Editorial: Expanded Vision
Serling Video Festival open to more students
Press & Sun Bulletin

It's an appropriate tribute to the success of the Rod Serling Video Festival that after a decade of encouraging young artists to express themselves in this medium, it will connect with the International Baccalaureate program and open the competition to the United States, Canada and Caribbean.

Binghamton's own Rod Serling certainly knew the power of video. With teleplays he wrote for Playhouse 90 and imaginative series such as The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, Serling proved the medium could not only entertain but also offer compelling social commentary.

Lawrence Kassan, longtime educator and director of special projects for Binghamton schools, founded the festival originally for Broome County students, he told the Press & Sun-Bulletin in 2000, because "I wanted to promote the creative use of video technology in the classroom." This year, the competition received 150 entries from New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Not only does it encourage use of the medium, but it also is helping steer students into that career field. One example is Timothy White, a 2005 Binghamton High graduate who won an honorable mention in this year's competition who is now studying film and video at Rochester Institute of Technology. He told the Press he was happy to see the festival expand because it "gives Binghamton a spot on the map." It also serves to keep the public aware of the overwhelming talent of the late Mr. Serling.

The alliance of the festival with the International Baccalaureate program will mean students from about 700 schools in North America will be able to enter the IB level competition. There will continue to be a competition for non-IB schools. This should make for quite a good showing at the festival next spring.