When Winnetka teen Lucy Spahr first heard of the 2017 “StudentCam” documentary competition late last year from David Heineman, her Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher at New Trier High School, she knew she wanted to take part. And the 17-year-old junior knew what she wanted her documentary to be about.
“The question was, ‘What is the most important issue you think the Congress should address in 2017?’ I immediately thought of global warming, especially considering the attitude in Washington now,” Spahr said.
Spahr set to work on “Global Warming: The Dead Zone” – writing a script, gathering news clips, informational graphics and shooting her own footage with the help of family members, then boiling what she had down to a film of just over six minutes.
StudentCam judges were impressed with the result: Spahr’s documentary won honorable mention in the public affairs network’s contest, which drew more than 2,900 entries from students in 46 states and Washington D.C, according to C-SPAN. On April 4, C-SPAN officials visited New Trier to honor her efforts at a school assembly and to present her with a $250 check.
The contest, which has been held since 2006 according to the contest website, requires students in middle or high school to create a five- to seven-minute documentary on an issue affecting their community or the nation. Young videographers must use some C-SPAN footage to do so, and they need to include different points of view on the issue, thus reflecting C-SPAN’s dedication to showing multiple sides of all issues, competition rules state.
This year’s theme was “Your Message to Washington,” asking participants to outline what they thought was the most urgent issue for America’s new president and Congress to address this year.
Doug Hemmig, a spokesman for C-SPAN, said judges noticed Spahr’s dedication: “What stood out as well was her passion for the topic, the interest that she took in it.”
Hemmig said they were also impressed with what he called her unique look at global warming “through the eyes of the ocean and the water.”
Spahr said she thinks her film stood out from other entries because she didn’t create a film that was solely a news documentary. Instead, she wrote a narrative script as the backdrop for the news clips and graphs she included, speaking in the voice of an old man, walking along the water’s edge.
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“As a young boy he loved playing at the ocean, but the story flashes forward, and he can’t do that anymore, because ocean oxygen levels are down because of global warming, and the ocean is a dead zone,” Spahr said.
Spahr cast younger brother Spencer, a New Trier freshman, and grandfather Donald Lubin of Highland Park as the old man and his younger self.
She completed her work in a matter of weeks, getting it to judges by the deadline, which was Inauguration Day. She heard last month that her work had won an honorable mention.
Although this was Spahr’s first documentary, she has always had an interest in video, and last summer created a music video with friends, she said.
Mother Alice Spahr said her daughter made films for fun when she was younger, and this summer took a film class while attending a summer program at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“She definitely has a special talent at storytelling and being able to use different components to put something together,” she said.
Lucy Spahr’s mother and grandfather were on hand for the April 4 assembly to view the video, which her mother called “very moving.”
Heineman, too, called the film moving.
“I was really impressed. Beyond the issue that she’s raising, and the content she used, the way she tells the story was really compelling,” he said.
Spahr donated her $250 to the Greenpeace organization, her mother said.
Spahr said she would be interested in making another documentary.
“It’s really rewarding to film, and editing, and watch how everything comes together,” she said.
Information on this year’s StudentCam contest is available at www.studentcam.org. Spahr’s documentary can be viewed here: https://www.viddler.com/v/7c81fcfd.
Twitter: @pioneer_kathy