Lion Birnecker, an eighth-grader in Evanston, expressed an interest last year in filmmaking.
Lion, who is homeschooled took a few online classes in filmmaking and decided to submit a movie to the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest. The contest invites students from third through sixth grade to create a short film about an environment topic. Oak Park-based nonprofit One Earth Collective sponsors this annual contest.
Lion said that I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn and practice my skills.
An exciting email arrived in Lions’ inbox on February 3. Take Action Against Lead, his six-minute film, won the $200 first prize at the contests middle school level.
The film Lions gives a brief history of the use lead in ancient Roman waterways, before moving on to examine the toxic substance in Chicago, which has the most lead pipes in the world.
It is strong, durable, inexpensive, and easy to get. It has been used for over 6,000 year. He states that it is also poisonous. The film ends with a list detailing precautions people can take to avoid the substance. This substance has been linked to neurological issues and is particularly harmful to infants and young children.
Lion said that he chose lead for his film because he wanted it to be a focus on an environmental issue that has an impact on the Chicago area.
The judges stated in an email they sent on February 3, that Lions’ film had brought a renewed sense of urgency to this issue. The email stated that although we knew about the dangers of lead pipes in Flint, Michigan, we didn’t know that Chicago had such serious problems.
His film will air at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are available for the screening HereThe film will be uploaded later. Here.
Lion received $200 in addition to the matching grant, which he could donate to a charity related to his film. He chose Current Water, which is a Chicago nonprofit that develops technology to improve water management.
He said they do a lot of great things.
Lion discovered the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest through his mother Sonat Birnecker Hart. She was looking for youth filmmaking opportunities and found it online. He wrote to the RoundTable.
She wrote that I am proud of Lion’s decision to make a film about a local environmental topic. I can’t wait to see the film.
She said that Lion had learned a lot about lead, especially its prevalence in Illinois.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Lion has been taking mostly online classes. His family moved from Chicago, Illinois to Evanston, where his grandmother resides.
The teenager has many big projects in the future. Lion was contacted by a startup asking him to do some video editing. He replied that it was probably the next project he would be working on.
