A group of film students from Diamond Technology Institute in Watsonville will travel to Los Angeles on May 23 to be honored at the California Student Media Festival for their documentary, “Limitless Potential.”
The 7-minute film features Cristal Gonzalez, a Watsonville High School alumna whom the students describe as an artist, performer and kindergarten teacher.
Gonzalez also wrote the book “Pedacitos” (“Little Pieces”), which San Martin-based Ocote Libre Press describes as a “deeply intimate collection of stories, reflections, and poetic fragments that speak to the beauty found in breaking, healing, and becoming whole again.”
The three-month production process for the Video Production class included multiple interviews and filming sessions with Gonzalez, weeks of editing and gathering B-roll footage around Watsonville to supplement the story.
Since its completion, the film has been shown at the Watsonville Film Festival and at an event in Arkansas.
The first interview took place at El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista, where Gonzalez performs.
“That’s when the story really started,” said senior Julissa Bejar, who edited the documentary.
Bejar said the story was so rich that she struggled to decide what to include.
“I had more trouble deciding what I wanted to include in the piece because she does so much,” Bejar said. “She’s a teacher, and apart from her writing and her book, she’s also a performer.”
Eventually, the group decided to focus on how Gonzalez supports her students amid the current political climate and hardline immigration policies.
“I feel really proud, especially with how she’s resisting the political climate,” said Emily Hernandez, the film’s gaffer and production assistant. “I thought it was really inspirational.”
Gonzalez said the documentary was a full-circle moment for her, since Diamond tech principal Marci Keller was her English teacher at Watsonville High, who handed her the play “Heroes and Saints,” her first bilingual play.
From that moment on, she said, she knew she wanted to write.
“When I saw these youngsters in front of me who had filmed it, who had done all this beautiful work, I was one row behind them, and then behind me, a few rows back, was my teacher. And I thought about, wow, this is not the work of one ripple. This is multiple ripples having an impact on how we’re making art and the stories that we bring forward.”
“Limitless Potential” was among more than 500 entries from groups ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade, with categories including fiction, non-fiction, animation, photography, audio, music, podcast and Interactive Media.
During the ceremony, 40 entries will be recognized, along with 27 honorable mentions.
We will be recognizing 40 unique entries as winners and 27 as Honorable Mentions. Visit mediafestival.org/winners for the list.
Every winning project gets a plaque and a link on the organization’s website. They also get a “swag bag,” said California Student Media Festival Executive Director Mike Lawrence.
“This is my favorite day of the year,” he said. “It’s like the Oscars for Kids! Our Festival is designed to give students an authentic platform for their voices. Every year, we see students push themselves creatively and technically. These student media creations are the best in the state!”
