District 97 Students Earn Awards from One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest

Three District 97 elementary school students have earned awards from the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest, an annual short film competition that focuses on sustainability and understanding climate change.

Mann Elementary School students, Zoë and Jada Nevels won the top prize in the elementary school competition with their film “We Can All Help the Earth.” Beye fourth-grader, Grady Roderweiss-O’Brien, received an honorable mention in the elementary school category for his film, “The Impossible Way.”

The One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest is a part of the One Earth Film Festival, an annual event held in the Chicago-area since 2011. 

This year’s competition received nearly 100 entries from across the nation this year, but only 19 films were recognized by a jury of young professional filmmakers and environmental activists. Students are tasked to create a three- to eight-minute environmental film about one of the following sustainability topics: energy, food, transportation, waste, water, or open space/ecosystems.

Zoë and Jada Nevels used stop-motion, green-screen and live-action in their film to explain how electricity is produced, the dangers of using too much fossil fuel and the steps people can take to reduce their carbon footprint. The public can view their first-place film, “We Can All Help the Earth!” on Saturday, March 7, at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago at 10:30 a.m. 

Grady Roderweiss-O’Brien’s four-minute film focused on the environmental impact of giving up meat. Grady’s film, “The Impossible Way” will screen as part of the One Earth Film Festival before the feature film “Beyond Climate” at 3 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at the Oak Park Public Library

The One Earth Film Festival runs from March 6 through March 20.