Top 3 Winners of the First Youth Anti-Racist Film Festival

The first Youth Anti-Racist Film Festival was a resounding success. The event, hosted by the Minority Scholars Program, took place on Feb. 24 at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. MCPS students delivered powerful documentaries with messages that made it clear that there is no room for racism in the classroom. Twelve films were presented at the festival; there were more than 100 people in attendance.

The winning films were:

• School within a School – Sofia Woldeab, Montgomery Blair High School

• ESOL Isolation – Camila Sanchez, Asnakech Uhl, Elizabeth Covino and Isabella Vilchez , Rockville High School

• Power of Words - Jarvinia Thopae, Hasini Shanthakumar, Sneha Swaminthan and Aarav Bhatia, Lakelands Park Middle School

Other films showed discussions about microaggressions, dress codes, cultural appropriation, stereotypes and the fight against all types of hate. Finalists came from eight schools: Blair, Rockville, Gaithersburg and Northwest high schools, and Lakelands Park, Odessa Shannon, Forest Oak and Parkland middle schools.