Fort Worth — A patriotic tribute by two young sisters was one of the big winners at the fifth-annual Keller ISD Student Film Festival Thursday night at Timber Creek High School.
Erin and Sarah Stillinger, students at Willis Lane Elementary School, won both Best Documentary in K-4 and the People’s Choice Award for their film “Vernon’s Flags of Oak Bend.” The six-minute documentary chronicles the efforts of Navy veteran Vernon Drewa, the girls’ father Army Major Randy Stillinger and other residents of the Oak Bend neighborhood to line their streets with American flags on patriotic holidays.“We decided to do the video when Daddy started putting flags in our neighborhood,” Erin Stillinger said.Randy Stillinger wanted to line the streets of his neighborhood just north of Rapp Road with flags after returning from Iraq in 2006 and seeing the flags adorning primary streets in Keller, said his wife Sharon Stillinger. Randy Stillinger approached his neighbor Vernon Drewa, a Navy veteran with more than 30 years of service, about leading the effort. Drewa, who was already putting many American and military service flags in his yard on patriotic holidays, and neighbors installed more than 400 flags by July 4, 2012.In October, Drewa, 82, had a massive heart attack and the neighbors put out their flags as a show of support, according to the girls’ documentary. Drewa died the day after Veterans Day.“He was an amazing man, and he really inspired the neighbors,” Sharon Stillinger said.Erin, a second grader, said the video was a lot of work and took about two months to complete. She narrates the film, and Sarah, a kindergartner, is interviewed on camera. The sisters used their dad’s GoPro camera, and he helped with some of the filming and editing.Erin and Sarah each received $100 i-Tunes gift cards for winning the People’s Choice Award. More than 6,200 votes were cast. Sharon Stillinger said the family posted the video on Facebook and asked military friends and veterans to vote for the documentary.“More than anything, we wanted to get the story out,” Sharon Stillinger said.Randy Stillinger could not attend the awards ceremony because he is at Fort Hood awaiting deployment to Kuwait.High school awardsFor the second year in a row, the Film Festival had two awards ceremonies, one for kindergarten through eighth grade filmmakers and a later one for high school students.Matt Hill, media services coordinator and festival founder, said that more than 1,400 films have been submitted in the five-year history of the festival.Over the years, students have become more skilled and more creative as video-making technology has improved, Hill said. Nowhere was that more evident that the music video category, where filmmakers featured everything from original rap compositions and live bands to lip-synching, animation and stop-motion photography.Keller High students Dillon Fowler, Megan John, Rachel Rohman and Madelyn Wischmeyer won the high school division for their colorful, stop-motion hand drawings to illustrate Jack Johnson’s “Do You Remember.”The four seniors, who are students in an advanced graphic design class, decided to pool their efforts to make the video. They started with the idea of using one line drawing to create all the pictures, then decided to settle on a style of images Madelyn and Megan created that they would draw along a long roll of paper.“It took countless hours to match up the drawings and the music,” Dillon said.The film festival is creating a new excitement for the craft.Central Principal David Hinson, was one of the presenters at the high school ceremony.“This is an opportunity for students to show their creativity and how successful they’re going to be after high school,” Hinson said.Some students have been inspired to pursue filmmaking as a career. Fossil Ridge senior Jake Wangner won the high school documentary category for his profile of a skilled skateboarder, “Adam Mosely - Who I Am.” Jake has won awards for his films in each of the last four years. For the second year in a row, his film festival entry made the cut for a screening in the High School Short Films division at this month’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin.Jake said of his second trip to the Austin festival, “I want to take advantage of it a lot more and go to a lot more screenings.”He plans to continue working as a filmmaker and explore his options after graduating from Fossil Ridge.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
