Calling all teen filmmakers: The Mount Airy Public Library wants to see what you can do.

For the first time the library is sponsoring a teen film festival, and is looking for original short films written, directed, produced and edited by area teens.

Organizer Angela Llewelyn said the event will culminate with a screening of the films at 6 p.m. on March 13.

She noted that the film festival is being held in conjunction with Teen Tech Week through the National Library Program.

Llewelyn said a chance encounter with a teen-aged filmmaker provided the impetus for the festival.

“I’m always looking for new things that we haven’t tried that I think area teens would be interested in,” she said. “I was a mentor for a senior project that involved a movie based on a song that teen Lauren Henderson was doing for the Early College.

“She did filming and editing for the music video project and I was really impressed,” Llewelyn added. “After I saw what she could do and how much everyone loved it, I thought the library should try something like it.”

The theme of this year’s inaugural teen film festival is “reading,” or “libraries,” or “our library,” and Llewelyn said the teens can take it from there.

The only guidelines being offered is the film has to be shorter than 10 minutes and all content must be “G” rated.

“Everyone working on the film must be between 13 and 18 years old, and all work must be done by teens,” Llewelyn added. “That includes the script, the idea, editing, writing and filming. Whatever gets done must be done by teens.”

And with this being the first teen film festival, she said she doesn’t have any idea how things will turn out.

“I don’t really know what to expect,” she said. “This is a first-time effort and I want to see what kind of response I get.”

If this first festival is successful, Llewelyn said she would like to see it continue.

“I’ve had several teens say they were interested after sending out an email to a mailing list and posting it on Facebook,” she said.

As for the content, that’s entirely up to the filmmakers.

“I’m leaving it up to them,” she said. “If they need answers or help, I’ll do what I can, but the work must be done by them.

“This is a huge project, but I thought it could be fun.”

Reach Keith Strange at kstrange@heartlandpublications.com or 719-1929.