Seven films produced by Ballard High School students have won prizes at a prestigious national film festival. The 15th Annual Derek Freese High School Film & Video Festival was held last Saturday at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Video Production teacher Matt Lawrence sent us the following information:
Ballard High School filmmakers won every award in the documentary category. (This is quite an honor, as Temple is widely regarded as one of the best schools of documentary filmmaking in the country.)
First Prize went to Robyn Cochrane, Spencer Miller, Georgia Peck & Justin Smith-Mercado for Bar Ink, the story of a youth whom manages to discover and develop his talent in spite of incarceration.
Amelia Elizalde, Levi Friedman, Sean Hendricks & Sheridan Koehler took Second Prize for Henry, about the Seattle muralist of that name.
Third Prize went to Tony Meyer, Matt Law-Phipps & James Vitz-Wong for Seattle Street Musicians. John Christensen, Rikke Heinecke, Blair Scott & Allie Stock won the Best Documentary Screenplay prize for Split Mind, the story of a family’s experience with schizophrenia.
In the Best Fiction category, Ballard High School students won three prizes.
First Prize went to Emily Deering, Amelia Elizalde & Blair Scott for the subtle dramatic short Buy, Sell, Trade.
Second Prize went to Matt Law-Phipps, Tony Meyer & Ryan Zemke for their dystopian vision, Real World.
Best Fiction Screenplay went to Rikke Heinecke, Tony Meyer & Lizzy O’Laughlin for Signs, a story of hope for the homeless.
Lawrence tells us that this is the eighth year in a row the BHS students have been finalists at the festival and the third time they have won top prizes. Stay tuned for more information on The Showing on February 11th which will feature the Seattle Premiere for some of these films.
