Comcast to Feature Winning Filmfest 2006 Selections ON DEMAND
Five State of the Art Video Cameras Awarded to Middle Bucks Institute as Part of Innovative New Program
Bucks County, PA – April 20, 2006 – The Independent Film Channel (IFC) and Comcast announced today the donation of five video cameras to The Middle Bucks Institute of Technology as part of IFC's groundbreaking new standards-based education initiative, Film School. Bucks County is the second market in the nation to participate in this national initiative which was announced in November and launched in Toledo, Ohio in January. Bucks County students will be encouraged to make their own film interpretations of literature. Their final film production will be featured at the Bucks Fever Filmfest on June 11, 2006.
Comcast will feature all winning films of Filmfest 2006 via ON DEMAND, its video on demand service. A selection of films will also be available on the IFC Media Lab website.
IFC's Film School provides the tools to get students energized about classroom activities while simultaneously accomplishing core educational goals. The objective of the curriculum is to give English teachers additional ways to engage their students, as well as provide students with tools for increased media literacy. Students at Middle Bucks Institute of Technology will watch films relevant to their English literature classes while learning about the art of filmmaking, including screen writing, film production, and critique.
"Our collaboration with IFC's Film School initiative provides a new learning and education experience for film students by incorporating traditional curriculum with new media and film technologies," said Brian R. Jeter, Comcast director of government and community relations. "And our new partnership with the Filmfest brings new enhancements to the event like ON DEMAND and IFC Media Lab where we hope to increase the overall exposure for the film winners including the film produced by the students from the Institute."
"Our increasingly digital world demands the integration of traditional forms of learning with new methods and techniques," said Lisa Schwartz, senior vice president national accounts and advanced services for Rainbow Networks, which owns IFC. "We believe IFC's Film School will address those needs and interests and open exciting new horizons for students. At the same time, Film School's curriculum fulfills IFC's core mission of supporting the voice of new, young artists."
"The Bucks Fever FilmFest provides area residents an opportunity to see extraordinary film work in a retro-movie house setting," said Sue Maslow, Bucks Fever Filmfest Committee member and partner at Filmfest sponsor Antheil Maslow & MacMinn, LLP. "This is the fifth annual juried competition for short films hosted by the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce and the number and quality of submissions for short films this year are unbelievable. Our collaboration in 2006 with Comcast and the Independent Film Channel will provide the winning film makers the greater visibility they deserve."
The Filmfest, hosted by the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce and in its fifth year of juried competition, provides free seminars by film industry professionals on scriptwriting, casting and financing for independent filmmakers.
Film School was designed and developed by IFC as a public affairs initiative and is a grassroots extension of the network's 2004 docu-drama reality series from acclaimed filmmaker Nanette Burstein in which New York University film students compete for a coveted filmmaking award that could lead to the launch of a high-profile directing career.
Topics Education, an education outreach consulting firm, The National Council of Teachers of English, Media Rights, the American Film Institute and Listen Up all provided valuable input to IFC in the development of Film School. IFC structured the Film School curriculum as a unique series of educational units that tie film, film critique and film production directly to existing English classroom requirements and national English/Language Arts standards developed by NCTE and the International Reading Association and national technology standards developed by the International Society for Technology in Education.
IFC's Film School is a free resource. Teachers and students at other schools can register at www.ifc.com/filmschool.
IFC is on Comcast Digital Cable channel 103 in Bucks County.
About IFC
Launched in September 1994, The Independent Film Channel (IFC) is the first channel entirely dedicated to presenting independent film, unedited and commercially uninterrupted 24 hours a day. IFC's library boasts a collection of uncompromising stories, character and style. Committed to work struck from the creative vision of cinema's most compelling filmmakers, IFC also offers alternative films from today's new and up-and-coming artists. IFC's exclusive live coverage of special events including the Independent Spirit Awards and Cannes Film Festival, creative on-air festivals and one-of-a-kind original series and specials secures the company's role as the leader in independent film. IFC Television is one of the fastest growing digital cable networks available nationwide. For more information, visit www.ifc.com .
About Comcast
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Comcast Cable is a division of Comcast Corporation, the nation's leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services. With 21.4 million cable customers, 8.1 million high-speed Internet customers and 1.2 million voice customers, Comcast is principally involved in the development, management and operation of broadband cable networks and in the delivery of programming content.
Comcast's Eastern Division currently serves more than 5.6 million customers along the New York to DC corridor, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia, along with parts of California and Texas. The Eastern Division also founded and manages CN8, The Comcast Network, one of the nation's largest and most honored regional 24-hour diversified television networks, seen by more than seven million homes on the East Coast. The division is based in Oaks, Pennsylvania.
About Middle Bucks Institute of Technology
The educational program at Middle Bucks Institute of Technology is organized into eight career clusters and twenty-one career pathways (i.e., major courses of study). Typically, students enroll in one career pathway as their major field of study and then complete a core set of courses common to the career cluster and a highly rigorous technical sequence of courses related to their career pathway. Students may complete additional specialized courses as they advance beyond the standard secondary curriculum.
The career cluster model is recognized as one of the most effective educational initiatives for preparing young people for the new economy.
The mission of Middle Bucks Institute of Technology, as the regional career development and technology center, is to develop in youth and adults, through a rigorous and integrated educational experience, the competencies required for higher education and work.
To learn more about Middle Bucks Institute of Technology, visit www.mbit.org .
About Bucks Fever Filmfest
The Bucks Fever FilmFest was born in 1999 at a planning meeting of the Bucks Fever Advisory Council of the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce. FilmFest would encourage and support the growth of a filmmaking community by providing a venue to view the works of area professional and student filmmakers.
This is the fifth year of juried competition at the Bucks Fever Filmfest. Each year, Filmfest provides exciting free seminars by film industry professionals on scriptwriting, casting and financing for independent filmmakers.
For more information, visit www.bucksfeverfilmfest.org .