Seven works by students in the Ballard High School Video Production Program have won prizes at the 15th Annual Derek Freese High School Film & Video Festival.
The festival was held at Temple University in Philadelphia last Saturday and draws competition from high school filmmakers throughout the nation.
"Can you believe it? What did my students do to get this much from fate?" said teacher Matt Lawrence,
BHS students won every award in the documentary category, which Lawrence said is quite an honor, as Temple is widely regarded as one of the best schools of documentary filmmaking in the country.
"I can't think of a more inspiring follow-up to the story about the festival finalists," he stated.
First Prize went to Robyn Cochrane, Spencer Miller, Georgia Peck & Justin Smith-Mercado for "Bar Ink", the story of a youth who discovers and develop his talent in spite of incarceration.
Amelia Elizalde, Levi Friedman, Sean Hendricks & Sheridan Koehler took Second Prize for "Henry", a documentary 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, BHS 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.
This marks the eighth year in a row that productions by students from the Ballard High School Video Production Program have been Finalists in the Derek Freese Festival, and the third time they have also won top prizes.
Two of the Fiction prize winning films will have their Seattle premiere at The Showing on Friday, Feb 11th at 7 pm in the BHS auditorium.
For more information please read our previous coverage here and here.
