Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (CHCA) Upper School students and several alum of the school’s Audio/Visual Production Class have earned top honors in the statewide Friends4Friends Film Festival.
The film was directed by Miami Township resident, Senior Gabe Schmidt, and co-produced by senior Malcolm Vanderwoude and Audio/Visual Production teacher Adam Cool. Schmidt, Vanderwoude, senior Matthew Pacheco and Steve Jester ’18 all co-wrote the story. The film was edited by Jack Bolander ’18, and Carter Jackson ’17 composed the score. All have been students of Cool’s Audio/Visual Class.
CHCA alum Josh Braden ’18 was named Best Actor, and senior Evan Flagel earned the Best Supporting Actor award.
CHCA’s entry, Under Pressure, finished third in online voting for Best Film honors.
Awards were presented September 17th in Columbus at the Ohio Adolescent Health’s Conference on Youth. The film festival spotlights positive solutions that support youth. Each participating school team had to pick a topic related to difficult decisions that students face. The CHCA group chose prescription drug abuse as the topic of its short film.
The film was directed by senior Gabe Schmidt and co-produced by senior Malcolm Vanderwoude and Audio/Visual Production teacher Adam Cool. Schmidt, Vanderwoude, senior Matthew Pacheco and Steve Jester ’18 all co-wrote the story. The film was edited by Jack Bolander ’18, and Carter Jackson ’17 composed the score. All have been students of Cool’s Audio/Visual Class.
The team partnered with Maximum Freedom, a Cincinnati-based non-profit that educates youth about risk avoidance.
Seven Ohio high schools submitted video entries. In one week, CHCA’s entry netted nearly 1,400 views on YouTube and 170 votes.
The participating films are viewable at the OAHC Youth website. View Under Pressure directly at this link.
“I am really proud of the work this group has done,” shares Cool. “Not only did they do a great job on the production side, but I have heard on multiple accounts of people having important conversations inspired by the film. This is really the point of the entire festival—to raise awareness for the issues that students really face.”
Cool also adds, “We have another, bigger production in the works, so keep your eyes peeled for an announcement in the next month or two.”
