Alexandria City High School (ACHS) students have been recognized for their achievement in producing an award-winning documentary. Elena Gutierrez, Alison Avelar Rafailan, and Helen Russell’s film “Dear Mr. President: History, or Progress?” highlights the impact of discrimination and racism nationwide, with a special focus on the Alexandria community.
Elena, Alison and Helen have been a team since their freshman year at ACHS and this year, they were awarded an Honorable Mention in the C-SPAN 2021 StudentCam Documentary Competition. “Dear Mr. President: History, or Progress?” was written, directed, and produced by the trio.
The students combined their individual passions for civic engagement, storytelling, cinematography, music, film and writing in collaborating to produce this documentary. In addition to the recognition from C-SPAN, Helen, Alison and Elena will take part in a two-day event held by Visionaries ALX on Nov. 9 and Nov. 13 at The Garden at Building Momentum in Alexandria.