Alumnae
Distinguished Alumnae

Lindsay O'Keefe '21 Talks Filmmaking and her Award-Winning Documentary

Recent Laurel graduate Lindsay O'Keefe '21 was featured in a Cleveland.com piece about her passion for filmmaking and her award-winning documentary, "Alive Day: The Breanna Sprenger Story,"
which was accepted at more than a dozen film festivals around the country and won "Best Local Documentary" at the 2020 Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. Since age 12, Lindsay has been involved with Youth Challenge, a nonprofit that brings together young people with physical disabilities and teen volunteers to play adaptive sports and participate in social growth activities. In fact, it was her volunteering that inspired her to turn her Canon Rebel camera lens on a new subject and genre of film -- documentary. 
 
In the article Lindsay states that, "My main goal [when filming Alive Day] was I didn’t ever want her to mention her disability. Throughout the film, she only talks about her success and how she got started. Not once did I have her say what she was diagnosed with. I wanted it to be a feel-good look at what she was accomplishing despite her challenges in life. Then the film kind of blew up, and I was very overwhelmed. That also helped me realize society in general needs much more awareness. We need more films about disability and disability rights and inclusion, because they can really change the world that way.” Lindsay will be studying filmmaking at New York University this fall.
Back
© 2024 Laurel School. All Rights Reserved.