National recognition was not a goal when Deerfield High School junior Brett Toban began making his short film, “Racial Integration, DHS and Mosaic,” but the project ended up being showered with praise.
It was one of five finalists in the public affairs community service category for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences student awards, which were presented Nov. 1 in New York.
He earned entry into the competition with the Crystal Pillar award as the best in his category for the Midwest region in February. Entrants were from Indiana and Wisconsin as well as Illinois..
“The work we see here is at an amazing level,” said Danielle Mannion, NATA’s education chairman. “Brett (Toban) made a film that is creative and original. His work is at a professional level. We are amazed at what we see from these students.”
Mannion said there are 19 NATA chapters across the country, including the Midwest, submitting films for award consideration in 24 categories. More than 2,000 films were considered, with only a very few making the national finals.
“Sometimes it’s four and sometimes it’s six, but usually it’s five,” Mannion said. “It’s all the same kind of judging.” Toban’s film made that cut, but did not win at the national level.
Toban began creating “Racial Integration, DHS and Mosaic,” during his sophomore year as a project for his film class. He remembered hearing about the failed effort of a real estate developer to build an integrated housing project in Deerfield 60 years ago.
“I remember my brother telling me when I was in middle school it’s an easy lesson to teach, but we rarely do,” Toban said. “We hardly touched on it in my AP United States history class last year.”
The story made national news at the time and brought people like former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to town to advocate for it. Eventually, Deerfield voters chose to make the land into what are now James C. Mitchell and Jaycee Parks.
“I wanted to tell how that impacted Deerfield High School as it relates to diversity and inclusion at Deerfield High School,” Toban said.
He found a Deerfield social studies teacher, Niki Antonakos, who had a trove of information on the incident. He also learned there were support groups at school for students who might feel anxious because of their identity along racial or gender lines. He decided to weave the two into parallel tracts in the movie.
“I did not know the support groups existed until I started making the movie. It really opened my eyes,” Toban said. “Ms. Antonakos had a big folder on (the housing project). There were really cool newspaper clips. I saw how national issues in the 50s and 60s were specifically about Deerfield.”
Brett Schwartz, who teaches the filmmaking class, said the support groups are run by the counseling department.
Schwartz said he had all the students pitch their film ideas to the class so everyone could offer suggestions to their peers.
“We wanted to make it possible for them to be as close to the story as possible,” Schwartz said. “They kept getting more excited about their ideas.”
Toban said the integration in the film’s title had to do with the aborted real estate development. The mosaic was the students, some in the support groups, who added diversity to the school. While he said the school is 90% white today with no other group more than 5%, things have changed in the last 60 years.
“We’re much more welcoming,” Toban said. “There’s still work to be done.”
