Carleton Journalism Student Wins TVO’s Inaugural Short Short Doc Award
By Ellen Tsaprailis
Carleton University’s Samantha Pope has won TVO’s Short Doc Contest 2018 in the category of Best Short Short Doc.
The second-year journalism student’s win was announced on Thursday, Sept. 20 on the Toronto-based TVO website. Pope is the first winner in this new category.
Her documentary, One-Hand Wonder, is about Graham Spero, an Ottawa athlete who is extremely successful in sports – from hockey to kayaking to baseball – and wins national titles while breaking records. In the documentary, Spero describes the devices he uses to aid him, illustrating how determination, talent and perseverance are the true keys to success.
Pope will receive a $500 prize, a pass to Hot Docs Festival 2019 and a one-year Hot Docs Cinema membership.
Thrilled with her win, Pope does not have immediate plans to work on another documentary but would like to one day.
“As a journalism student, I am eager to continue to develop my video editing skills through various other projects in the future,” says Pope. “This was my first experience working on a documentary, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and will continue to pursue these kinds of opportunities.”
Journalism Prof. Christopher Dornan said the film was an assignment for the Journalism 1001 course in which students worked in pairs to create a 60-second video. Pope paired up with Angelica Zagorski and both students received the same perfect grade. Pope submitted the video to the contest, which is why the award is in her name.
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