Alumni Spotlight: BFS Alum Premieres Quaker Film

Brooklyn Friends School is thrilled to celebrate the extraordinary achievement of a cohort of alumni whose short film, Quaker, has been officially selected for the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival, also known as Berlinale.

Set during a Quaker school’s final senior meeting before graduation, Quaker follows a group of high school seniors as they sit in silence, taking turns sharing final messages of love, reflection, and hope. But the meeting takes an unexpected turn when one student bravely admits she has never felt connected to her classmates. Filmed in the historic Schermerhorn Meeting House—the original location of BFS and a space where students still gather for Meeting for Worship—the setting grounds the story in the spirit of reflection, connection, and truth central to the school’s Quaker values.

The film, directed and written by Giovanna Molina ’15, was brought to life with the collaboration of several BFS alumni. Louisa Grenham ’15 co-wrote the screenplay, and Eve Bromberg ’15 co-produced the film. Caroline Campos ’16 delivered a heartfelt performance as the lead, and former BFS teacher Sue Aaronson portrayed a teacher in the film. Quaker is not just a testament to the talent of BFS alumni but also a powerful example of the network’s potential to reconnect and foster meaningful collaboration.

For Giovanna Molina ’15, the decision to include fellow BFS alumni in the project wasn’t just practical—it was deeply personal.
“For all my films, I try to create a grounded sense of realism by casting people from the community a project depicts… Including Caroline and Sue as actors brought so much truth to the piece for me, my co-writer Louisa, and co-producer Eve.”

For Caroline, reconnecting with Giovanna was an inspiring and unexpected experience that underscored the strength of the BFS network.
“It was beautiful cosmic timing reconnecting with Giovanna in the making of this short film. I had just finished my first year at drama school, and she was a few years out of her MFA program. I always thought my artistic community would come out of the relationships I made while in grad school, but I never imagined it would happen with someone I was alongside in high school!”

The collaboration extended to Louisa Grenham ’15, who brought a shared BFS sensibility to the project. Reflecting on the process, Louisa noted how their high school experiences and the familiar language of BFS values made the project uniquely powerful.
“When writing Quaker with Giovanna, I had to click back into that adolescent chaos—it’s a time where your feelings are so extreme and confusing, you can’t tell if everything around you is incredibly important or if it won’t matter in five years. The meeting house and the cast brought so much authenticity and truth to the experience, a lot of which comes from the shared language we developed at BFS.”

The relationships forged during their time at BFS inspired the film and laid the foundation for reconnecting years later in meaningful and creative ways. For alumni reading this story, Quaker serves as a reminder of the vast and supportive BFS network available to them. Whether seeking collaborators, mentors, or simply a reconnection with a shared past, the community remains a vibrant resource, ready to enrich lives and spark new opportunities. 

If you’re a BFS alum, consider this your invitation to reconnect with the community, explore the network, and discover the potential for collaboration and inspiration that exists within the shared legacy of Brooklyn Friends School. Reach out to Associate Director of Alumni and Major Gifts, Cicely Upham.