Juniors win $10,000 in film competition

By creating a video featuring My Little Red Shoes, a Bay Area charity that donates shoes and clothing to underprivileged and homeless children, juniors Stephen Ruff and Michael Hoffman won the grand prize, a portion of $10,000, in the Bay Area Social Issues Documentary Film Contest. 

This documentary festival encourages high school student filmmakers in the Bay Area to explore social issues by creating short documentary films about individuals or non-profit organizations that are making a difference in their communities. Students from 12 counties in California participated in this year's contest. 

Ruff and Hoffman recieved first place in the traditional category for their film titled “My New Red Shoes,” in which they highlighted the reason the organization was formed and its effect on children in the Bay Area.

The foundation My New Red Shoes gives homeless and low-income children $50 clothing gift cards and new pairs of shoes so that they can start the school year proud and ready to learn.

“We chose the foundation because of how little coverage they had,” Ruff said. “The festival not only showed how successful the new media arts program is at Saratoga, but it also showed a fantastic way to help the community.”

The juniors plan to split the money into thirds: one goes to the organization, another to the school, and the last third to Hoffman and Ruff.

“I’m really proud that our video won. It feels good to be able to get some coverage on a good organization and help them gain some publicity. My new red shoes gives each child a personalized gift package that helps raise their confidence in school, therefore increasing their chance of success.,” Ruff said.

MAP students juniors Ankita Chadha, Haley Wong, and Stephanie Payne placed as semi-finalists with their film "Just One Wish," highlighting the work of the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which focuses on granting wishes to children with life threatening medical conditions. The filmmakers won $300, which they will donate to Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Along with these two awards, Saratoga was awarded $1,500 for being the school that entered the most films in the festival.

"Having students from our media arts program place as the top film in the SI DocFest is just so amazing," said MAP teacher Tony Palma. “It's such a wonderful opportunity for them to be recognized for all the hard work they put into the project, and to top it all off, their nonprofit is going to get more recognition and prize money to continue the great work they are doing to help the community.”