Domestic violence awareness video won for student

Students from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, the University of Southern California and the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Ontario along with a group of high school and college students from California were winners in the U.S. International Film And Video Festival.

The student projects ranged from a public service announcement to raise awareness of battered women to documentaries on a border patrol guard and an illegal alien, on a college student trying to reconnect with his roots, on efforts to rescue a young Iranian woman from a terrorist support group in Iraq and on the overpopulation of elephants in South Africa.

The festival added the student competition this year as a way to promote young creatives. The festival attracted professional entries from 27 countries and had winners from 22 countries.

Jennava Laska, student at the Art Center College, produced “Women Against Domestic Violence” for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence as part of a workshop in cinematography. It features six women who suffered physical domestic abuse.

The production was aired recently on an NBC affiliate, and the coalition uses the production at its events in the southeast, Laska said. She studied under Professor Earl Rath, who also serves as artist-in-residence at the University of Southern California and is an internationally known cinematographer.

Zeus Quijano Jr., a student at USC, produced and directed “Point of Entry,” which uses interviews with a Border Patrol agent and an illegal immigrant to show that the men have much in common in wanting to do a good job and care for their families.

“The film looks to humanize both sides of a controversial issue,” Quijano said.

Student Andrew Brose of Sheridan College drew on his confliction about his small town background to create a coming-of-age film about reconnecting with childhood friends in “Six Packs, Sleds & Pigeons.”

Neha Gandhi, also of Sheridan College, produced “Breaking the Ties that Bind” for a project in investigative journalism. It details the struggle of an Iranian family trying to break ties with Mujahidin-e Khalq Organization, an Iranian organization that supported Saddam Hussein.

The five students who created “Desperate Measures: The Crisis Facing the South African Elephant” represent Santa Barbara, Laguna Blanca and San Roque high schools. Their project received recognition at the 2007 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film reveals the dilemma facing officials who must balance between protecting the elephants and also making certain the elephants don’t destroy the land to the detriment of other animals. The students filmed in South Africa in 2006.