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Salmon Bay Middle School 7th grader Leo Pfeifer has been making films for years – even though he's only 13. And this year his work has been recognized by cable network C-SPAN.
Pfeifer is one of only 75 students to win C-SPAN's nationwide 2011 StudentCam contest. Over 1000 videos were submitted to the contest – the highest number of entries since the contest's inception in 2006.
Pfeifer's video entitled "Homelessness: An American Crisis" won second prize in the competition and is now being shown on C-SPAN's website. The win came with a $1,500 prize for Pfeifer and $125 for his school to spend on video equipment.
"Leo's work focused on the national crisis through the eyes of those in Seattle," says C-SPAN's Doug Hemmig. "It won an award because it was well thought out and he did a lot of solid interviews."
Judges reviewed entries and made their selections based on the following criteria:
- Success in capturing the topic
- Quality of expression and creativity
- Inclusion of C-SPAN programming
- Inclusion of varying points of view
About this winning effort, which included multiple interviews, Pfeifer says:
"Homelessness is such a big issue in our society, but a lot of people just put it in the back of their minds"
Pfeifer learned about the competition on Facebook and said it seemed a good fit with his interests. After all, he's an old hand at production:
"I've always liked film-making. I got my video camera when I was 9 years old." Check out Pfeifer's winning video:
