Film Festival Recognizes Student Filmmakers

For the third consecutive year, a film festival has recognized Upper School students’ work in the “Creating Historical Documentaries” course.

Co-taught by Visual Arts and Graphic Design teacher Travis Chandler and History teacher Dan Greenstone, the course challenges students to research, write, film, edit and produce a documentary about an important historical event, moment, crisis or social justice cause. Students analyze a variety of important historical documentaries to help identify the qualities of exceptional films. Next, they combine this new visual knowledge with writing, research and storytelling techniques and have direct involvement with all aspects of pre-production, shooting, lighting, interviewing, editing and more to create professional-quality videos.

This year, the 2025 All American High School Film Festival accepted three films by Parker students—a record!—out of 2,600 submissions, more than 700 official selections in about 200 category nominations. The films, which the students created during the 2024–25 school year, were “Broken Oaths: Extremism in the CPD” by Jocelyn Urgilez Calle ’25 and Amy O'Brien ’25; “The Crazier the Better: Industrial Music and the Reagan Era” by Maya Khare ’25, Leo Hild ’26 and Lia Bahri ’26; and “Lost in Translation: Migrant Children in CPS” by Uma Morris ’25 and Grace Loma ’25.

Parker is also excited to announce that “Broken Oaths” was nominated for an award that will be presented during the 13th Annual 2025 AAHSFF Teen Indie Awards Show on Sunday, October 19. In addition to awards, scholarships and prizes potentially still available, this selection means the documentary will screen at the AMC Theaters in New York City’s Times Square!

Join the school in congratulating all these students on a job well done, and stay tuned for more information in October.

Click here to watch these documentaries.