SEQUIM — A spoof on nuclear power plants and wind energy titled “The Summer Wind Came Killing In” landed first place and a pair of $1,000 scholarships for two young filmmakers last week.
Michael Cullinan and Ravi Carlson, both juniors at Sequim High School, took the top prize at the fifth annual Sequim Student Film Festival with “Summer Wind,” a seven-minute movie starring Cullinan as a nuke-plant boss.
Friday night’s festival, sponsored by the Sequim Education Foundation, lighted up the screen inside the Sequim High Performing Arts Center and awarded some $5,000 in scholarships to young filmmakers.
The Cullinan-Carlson project also won the people’s choice trophy known as the Elkie, reported Elna Kawal, organizer of the festival.
“High school computer teacher Stuart Marcy put on his lab coat and manned the sound meter to get an exact reading from the raucous crowd to determine which film would win the Elkie,” Kawal said.
The second-place winner was “Survivor: Banana Belt,” a movie set in Sequim and inspired by the “Survivor” reality television show.
Brother-and-sister team Brendon and Holly Hudson — she’s a senior, he’s a freshman — produced, directed and starred in the film. They took home $750 each in scholarship awards.
“The Great Race,” a morality tale about two teens trying to beat each other to school to submit their films to the festival, took third place, and sibling production team Luke, Jeb and Jenny Mooney each won a $500 scholarship.
In “Race,” they told the story of one kid who puts sugar in a rival’s gas tank; another runs over another competitor — and nobody gets in on time.
The moral, then, is “play fair or you will get nowhere.”
To learn more about the Sequim Education Foundation and the events it sponsors in order to inspire students to strive for excellence, visit www.SequimEducationFoundation.org.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
