Mission Heights Junior College young filmmakers Farhaan Muhammed, Andrew Ma and Raiyan Khan have won the Auckland Council Film-maker award for their short film Gaming Addiction in this year’s Outlook for Someday New Zealand Challenge.
Competing against 40 films shortlisted, (five of which came from Mission Heights Junior College student teams), Gaming Addiction addresses the question: What happens when you get so involved that the game is playing you?
As young people, they added their voices to awareness of mental health through this film.
The challenge was to make a short film (up to five minutes) about sustainability, to help grow a generating of sustainability storytellers. Students from ages seven to 24 were allowed to interpret sustainability the way they wanted to.
A panel of 12 judges from media, government and business agencies judged the best from 133 entries.
During their acceptance speech, the winning team spoke of their love for technology and the desire to create awareness of mental well-being for a past-time, they all enjoy.
“Winning is amazing. We are often in turmoil with balancing the demands of a technological world…. and gaming addiction is one issue confronting many of us today,” they said.
They quoted Barack Obama saying: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We’re the change we seek.”
They said embracing the MHJC motto: Kia Mana Ake – Growing Greatness, allowed them, to achieve greatness with their film.