S1E4: "I Love Making Movies"

On this episode of We Are EG, Elk Grove senior Ben Jaeger discusses his love of movie making. From making films in middle school and high school with his collaborator Nic Baggetto to branching out on his own projects, Ben discusses his evolution as a filmmaker, his opinion on violence in movies and why the arts are important in education.

Below, you can also find a short documentary produced by Elk Grove Film Club with footage from behind the scenes on Ben's new film, Hero.  Plus, there are links to the films that Ben has worked on over the years.


Last month, Elk Grove Film Club spent a Saturday with Ben and his cast and crew. The result is the first episode of "Behind the Podcast." See Ben in action below as he films some scenes for his new film, Hero.


Below is Phantom, a film that Ben wrote and directed. This film won the Audience Award at the 2017 CinéStudent Film Festival.



Samantha was a film submitted to the 2016 CinéStudent Film Festival, directed by Nic Baggetto and written by Ben Jaeger and Nic Baggetto. This film won best picture that year.




The following film is 1967, submitted by Nic and Ben for the 2017 CinéStudent Film Festival.

S1E3: "Scare Me, But Just a Little Bit"

John Bottiglieri in his famous gorilla costume.

We can call John Bottiglieri "Mr. Halloween."  On this special Halloween episode of We Are EG, we sit down with John Bottilieri, who retired last year after teaching at Elk Grove High School for 33 years, to discuss whether or not Elk Grove High School is haunted, how to discover the most popular Halloween candy and other ghoulish delights.

We even talk a little about how John came to own a gorilla costume.

Every year, John creates a special Halloween mix of music. Listen to this year's mix, entitled "Color Me Pumpkin Orange," below. John also writes for F This Movie and regularly appears on their weekly podcast.


The We Are EG Podcast is a production of the EG CollabLab.  This episode was produced by Bruce Janu.

S1E2: "Whatever the Dream, You Can Do It Here"

Nina came into this country just a few months ago, a refugee from war-torn Syria. Not speaking a word of English, she spent several years in Lebanon before making the journey to the United States in November, 2016. Since then, she has moved from the Newcomer Center to the halls of Elk Grove High School, determined to get an education, go to college and give back to the community that has, in her eyes, given her so much.


The We Are EG Podcast is a production of the EG CollabLab.  This episode was produced by Linda Ashida.