Student Documentary Wins Award at Garden State Film Festival

Jenna Bush ’11 won the “Home Grown Student Documentary Short” award at the 8th Annual Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park. Her documentary, “Minor Details,” focuses on another TCNJ student, James Henderson, who graduated in 2009 after returning from serving in Afghanistan.

Words by TCNJ's editorial staff

Junior communication studies student Jenna Bush won the “Home Grown Student Documentary Short” award at the 8th Annual Garden State Film Festival in Asbury Park. Her documentary, Minor Details, focuses on another TCNJ student, James Henderson, who graduated in 2009 after returning from serving in Afghanistan.

In Minor Details, Henderson reflects on the life-altering rigors and experiences of war, his difficult readjustment to civilian life, a new career path, and his renewed hopes for a lasting peace in the country where he was deployed—a place with a history, landscape, and way of life that few Americans can ever begin to understand or imagine. As director and producer of the 24-minute documentary, Bush was moved by Henderson’s story when she first got to know him last spring and decided to make it the subject of a film for the Documentary Production class offered by Susan Ryan, associate professor of communication studies.

Along with students Jessica Ramalhete ’10, Michele Mau ’12, and Andrew Sigwart ’09, Bush followed Henderson over the course of his final semester and integrated this original material with stills and footage taken by the young soldier in Afghanistan.

Excerpts of the film can be seen on www.jennaashley.net/Minor_Details.html.