Kell High students place third in C-SPAN film competition | Arts & Culture

MARIETTA, Ga. -- Three seniors at Kell High School in Marietta have won third prize in C-SPAN's 2011 StudentCam competition.

Wesley Arnold, Shelby Foster and Robert Johnson will receive $750 for their eight-minute documentary, "At the Gateway," which focuses on marijuana use and law enforcement.

Two other Metro Atlanta groups received honorable mentions for their work.

Hannah Kimerson, Kathleen Lynch and Alexis Slattery are in eighth grade at Kennedy Road Middle School in Griffin. Their documentary about special education programs and students, "Allan and the IDEA," won a $250 prize.

So did "Brother Can You Spare a Dime? -- A Tale of Two Fathers," which is about the current economy. It was created by Kira Combs and Anna Hamilton, who are in eighth grade at Little Mill Middle School in Cumming.

These students are among 141 from across the nation who received a total of $50,000 in the StudentCam contest.

Now in its seventh year, the national competition invites middle and high school students to produce a five- to eight-minute documentary. This year's theme was "Washington, DC, through my lens."

More than 1,481 students in 40 states and the District of Columbia submitted entries. C-SPAN received a record 1,069 videos -- a six percent increase over the 2010 competition.

"The winning videos were those that best explained what the students learned about how the federal government works and how the government's decisions have an impact on the students on a local level," said Joanne Wheeler, C-SPAN vice president of education relations.

The top 27 videos will air on C-SPAN, one day each, beginning on Friday, Apr. 1. They will be followed by an interview with the filmmakers during "Washington Journal," C-SPAN's morning call-in program.

"At the Gateway" will air at 6:50 a.m. on Saturday, Apr. 16. It may also be viewed on the StudentCam website.

C-SPAN Classroom sponsors the competition. The documentaries were judged by a panel of company representatives and were evaluated based on the thoughtful examination of the theme, quality of expression, adherence to the time limit, inclusion of varying styles of the documentary's topic and incorporation of C-SPAN programming.

The top five topics that students chose to discuss in 2011 were:

* Education
* Economy
* Immigration
* Health care
* Environment