become more clear.
Alex Rollins Berg: How do you speak to students about the massive changes in the entertainment industry, and how does PPAS prepare them for an uncertain future?
Stephen Scarpulla: I’m honest with them—the industry is changing, and it will continue to change. But uncertainty has always been part of a life in the arts! That isn’t new.
What remains constant is the value of human perspective. Whether the tools evolve or the distribution changes, audiences still respond to work that feels intentional and authentic. AI is part of that landscape now, and students need to engage with it. Avoiding it isn’t a strategy. We have to contend with it.
Beyond that, our responsibility is to give them a strong foundation—taste, discipline, critical thinking, and a sense of their own voice. If they have that, they’ll be able to navigate whatever version of the industry emerges.
How has teaching film changed you—both as an artist and as a person?
Stephen Scarpulla: After working in the industry for a long time, it’s easy to settle into assumptions about how things are done. Students don’t have that. They challenge those assumptions constantly, whether they realize it or not.
That’s been invaluable for me as an artist. It’s pushed me to reexamine my instincts, to stay open, to keep learning.
On a human level, it’s been deeply fulfilling. Watching students discover this medium, understand its power, and begin to use it with intention—it’s incredibly meaningful work.
What would you hope for the future of film education, both at PPAS and beyond?
Stephen Scarpulla: We need to catch up to the reality students are already living in.
With the rise of AI, media literacy is no longer optional. But in many ways, our education system hasn’t fully figured out how to respond.
The hard truth is that many students today are engaging with images as much as, if not more than, written text. We teach students how to read and write text in every school. Understanding images—how they work, how they shape us—needs to be treated with the same level of importance.
That includes creating clearer pathways for certification and licensure, particularly in states like New York, where those structures are still evolving.
It’s a challenge—legislatively and institutionally—but it’s one worth taking on. Education has to evolve with the times. And I’m eager to be part of that shift.
And regarding PPAS Film, I want us to keep building! We’ve had tremendous early success, and I think it’s fair to say the program is emerging as one of the more exciting spaces for young filmmakers in the country. The goal now is to sustain that momentum—refining what works, and finding ways to expand that model into media education more broadly, across the city and beyond.
We’re actively looking for the right partners to help us grow—people and organizations who are genuinely invested in the future of filmmaking and education. If there are organizations out there who want to be part of that growth, we’d love to connect!
You can learn more about PPAS Film here.
And now, this week’s Underexposed Movie Pick:
The Blue Trail (2025, Gabriel Mascaro)
In the near future, the Brazilian government has established remote colonies for the elderly, promising them a comfortable final chapter, while minimizing their toll on the economy. When Teresa, 77, is unexpectedly swept into the program after the eligibility age is lowered, she chooses to flee into the Amazon to fulfill a lifelong dream: taking her very first flight.
Parables about societies that discard the elderly are a rich cinematic tradition - from Leo McCarey’s 1937 Depression-era Make Way For Tomorrow to Keisuke Kinoshita’s kabuki-inflected The Ballad of Narayama (1958), they span past, present, and future. The vivid, superbly rendered story world of The Blue Trail, coupled with striking performances by Denise Weinberg and Rodrigo Santoro, elevate it to one of the best in the “genre,” alongside the aforementioned. It premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. Now, you can see it in select theaters.
Off The Shelf
This book actually changed my life. “The Suspense Thriller” by Charles Derry is a source I return to repeatedly, both for its scholarly dissection of my favorite genre, and for its many film recommendations along the way. You can pick up a copy here.
One Last Fun Thing
Thank you for supporting Underexposed. See you next Friday,
Alex
The immensely talented Alex Berg tells a happy story about art and film education. Real education still happens, and as Alex is doing, we can help. Recommended.
Great read. Some of you might find this useful: I previously produced a number of short films by partnering with an arts nonprofit whose mission was that its artistic work and outreach had to have a tangible impact on the community. My team and I designed an 'after school film school' wherein we selected a half dozen teenagers from underprivileged backgrounds as interns/PAs for the entire filmmaking process - from development through post. In exchange for that, the nonprofit agreed to kick in a substantial portion of the funding of the film. Through this program we made three short films (all of which had successful festival runs and/or been licensed), but even more rewardingly, over half the teens who interned with us are now working professionally in film. In case you're looking for a funding source that also allows you to pay it forward.