CU Student Documentary wins Best of Competition at BEA
Taking the Lede: Colorado Edition—a 45-minute documentary produced by students and faculty members—has received a in the Broadcast Education Association’s annual Festival of Media Arts competition.
The documentary details stories of Colorado high school journalism in the wake of the the 1988 Hazelwood Supreme Court decision, which ruled that school administrators could exercise restraint of school-sponsored expression. Colorado was one of a handful of states to subsequently pass laws guaranteeing First Amendment rights for public school students.
The project took , with faculty support, most of 2015 to film and produce.
"I'm thrilled about the win because my highest hope for this project was to spread awareness for student press rights and encourage other states to adopt anti-Hazelwood laws," said Roxann Elliot, the documentary's student producer.
Taking the Lede has been shown at high school journalism gatherings across the United States and has also been distributed to dozens of high school journalism teachers in Colorado for use in their classrooms and in their communities.