Six Local Students Win Top Prize for Their Film About Data Centers

Six recent graduates of The Children's School of Oak Park have won a $500 Environmental Activism Award (Local) in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest for their short film "Generating Our Future." The students are Holly Murphy, Indra Mallik, Amelia Richards, Jasmine Dola, Otto Bruner, and Willliam Peterson, under the tutelage of Gloria Mitchell. The prize is sponsored by Food & Water Watch and the international film contest, which originally started in Oak Park, is now based in Chicago.

In their 8-minute film, the students highlight the problems caused by burgeoning data centers near the Great Lakes. Currently, 847 data centers use approximately 60 million gallons of water daily.

Usually, water is pumped through a membrane to cool the data center server rooms. More than 50% of this water evaporates without returning to the water supply. Most data centers connect to municipal water supplies and are not required by the state to disclose their water usage.

Says the narrator, “The Great Lakes are a crucial resource and we all have the responsibility to preserve them for generations to come.”

During the past year, One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest received 428 submissions from 58 countries and 35 states. Germany, South Korea, Poland, Argentina, Guinea, India and Taiwan will be represented among winners, along with the U.S. states of Texas, Illinois, and California. The Global Awards Celebration will take place at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, in person at Davis Theater, 4614 N. Lincoln Ave., in Chicago OR online virtually anywhere in the world. A special screening for those in Asia/Pacific is also available. Adam Joel of Aggressively Compassionate will host this special event, introducing the winners before their films premiere. Reserve free tickets here.

The One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest asks students from age 8 to 25 to create a 3- to 8- minute environmental film that inspires change or action. Animated or stop-motion films can be a minimum of 45 seconds long. Students receive individualized feedback from a robust jury of over 30 film and environmental experts--making this contest a unique learning experience. Learn more about all the winners here. The 2027 contest opens soon on Film Freeway with a deadline of June 25. Learn more about the contest by visiting the website.