BUHL, Idaho (AP) - As a child, Jaffe Zinn drew pictures whenever he was bored in Buhl.
It was the first step in his artistic journey. Now, the 34-year-old filmmaker lives in Seattle and competes at festivals around the world.
Zinn returned to his hometown Wednesday to encourage the next generation of art students at Buhl Middle School.
“If you have a passion for something, you just have to keep at it,” he said.
Art teacher Lynn Popplewell showed her advanced seventh and eighth-grade students a drawing Zinn created for his eighth-grade yearbook.
He was already a talented artist as a teenager, Popplewell said. “We always knew he’d do something great, but we didn’t know what.”
Students took turns looking at Zinn’s sketchbook he started in 2007. After class, they lined up to get his autograph.
McKenna Lively, 14, wants to come back to Buhl one day as a role model for students.
She’s interested in photography, but is exploring different art forms. “I’m still trying to define myself as an artist.”
And she looks up to Zinn. “My dreams are to be like that.”
Madison Hulse, 13, who enjoys abstract art, was inspired to see someone from a small town achieve his dreams.
As a child, Zinn discovered art is a way to look at his surroundings in a different light.
After graduating from Buhl High School in 1999, he studied film and television at New York University.
It was a challenge adjusting to big city life. “There was definitely a period of time I felt that my vision wasn’t valid,” he told students.
Zinn had classmates from cities such as Los Angeles. “I had different things to say because of where I was coming from.”
He learned if you’re not from an artistic hotspot, “you still have an opportunity for your work to be seen.”
Originally, Zinn wanted to become an animator and comic book artist. But he decided film was a better fit. It combines his interests: music, writing and visual arts.
After college, he taught English in Japan for a year. Then, he lived in Los Angeles, New York and Seattle.
Zinn has spent four years as a professional filmmaker. He makes music videos and feature films, including “Magic Valley” in 2011 and “Children” in 2013. He hopes to pursue a project in Japan next year.
Filmmakers pitch ideas to a production company, he told students. “With film, you need a lot of other people’s money.”
It cost $680,000 to produce “Magic Valley,” his first feature film. Zinn filmed in Buhl, including at his father’s fish farm.
He wanted to provide authenticity that’s often missing in films about small towns.
“’Magic Valley’ is a movie that examines the daily lives of people unknowingly in the midst of a tragedy and what it means to be unaware of what’s just around the corner,” he told the Times-News in 2012.
His film, “Children,” is about two young women who take a mysterious camping trip in southern Idaho. Both of his feature films were shown at the Sun Valley Film Festival.
Zinn also plays in two bands - Folded Light and Night Rainbow. Folded Light’s song “Color” was featured in a national McDonald’s commercial.
The band heard from a Chicago marketing agency after putting the song on iTunes.
Thanks to the Internet, you never know when your work will be discovered, Zinn told students.
“It doesn’t really matter where you’re from at this point.”
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Information from: The Times-News, https://www.magicvalley.com
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