'City Voices, City Visions' -- UB's Oscars of Digital Student Videos -- Makes a Return Engagement

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo's "City Voices, City Visions" student film festival will present its "Academy Awards" to the winning student digital cinematographers at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, June 3, at its usual venue, the Market Arcade Film and Arts Centre, 639 Main St., in downtown Buffalo.

A red carpet reception with refreshments will begin 3:45 p.m. in the Market Arcade lobby. The event is free and open to the public.

Channeling the energy of a Hollywood premier, the annual event has brought the best student digital producers and directors together for the past three years. All hope to receive one of 12 awards recognizing their work, including three grand prize winners who will receive flip video cameras. All will have the opportunity to view the best student productions on a big screen in one of the Market Arcade theaters following the reception. All students who were nominated by their teachers will receive a certificate of recognition.

This year's CVCV festival brings together 60 entries from students at high schools throughout Western New York. The winning entrees will be judged by college professors from SUNY Geneseo, Buffalo State College and Canisius College. Awards in this year's competition include Best History Video, Best English Video, Best Soundtrack and Best Cinematography.

The titles among this year's videos nominated by students' teachers include "Miracle in Cheektowaga," "I Have a Dream" and "Shadows."

The event -- the brainchild of Suzanne M. Miller, chair of the UB's Department of Learning and Instruction in its Graduate School of Education, and director of the CVCV DV Composing Project -- is designed to integrate 21st century digital tools with school curriculums to engage students.

A former high school English teacher, Miller has been a pioneer in the value of integrating video technology into all course curriculums. She began showing students from the Buffalo Public Schools how to compose their own digital videos as part of their class work several years before YouTube inspired legions of video-authors and became a mainstream part of everyday life.

"It's a way for students to learn subject concepts very deeply by having to find or create visuals and music and write narration that goes with the concept they are trying to get across, whether it be about Shakespeare, or Newton's Law or the Vietnam War," says Miller.

"These are 21st century students who have grown up in a digital world," she says. "They know a lot about media and creating content for Web 2.0 for social networking and web logs. "Providing support for them to represent concepts through visuals, music, movement and words creates a new incentive to try to understand and communicate."

Social studies teacher Keith Hughes from McKinley High School and English teacher Joel Malley from Cheektowaga Central High School will return as entertaining emcees for the event.

The winning videos will be posted online at http://www.CityVoicesCityVisions.org on the night of the film festival. DVDs of the nominated videos will be available at the Market Arcade for teachers and students, as well as a limited number for those in the audience.

The event is sponsored by the City Voices, City Visions Digital Video Composing project, a partnership between UB and the Buffalo Public School District. The CVCV project focuses on supporting teachers' use of digital video composing as a powerful tool for students to learn in the school curriculum.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.