Documentary competition winner from King's Rochester receives high praise from Greenpeace UK

Theodore Bourgeay, a pupil at King’s Rochester Preparatory School was delighted to be selected as winner of the English department’s Environmental Short Film competition, by judges from Greenpeace UK.

Drawing inspiration from Greenpeace UK’s annual film festival, Year 7 pupils were tasked with creating short films (2-3 minutes) about a particular environmental issue of their choosing.

Due to the Covid-19 closure of schools, the pupils made their videos at home via the King’s Remote Learning Programme, using household items, with Theodore creating a stop motion film out of LEGO pieces focusing on shark hunting, marine pollution and human consumption.

Pupils then voted between them and a shortlist was submitted to Greenpeace UK’s video team, who kindly took the time to judge and offer individual professional feedback for each short film.

Lisa Cave, Supporter Services at Greenpeace UK said “The video team at Greenpeace UK and I have watched all of the videos. We had a really tough job finding a winner as they were all so good and we were especially impressed that they had all been made at home during the coronavirus lockdown. Our winner was Theo - congratulations! We loved his stop motion technique and every element of his video - concept, content, delivery, production and impact ticked our boxes. Well done to everyone! We really hope you'll all carry on caring about nature and making excellent films.”.

Miss Fran Lowe, English Teacher who led the project said “The pupils are really proud of their short films and loved hearing feedback from the professionals! All of the films made were really lovely and huge congratulations to Theodore on being selected the winner, Thank you to Lisa and the Greenpeace UK team for all their help and support with the judging”.

The Environmental Short Film competition was part of the inaugural King’s Rochester ‘Art’s Week’. A five-day, school wide celebration of the arts where pupils and parents were able to virtually attend workshops in drama, art, music, sport and more.