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Woodland POH Wins Award

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It’s never “about” winning the film competition, but more about the experience and knowledge you gain as you strive to make the best possible documentary.

However, winning does make all that work worth it.

Woodland’s Preserving our History (POH) club joined four other high schools at Whisconier Middle School in Brookfield for the film premiere this past Friday (March 5th) for a premiere of the eligible movies.

Each schools’ POH was tasked with creating a five-minute documentary, one that featured a Connecticut veteran who had a unique perspective or story to tell.

All the premiere schools were joined by keynote speaker, Scott Sniffen, producer of Home of the Brave.

Sniffen started off the night by talking about his own work in producing and making movies and gave some advice to the young film makers in the room.

Then each school introduced and publicly premiered their video for the rest of the contestant schools.

Smith, the critic of the night, picked his personal favorite documentary to give the Critics’ Choice Award.  His choice for the 2013 Critics’ Choice Award went to Woodland’s POH for a second consecutive year.

“It is an amazing feeling to have won the critics’ choice award,” said Woodland POH member, Emma Conway. “It really just goes to show that hard work and dedication pay off in the long-run.”

While Conway admits some things changed over the past year and that [the production staff] became better at editing, she also noted that “this video is of the same caliber as last year’s [entry].”

With one commendation already, Woodland POH’s documentary is looking for another still. Hosted by the Palace Theater in Waterbury, the Connecticut Student Film Festival will announce winners On April 26th 2013. Finalists’ documentaries will be screened and an overall winner will be announced.

Woodland POH advisor, Meghan Hatch, knows the level of competition, but also knows the strength of her own program, and she is confident for the finals.

“I hope that it will be as successful there as it was tonight; we have a lot of strong competition in terms of compelling veterans and compelling stories. But,” noted Hatch, “I think Woodland demonstrates a real level of technical ability and a passion for the story that we are telling.”

Hatch explained how last year’s video was compelling and emotional, and how this year’s video was more subtle.

“This year, Father William’s story was much more nuanced. The story telling itself had to be more delicately crafted,” said Hatch. “[Father William] had a universal story to tell and piecing that together was really a bit of an art form.”

So, for now, Woodland’s POH can enjoy their 2013 Critics’ Choice Award while waiting the final results for this year’s competition. But, even though it’s not about winning, there is always that desire for recognition.

“Of course there’s always hope for another win,” said Conway. “But primarily I hope people walk away feeling like they can relate to the story we told.”