By Claudia Babirat, Outreach and Education Coordinator

A clever rap that explores the life-cycle of water, was announced as the Department of Conservation ‘Big Picture Award’ winner at the Outlook for Someday Awards red-carpet ceremony at the Aotea Centre in Auckland last month.

I’m a Little Molecule of H2O, directed by 23-year-old teacher Paascalino Schaller and his Avalon Intermediate School music students, impressed the judges with its clever and relevant lyrics, cinematography and message—highlighting the fact that we are connected to each other and the rest of the planet through water.

DOC’s Markerita Poutasi and director Andrew Adamson present the DOC Big Picture Award to Paascalino Schaller and Estere Dalton

“The kids and I were doing water studies, looking at water as a precious taonga, using resources from the council—it was all curriculum linked,” said Pascaalino.

“We also knew the Outlook for Someday film challenge was coming up.”

So they combined a love for music and film making with what they were studying, and made a rap video.

“We wanted to tell the story of water, but in a different way and from a new perspective. Working with kids definitely inspires me—they’re so free, there are no restrictions on how they think.”

A star-studded audience celebrate the Outlook for Someday award winners

I’m a Little Molecule of H2O was one of 20 award-winning films.

All the winning film-makers were presented with their awards by Andrew Adamson, a Kiwi director who has been at the helm of a string of blockbuster films including Shrek and the first two of the Chronicles of Narnia series, as well as an adaptation of Lloyd Jones’ Mr Pip.

Each film was also in the running to be ‘Element Audience Favourite’. A record 1500 people voted in the online poll, which was also won by I’m A Little Molecule of H2O.

153 entries came from all over New Zealand, and nine of the winning films this year came from the South Island, which is more than in any of the previous six years of the film challenge.

The Upokongaro Primary School film class accept the teamwork award from Outlook Ambassadors Wendy Douglas, Tandi Wright, Jared Turner and Lanita Ririnui-Ryan. Their film highlighted the impact pollution has upon the Whanganui river

Other winning entries covered shark finning, palm oil, water quality, climate change, fair trade, drug addiction, community reuse of resources, and a great film about endangered sea lions that was supported by DOC ranger Ros Cole.

The team from Hillcrest High School, with their musical comedy ‘Today is the Day’, were the overall winners of the Someday Awards

Now in its seventh year, The Outlook for Someday is a sustainability film project for young people, and one of DOC’s major national education partnerships.

The project asks young people aged up to 24 to make a short sustainability-related film of any genre, filmed with any camera and any length up to five minutes. It includes a national series of sustainability film-making workshops. 1063 young people participated in the film challenge and workshops in 2013.

All the winning films are available to be viewed on the Outlook for Someday website.