C-SPAN To Air Loudoun Student's Documentary On Presidential Power

LOVETTSVILLE, VA — C-SPAN will air student filmmaker Thomas McKenna's award-winning documentary, "Overreach from the Oval Office," on Monday, April 20 at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day. McKenna, a 10th grade home-schooled student from Lovettsville, won 1st Prize in the High School Eastern division in C-SPAN’s national 2020 StudentCam competition.

McKenna received a $3,000 award for winning the top spot in his region. The seven-minute documentary focuses primarily on the past two presidents, Donald Trump and Barack Obama, and how they used executive actions to get parts of their agenda implemented. He also examines the executive actions that Democratic presidential candidates vowed to take if they won the presidency.

Each year, C-SPAN partners with local cable television providers in communities nationwide to invite middle and high school students to produce short documentaries about a subject of national importance. This year, students addressed the theme, "What's Your Vision in 2020? Explore the issue you most want presidential candidates to address during the campaign."

McKenna picked the issue of the executive branch and what can be done to stop a president from acquiring too much power. At the end of the documentary, the 10th grader posits that presidents themselves, not Congress, are best-positioned to roll back the power held in the executive branch.

McKenna is not a newcomer to documentary filmmaking. In 2019, when he was in ninth grade, McKenna won third place in the 2019 StudentCam competition for his documentary, “Work Hard, Dream On: Immigrant Entrepreneurship and the American Dream.” He also won third place in C-SPAN’s 2018 competition for his video, “Equality to Govern,” a short documentary on the U.S. Constitution’s Natural Born Citizen Clause.

McKenna's documentary can be viewed on C-SPAN on Monday or by clicking here.