Saratoga High Wins Documentary Film Contest

Cupertino's Kenya Dream was the subject of a student-made documentary film that took 4th place, and a Saratoga High School media arts student won top honors in the 5th annual Bay Area Social Issues Documentary Film Contest, also known as SI DocFest.

Kenya Dream, the nonprofit started at Cupertino High School in 2006 and the subject of Can You Dream, received $1,000 for the film created by 4th-place winners Rebecca Walton and Janna Wang, juniors at Freestyle Academy in Mountain View.

Saratoga High students Stephen Ruff and Michael Hoffman’s film, My New Red Shoes, highlighting the non‐profit My New Red Shoes, won first place and earned $10,000 to be split between the school, the nonprofit and the film‐makers, said Jane Marashian, assistant to the superintendent for the Joint Union High School District.

Students Ankita Chadha, Haley Wong, and Stephanie Payne’s film, Just one Wish, highlighting the work of the Make a Wish Foundation, was a semi‐finalist and received $300 for the nonprofit, Marashian said.

For most entries from a single school, Saratoga High earned the Terry McElhatton Award, she said.

The contest was held at Camera 12 Cinemas on April 28 and awards totaling $28,050, provided by sponsor and organizer Do Good Docs Corporation, were shared by the top films, the high schools they represented, and their nonprofit organizations.

The second-place winner, The Path to Integration, is a film by Nikki Hashani and Hannah Hansen that features an organization that provides educational resources for people with disabilities. The $6,000 award was shared with Mountain View/Los Altos High Schools’ Freestyle Academy and Abilities United of Palo Alto.

The 3rd-place winner, I Agree with Jennifer, is a film by Morgan Walter, Silver Angeli and Connor Northend. This film features a 13-year-old girl that started a fundraising program for the homeless. The $4,000 award was shared with San Jose’s Lincoln High School and Elm Street Mission of Santa Cruz.

Fifth-place winner, “Giving Access,” by Jessica Scarborough of Presentation High School, won a $750 award for the ACCESS program of Good Samaritan Hospital on the Los Gatos-San Jose border.

Saratoga High School teacher and mentor Tony Palma received the Terry McElhatton Memorial Award, which recognizes the dedication of an educator to the teaching of documentary filmmaking, as represented by the number of films submitted to the SI DocFest.

The award is named after its original winner and friend of the SI DocFest, the late Terry McElhatton. Palma's video production program received $1,500 in his honor.

The event was hosted by SI DocFest co-founder, Loreli Alba, a senior at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Camera Cinemas, the leading independent movie theater company in the South Bay, was an official sponsor and the host of SI DocFest 2012.