Tara Gupta Wins the Sally Stovall Planet Warrior Prize for Creativity

This prize is the Sally Stovall Planet Warrior Prize of $1,000 plus a $1,000 matching gift that Tara will donate to The Rainforest Alliance and Farmfresh Rhode Island.

Tara’s almost two-minute film is a concise animation in mostly black and white with a few bold, primary colors. Her message is a simple one about the relationship between Mother Earth and humankind, personified as Lucy (in a nod to the 3.2 billion-year-old australopithecine). Tara animates deftly when an Earth on fire transforms into a woman’s angry eyes and then shrinks to the minute face of an escapee in a rocket ship. She wrote in her contest entry: “I hope to share this film and help initiate a dialogue around the way we maintain our relationship to the Earth, especially as we young filmmakers and media consumers come of age and have the opportunity to reshape this relationship.”

Tara's film "Lucy" was just one of 196 total submissions to the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest from students ages 8 to 25 this year. The contest rules vary depending on the age level, but entrants are asked to create a 3-to 8-minute environmental film that inspires or promotes action. Prizes range from $100 to $1,000, with three new $1,000 prizes this year for post grad, animation, and creativity.

Entries flow in from across the country all year with an early January deadline. Then a jury of 19 filmmakers and environmental activists reviews the films to arrive at finalists and prize-winning films.

These top films will premiere as a part of the One Earth Film Festival at the awards event at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 7, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., in Chicago.

Tara's film will also screen at the Opening Launch Party for the One Earth Film Festival on the evening of March 6, at Tesla Gold Coast, 901 N. Rush St., in Chicago.