Students at Port Moody's Heritage Woods secondary captured four out of nine awards for high schools at an international film festival last month.
Lawrence Kassen, founder and director of the Rod Serling Video Festival, said the judges were "very impressed" with Heritage Woods' video submissions.
"One could see that a great deal of work and thought went into each one," he told The Tri-City News last week, adding, "It was also fortunate that their travel plans allowed them to attend our screening and awards ceremony. It was a pleasure meeting the students and their very talented faculty."
Grade 11 student Jensen Tung won the top accolade of Best of Show for Catch The Girl, a work that was presented this past winter at the Evergreen Cultural Centre as part of its Emerging Talent Film Festival; the short, about two teens talking about relationships, has also been shown at various student film events in B.C.
Jensen captured the four-minute film on his school's Canon Rebel T3i camera for his Film and Media class, taught by Mike Schoenhals.
Jensen was not able to go to the gala in New York State to see his video screened; however, his classmate Christopher Spooner, also Grade 11, was on hand to pick up the Best Cinematography prize for his project Sticks and Stones, which was also shot on a Canon T3i.
Heritage Woods also scooped Best Comedy (Mark and Tim's King-fun Punchtacular by Erik and Jerod Spence) and Best Documentary (Auschwitz by Shay Alford).
Named after Rod Serling - the actor who hosted of the television series The Twilight Zone - the festival is sponsored in part by the Binghamton city school district and WSKG Public Television.
To view Catch The Girl and other shorts by Jensen Tung, go to YouTube.com/S37TV.
jwarren@tricitynews.com
