You may have seen Teresa Fang’s Documentary Club posters in the hallways around East, or her name throughout the Wildcat Way, this year or last. Earlier this May, Fang was honored for her first place win in the East Division of the C-SPAN StudentCam Documentary Competition, her fourth straight distinction, beginning with her first documentary in seventh grade.
Fang’s documentary, about inflation, won the national competition in a pool of about 3,000 participating students and 1,511 documentaries. On May 8, members of C-SPAN, cable company representatives, CHCCS representatives, School Board members and state government representatives were in attendance for the ceremony, honoring Fang and her accomplishment.
The ceremony consisted of a documentary screening, Q and A with Fang, words from various representatives, and finally, the presentation of the $3,000 check for the first place win.
Zach Lowe, a representative from C-SPAN and judge for the StudentCam competition, ran the majority of the festivities and gave students background on the competition, now in its 19th year, and insight into Fang’s video.
“Student Camera is our annual documentary competition for middle and high school students… We ask a theme that centers around government. This year it was… if you’re a newly elected member of congress, what issue would you address first and why,” Lowe said. “Just thinking about C-SPAN’s bread and butter, we’re a public affairs network; we encourage students who participate to explore multiple perspectives… and they have to include C-SPAN video footage in their documentary, address the prompt [and] think about some different solutions.”
Fang decided to participate in the competition using the theme of inflation in her documentary, “Money Talks: Inside the Inflation Surge,” detailing housing and gas prices. In light of the national issue she chose and honor that she received, a personalized video of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper was played at the ceremony, and Fang later received a letter of congratulations from North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis. State House Representative Allen Buansi was in attendance to celebrate Fang’s national honor in a governmental vein.
“It’s really exciting to see a young person from East Chapel Hill High School, my alma mater, [to] not only get this particular honor, but who just poured their soul into the work of a documentary,” Buansi said. “We’re not able to leverage all of the tools that [the] federal government can, but… we do have a role in terms of the ability to make people’s lives better… ”
Andy Jenks, the CHCCS communications director, came to East to represent the district. “[The documentary] reminded me, as a guy who’s taken one college level economics course, that she was able to cram an entire semester of college material seemingly into a six minute video, which was really impressive,” Jenks said. “I think a takeaway for me is that it is a really incredible opportunity for students at a young age, certainly younger than I was when I had those opportunities, to go in depth on a topic and help articulate it thoughtfully and fairly, and do it in a public manner for other people to see.”
George Griffin, Vice Chair of the School Board, found the documentary different from others that he had watched, and marveled over the fact that it uniquely showed multiple perspectives in order to showcase the multi-faced issue.
“[The documentary] captivated me from the get go, right to the finish,” Griffin said. “I think that she hit the three big issues related to her topic of inflation, and she interviewed people from different backgrounds in those three areas, and then she left a very provocative comment at the end from former president Reagan about whether government is the solution or the problem, and as a viewer, that made me want to talk to Teresa more about what she’s thinking.”
In final reflection, Fang voiced that the motivating power behind her documentary filmmaking was the creative power one gets from creating a film.
“You never know what you might get. Definitely try [making a documentary] if you like making short videos [and] to use the power of the camera,” Fang said. “It is very good to open your eyes to social issues and participate.”
