The U.S. Supreme Court heard Hillsdale College case on Title IX in 1972.

Eight students will tell the story of Hillsdale’s legal battle for freedom from federal regulation under Title IX in a new documentary at 7 p.m. on April 19 in Plaster Auditorium.

“The Price of Independence” is the final project for a documentary filmmaking class taught by Buddy Moorehouse, adjunct instructor of journalism. Moorehouse said he chose the topic as the focus of this semester’s documentary because it plays such a big role in what Hillsdale is as a school.

“Everybody here knows that Hillsdale is free, that we are independent, that we don’t take any federal aid,” Moorehouse said. “But almost nobody knows how it happened.”

Sophomore Anna Russell, a scriptwriter for the documentary, said the film will help viewers understand the price the college is willing to pay for its principles.

“​​I think that’s really important for people who support Hillsdale to know, I think it’s important for the students who are here to know, and it really gives us the ability to defend what the college is about,” Russell said.

In preparing to produce the project, students took on roles as writers, interviewers, directors, videographers, and researchers. One of the most important steps in the filmmaking process was a team trip to the east coast March 23-25, according to Moorehouse.

Under a $10,000 donation from Tom and Bonnie Cobb, the entire class traveled to Washington D.C. to collect film and interview John Facciola, a retired U.S. magistrate judge and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, who argued Hillsdale’s case in the courts.

“It went through the system — first through the district court and then the Court of Appeals, and then Supreme Court,” Moorehouse said. “One of the main attorneys who worked on Hillsdale’s case is this guy named John Facciola who was in his 30’s back then.”

The documentary crew also interviewed some Hillsdale students currently studying in D.C., according to Moorehouse.

“They interviewed a couple of them about their perspective, having gone to Hillsdale and being current students at Hillsdale, about what it means to them that it’s a totally independent school,” Moorehouse said.

The other main objective of the trip was to collect footage.

“Our goal was to interview, to research, and to collect what we call B-roll, which is just shots of the city that we can play in the background of narration or in the background of the interviews,” Russell said.

According to Russell, students should consider taking the documentary filmmaking course in future semesters even if they would not normally take journalism courses. 

“I’m a psychology and philosophy major, but I took it because it looked fun and it’s so worth it,” Russell said.