Contest Rules

The contest is open to middle school, high school and college students. You do not have to live in Rhode Island to participate and win! You can work by yourself or as a team or group, as part of a class, club or after school program, or independently.

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Video Specifications

Videos should be less than 4 minutes and should relate to one or more of the themes of Courageous Rhode Island. The best videos will tackle important topics including developing media literacy, celebrating free speech, countering disinformation, and preventing division and radicalization.

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Videos can take the form of fiction or documentary films, public service announcements, or informational videos. But whichever topic you choose to cover and format you use to communicate your message, your video should show off your effort in creativity as well as your perspective on how active listening, kindness and compassion can help us bridge the divides that are harming our communities. 

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Check out this playlist to get some inspiration for your video.

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Judges & Criteria

Videos will be reviewed by a panel of expert judges and evaluated against other submissions from students of the same level of education--so middle schoolers will be competing against other middles schoolers and so on. And these judges will not just look at technical achievement, but also the video's connections to the contest's themes, their clarity and originality. 

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Artist Statements

And in addition to your video, please write a 300-word artist statement in which you talk about the hard work you put into your project. For example, you might answer the following questions:

1. Why did you chose this topic?

2. What creative decisions did you make?

3. What impact do you hope to have?

Judges will also review these statements, looking for students who demonstrate real effort and are  reflecting on how their project might do some good in their community. A video demonstrating how to write artist statement can be found here. 

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Submitting on Film Freeway

Submissions will be open until May 15th. The video below provides step-by-step instructions for submitting the projects on the contest's Film Freeway site. 

 

Questions

Contact the Contest Director Benjamin Thevenin at benjamin@mediaeducationlab.com with any questions about the contest, guidelines, awards, or if you have any trouble submitting your project on Film Freeway.  

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