A new addition has been made to the trophy cases lining the walls here at Notre Dame Academy, but it is not honoring an athletic team.

Instead, the new trophy commemorates the win of NDA’s Art Club in the 2015 Sconniewood film festival.

“It’s a Wisconsin film festival, where students who are under eighteen–grade school, middle school, high school– put together a video of any kind that is under ten minutes long,” Mrs. Barb Brandtner, the art teacher at NDA, explained. “The videos can be anything: stop action, animation, a movie, and they give monetary prizes for first, second and third place.”

The Art Club put together a piece titled “Who Is She?” that provided a commentary on the struggles girls face with body image and expectations forced upon them by society. The poem itself was powerful enough and was paired with shots of girls’ eyes, mouths, and, finally, entire face.

“We all wrote the poem, and basically we were sitting around the table wondering what should we make this video about,” Susan Rose, a member of Art Club, shared. “And then we thought, hey, it’s about how we look, so let’s show the audience only parts of our faces for parts of the video, and at the end, on the line ‘She is me’ we filmed our entire faces.”

“One of the things I liked was how none of us dressed up for this,” said Celia Glime, a senior member of Art Club. “We all just looked how we look everyday. We filmed it after school and we didn’t dress up.”

Celia explained the meaning behind the compelling film. “We wanted to make this relatable, and  because we were all teenage girls in high school we figured a major issue in our generation is body image because you see so much stuff on social media.”

After brainstorming, the NDA Art Club found their idea. “We were, like, how about we make a comment on how everybody should value their individual self, not want to be somebody else.”

The five girls, ranging from sophomore to senior, contributed to the writing and acting of the film and were awarded third place with a $100 donation to the Art Club.

Other prizes included best of storyline, best of suspense, and best of technology.

“I noticed that the videos were either educational or had some kind of meaning, emotional or some kind of social issue,” Brandtner recalled. “They weren’t just pure entertainment.”

The Art Club plans on entering the contest next year and encourages anyone with a love for photography, an interest in art, or even just curiosity, to join them.