River Forest Student Wins Prize in Global, Green Film Contest

Roosevelt Middle School 8th grader, Andrew Older of River Forest, will win an Honorable Mention Award in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest for his film "Invasive Fish in the Des Plaines River." The Global Awards Celebration will take place at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 17, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., in Chicago, as well as online globally. This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are available at tinyurl.com/yfc23awards.
A well-researched, well-written script is at the core of Andrew’s 3-minute film. Invasive goby fish and Asian carp are crowding out native fish in Des Plaines River, IL. With illustrations and maps, Andrew explains that goby fish were introduced from Eastern Europe via ballast water from international ships traveling along the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Great Lakes. Asian carp traveled up the Mississippi to the Great Lakes after they were introduced in the South to help control algal blooms. We all can help, says Andrew, by joining organized fishing groups for Asian carp and goby, by eating more copi (a new name for carp), and by donating to non-profits that help solve this problem.
“Through this film festival, I hope to share my concern for native fish and their ecology that is threatened by invasive species,” Andrew elucidated in his contest entry.
Since its inception in 2013, the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest has grown from a local Oak Park/River Forest, Illinois, project to a highly competitive international competition garnering 403 submissions. Countries such as Brazil, Australia and Mexico and states such as California, Georgia and Indiana will be represented among this year’s winners at the Global Awards Celebration.
“This year our awards event will include a sneak peek of our Honorable Mention winners. We will be screening a compilation of these 12 films. This is the first time we will be recognizing the Honorable Mention winners at our main event, side by side with our top 10 winners. It’s all very exciting,” explained Contest Founding Director Sue Crothers. A full screening of the Honorable Mention winners will occur in November online.
“The secret ingredient to our success is youth. They have opinions, ideas and viewpoints about the climate emergency,” continued Sue. “It’s hard for people to deny what’s happening when they’re living through extreme floods, fires, and tornadoes. And the younger generations have something to say about the mess our generation has made.”
The Young Filmmakers Contest asks students from age 8 to 25 to create a 3- to 8-minute environmental film that inspires change or action. Animated or stop-motion films can be a minimum of 45 seconds long. The deadline each year is June 25, which gives individuals and school groups the entire academic year to submit their film projects. A jury of 32 film and sustainability experts evaluated this year's films.
The call for entries for 2024 will open soon on Film Freeway here: https://filmfreeway.com/OneEarthYoungFilmmakersContest