By Lora Oehlberg

COURTESTY OF NATALIE MORETON-KAPLAN COMMUNICATIONS

Town Crier Editorial Intern

Move over, Ken Burns, the future of documentary filmmaking is making its debut. Los Altos Hills resident Christina Frenzel’s second documentary, “Stop and Smell the Sprinkles,” was honored at a special screening at the American Film Institute (AFI) Fest 2001 on Nov. 8.

Frenzel, a junior at Gunn High School, participated in the HBO “10 up” series, which had a special screening at the Vogue Theatre in Hollywood.

Classes and students from Hollywood High School were among the festival’s audience. Frenzel, along with the other young filmmakers, attended the screening and were available for the discussion following the films.

“It was really cool, I thought it went really well for the high school. It was a two-hour event with 10 films, and they did really well for sitting there for two hours and then talking about it,” said Frenzel.

Although the majority of the other films were comedies or clay animations, Frenzel’s 10-minute documentary showed the life lessons learned by young patients at the Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford.

“It’s a wonderful film that I am using for both patient and especially staff education,” said Debra Monzack, a child life specialist at the hospital. “It was done with a lot of sensitivity and really gave the teen-agers she interviewed a chance to talk about how they felt about chronic illness. They enjoyed talking to Christina and were honored to be chosen for her video. It’s a great tool for sensitizing staff to the needs of patients this age who deal with chronic hospitalization and illness.”

Monzack said “Stop and Smell the Sprinkles” is available for checkout in the hospital’s Family Resource Center. “I think she’s very talented and it was great to work with her on this project,” Monzack said.

Frenzel arrived at the idea after she had been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, at age 14.

“Before I was diagnosed, I took a lot of things for granted. It was an epiphany for me. I thought, ‘Wow, I should really start valuing things,’ and I wanted to get that message out to people. I wanted to express that people shouldn’t take their lives for granted and that they should be thankful for what they’ve got,” Frenzel said.

Frenzel spent some time in the children’s hospital herself, where she made some contacts and found out about interviewing patients.

“They were all amazing,” she said. “These kids were so insightful, the wisest people I know. They know so much about life.

“That was the greatest thing, it’s better than winning all these awards. I was able to get their message out and help them, that’s the greatest thing for me.”

Frenzel came to HBO’s attention after her first film, “I Wish,” won first place in the 1999 Regional Children’s Film Festival for California and was a finalist in the national competition. “I Wish” addressed issues, such as popularity, cliques and grades, faced by middle school students. The film aired on HBO’s “30 by 30: Kid Flicks.”

“I Wish” prompted HBO to approach Frenzel about a second film. After returning from a summer filmmaking program, she was diagnosed with diabetes.

Frenzel’s personal experience inspired her to create “Stop and Smell the Sprinkles,” a reference to the fact that she could no longer enjoy such treats as doughnuts with sprinkles. “(She) wanted people to learn what she had learned the hard way,” Frenzel wrote in a brief autobiography.

Frenzel, who recently interned at the PBS station KQED, plans on a career in filmmaking after college.

She said she wants “to continue to produce films that express … feelings on issues in society and hopefully, through filmmaking, give people a different perspective on how they can view society.”

Frenzel is currently writing a feature-length screenplay about a teacher-student relationship.

When not filmmaking or in school, Frenzel plays year-round soccer.

“Brian (her father) and I are amazed and delighted that she’s taken the initiative to do this,” said her mother Connie. “We were unfamiliar with filmmaking - she did this with very little direction from us.”

Frenzel’s film is next scheduled to air 3:30 p.m., Jan. 6, on HBO’s Family channel.

Two interviewees for Frenzel’s film have since died. Added onto the film is a dedication to the memory of these patients.