Eighth-grade film students Will Morrison and Arielle Lewis continued The Davis Academy’s tradition of winning honors in “C-SPAN StudentCam,” a national student documentary competition.
Morrison earned second place in the middle school for his documentary, “The Missing Piece for Autism,” which will air on C-SPAN on April 5.
Lewis received an honorable mention for her film, “Equality and Protection for All: Laws and the LGBTQ+ Community.”

The winners were announced March 10. The students were the only winners in Georgia in the national student documentary competition in which more than 2,300 students representing 43 states, Washington, D.C., Singapore and Pakistan submitted entries. In it, students were asked to create a 5- to 6 minute-long video that explored an issue they wanted the president and U.S. Congress to address in 2021.
Kendrick Phillips, director of Visual and Performing Arts at The Davis Academy, coached Lewis and Morrison. She also won a faculty advisor award, making her one of 53 faculty advisors who won out of thousands of entries.
Davis film students have participated in “C-SPAN StudentCam” for 10 years, earning recognition 13 times, winning first, second, third and several honorable mentions.
“We are committed to developing and nurturing each child’s passions and unique voice on and off the stage. We encourage students to become big picture thinkers, champions of creative play, innovators, and collaborative communicators.” Phillips said.
This year, the students were to be honored virtually instead of seeing the C-SPAN bus visit their campus.
To view the documentaries, visit these links: “The Missing Piece for Autism” and “Equality and Protection for All.”
The Davis Academy is a Jewish day school in Sandy Springs.