What kind of kids would head back to school during the first days of summer break to joyously spend more time in the school’s lunchroom, of all places?

Film-loving kids, of course, if they’re given a chance to make the movie of their dreams.

That exact scenario played out in late June, as a not-quite-yet 15-year-old but already impressively prolific filmmaker, Levi Cobb, helmed a days-long shoot of his film, “Pizza Purge,” at McMurray Middle School.

The 15-minute film, with seven speaking parts and more than a dozen roles for extras, tells the tense tale of a middle-schooler named John Dough, who arrives at a new school and discovers he only has four days to figure out how to survive a dystopian cafeteria gauntlet run by two rival gangs of kids.

Think “The Hunger Games” crossed with “The Goonies,” and you’ll be closer to understanding Cobb’s premise for the film. Or maybe not. It’s highly original.

On a lunch break during the shoot, as the cast and crew polished off several pizzas (of course), Cobb sat down to talk about how the film came to be made.

He said he had fallen in love with filmmaking in the 5th grade, while working on a class project, and after that, had started making films nonstop with his friends.

He became the CEO of his own production company, QuantumMedias, which, according to the company’s YouTube page, is dedicated to entertaining fans of comic book novels and movies. And in sixth grade, he said, he and his friend Finnegan Bolz had come up with the idea for “Pizza Purge.”

But with so many other more manageable films to be made, and his company to run, “Pizza Purge” remained out of reach, until about a year-and-a-half later, when Cobb and Bolz approached McMurray Principal Greg Allison, asking for help. Could the principal help them find some film equipment, maybe, or would he allow them to shoot the film inside the school after hours?

As it turned out, their request pushed open the gate to the film being made in a much grander way than Cobb had ever imagined — because Allison had an even better idea up his sleeve.

“I really didn’t expect it to be this big of a project,” Cobb said. “But yeah, it ended up being a really big project.”

“Pizza Purge” was made possible due to a new partnership formed between McMurray and Vashon Film Institute, the nonprofit presenter of the Vashon Island Film Festival and other educational and film-related year-round programs.

Rich Hazzard, in charge of development and strategy for the Institute, said that his organization was eager to find ways to support youth filmmakers, and had approached Allison last October about sponsoring a film club at McMurray — an idea that Allison was quick to greenlight, putting McMurray teacher Tim Heryford (better known as Mr. T.) in charge of the club.

“At McMurray, we offer a ton of different clubs — we feel like that’s an important way for kids to connected to school and develop a sense of belonging,” Allison said, in an interview in the school office while the film was being shot steps away in the cafeteria. “So this was a really nice fit for us this year, with this particular group of kids. It’s been a really awesome community collaboration.”

The Film Institute stepped up, working with the club members and Mr. T. on pre-production tasks for “Pizza Purge.” And by late June, with the script polished and the cast, crew and location locked, Cobb finally began directing and starring in his film.

“I couldn’t be more impressed with Levi,” said Hazzard. “For an 8th — soon to be 9th — grader to write, direct, and act in this movie is a big undertaking and he has handled it all with focus, grace, and kindness.”

Hazzard also had high praise for the cast and crew of the film.

“They showed up, took on a lot of responsibility, and created a really great culture for the production,” he said.

In addition to Hazzard, adult mentors on the “Pizza Purge” set included Heryford and Gator Lanphear, an islander with a wide range of experience in film and video production as well as education. Ben Weber, a local actor, also pitched in, as did another longtime, stalwart supporter of Levi’s filmmaking — his mother, Hazel Cobb.

Levi’s 13-year-old sister — who has had a front-row seat to her big brother’s rise as a youth filmmaker — was also there, of course, and in the cast.

And even before the camera started rolling, Cobb had a festival booking for the film: it will be shown as a special premiere at the 4th annual Vashon Island Film Festival, set to unspool Aug. 7-10, at Vashon Theatre.

“Pizza Purge” won’t be the first film by Cobb to be shown in festivals, though. “Pinecones,” a film he made in 2024 at the Prodigy Film Camp in Leavenworth, Washington, has also been shown in youth programs at several prestigious festivals.

For Cobb and other island youth eager to explore the highly collaborative art of filmmaking, the future looks bright.

Vashon Film Institute is also planning special screenings of “Pizza Purge” at McMurray and Vashon High School in the fall, as yet another way to reach out to more budding auteurs, actors and other film-loving kids.

“Establishing the McMurray Film Club is our ‘proof-of-concept’ to the island showing how we can support student learning, skill building, and storytelling in community,” Hazzard said.

Upcoming youth offerings by the Institute will also include mentoring and training high school students in documentary film production, a film camp next summer, and creating a family filmmaking workbook.

To find out more about Vashon Island Film Festival and Vashon Film Institute, visit vashonfilminstitute.com.

Correction: Previous versions of this article incorrected stated the name of Vashon’s film festival. It is Vashon Island Film Festival, not Vashon International Film Festival. We regret the error.

Levi Cobb, a soon-to-be 15-year-old filmmaker, with Vashon Film Institute’s Rich Hazzard, during the shoot of Cobb’s film, “Pizza Purge.” ((Hazel Cobb Photo))