High schooler and Latter-day Saint Paige Olsen of Dallas, Texas, sat in a movie theater in New York City with tears of joy and pride streaming down her cheeks.
“How can we live a beautiful life when there is so much pain in the world?” her own voice asked over the speakers as a video of herself looking through a photo album played across the screen.
Olsen’s three-minute pitch for a documentary had previously won the design pitch category in the All-American High School Film Festival, earning her the equipment to produce the full 10-minute version of the film, which screened in New York City, Oct. 18.
“Holy guacamole,” she recalls thinking after the documentary’s premiere. “How did that just happen?”
Olsen’s documentary focused on who she claims is her hero: her grandfather Ron Mortensen.
“I wanted to know, how does someone like Ron keep smiling after everything he’s been through?” Olsen said in her film.
Olsen specifically wanted to highlight Mortensen’s commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ despite the challenges he has faced throughout his life in hopes of inspiring others to do the same.
“It was important to focus on choosing faith, because there’s a lot of bad things that go on in the world, and you can just be a little happier and just accomplish way more with faith,” she said.
Visit the Church News to watch Paige Olsen’s full documentary.
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