Background

Festivals and Awards

The inspiration for Students for Teaching Peace came from a screening of Teaching Peace in a Time of War, a documentary directed and captured by Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason. After this screening, Hetty van Gurp, the subject of the film, was asked by a student, “What can we do to help the youth of Serbia? Confidently, Hetty invited anyone who could raise the necessary funds, to accompany her to Serbia and attend a Youth to Youth Conference in March 2005.    

Not long after this, Hetty received an email from St. Patrick’s High School teacher Greg Albers requesting a meeting and more info about the conference as he had several of his students were interested in going to Serbia. Greg then lent Teaching Peace in a Time of War to a fellow film and video teacher, Jana Bayer Smith, from Eastern Shore District High School on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. She, along with twenty of her students had watched the film and also wanted to accompany Hetty on her journey back to Serbia. A few weeks later the group met at Eastern Shore District High and without missing a beat, the fundraising began. The group had three months to find the resources to go and the clock was ticking…

The majority of the youth involved were film and video students and they had a keen desire to record video of their journey to show fellow students and their community what they had accomplished. Filmmakers Kent Nason and Teresa MacInnes agreed to help them accomplish their goals and held technical workshops and spent several days together planning how to approach the project. The students established four working groups each having a theme upon which to concentrate their filming, themes such as, a video diary, youth issues, adult issues and scenic visuals. They were interested in finding similarities and differences between Canadian and Serbian youth, exploring what causes some people to be peaceful while others choose violence. While the video diary group concentrated on individual members of Students for Teaching Peace, the youth / adult groups planned to interview people in Serbia about the war and how they dealt with conflict. The visuals group planned to concentrate on capturing moments and images that reflect Serbia today.

The National Film Board of Canada supplied the students with some sound equipment and 4 small digital cameras. CBC Atlantic also came on board and supplied digital videotape to the project and also offered to help with some editing upon their return. Because this project grew out of a screening held at the Viewfinders International Film Festival for Youth, the festival invited the students to screen some material upon their return.

As documentary filmmakers Teresa and Kent could not miss out on the opportunity to record this amazing initiative. They started their process by interviewing all the students and adults involved, asking about their expectations, fears and motivation. During the trip they experienced the many emotional moments encountered by these youth, recording them, as they recorded each other along with their Serbian hosts.

Upon their return the students started to immediately prepare a short video for the ViewFinders International Film Festival for Youth. The students picked four people to work for five days in the CBC Studio with editor Ron McLean. Sarah Dube, Harrison Newman Jardine, Nik Hamm and Kelly-Lynn Russell worked night and day to come up with a seven minute short, which would become the trailer for Hope for the Future, the documentary.

The next step was the full-length documentary. With the help from CTV, Rogers Documentary Fund and Peaceful Schools International, filmmakers Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason edited for six months to come up with the feature documentary, Hope for the Future.

On April 21st 2006, Hope for the Future premiered at ViewFinders International Film Festival for Youth in Halifax and then screened at the Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children a week later. Hope for the Future is being embraced as an extremely thought provoking and inspirational documentary, which is currently being considered for screenings at multiple film festivals across North America and around the world.

Currently Students for Teaching Peace are actively working on their second major project on Belfast, Northern Ireland. In March 2006 the students traveled there and are now editing another video as well as putting together an anthology with pictures, art work, journals and poetry about their thoughts and feelings while traveling there.

Festivals

Echo Park Film Center - Human Rights Film Festival
Los Angeles, California
October 2006

Barrie Film Festival
Barrie, Canada
October 2006

Bermuda International Film Festival for Kids
Hamilton, Bermuda
October 2006

Calgary International Film Festival
Calgary, Canada
September 2006

Global Peace Film Festival
Orlando, U S A
September 2006

ViewFinders International Film Festival for Youth
Halifax, Canada
April 2006

Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children
Toronto, Canada
April 2006

Awards

September 2006
54th Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Honourable Mention
September 2006

February 2007
Final four youth programs selected for 2007 Shaw Rocket Prize

The best in youth television will contend for $50,000 prize with the winner decided by a 700-member National Student Jury

NEW YORK, Feb. 9 /CNW/ - At the 8th Annual KidScreen Summit held in New York City, Shaw Rocket Fund announced the selected finalists for the 2007 Shaw Rocket Prize, recognising this year's best Canadian television programming targeted for family or youths 13-17 years of age. Shaw Rocket Prize's jury members Donna Andrews, Malcolm Bird, Dea Connick Perez and Estelle Hughes made the announcement at a KidScreen event held today.

2007 Shaw Rocket Prize finalists:

Hope for the Future - Sea to Sea Productions Ltd.
Producer Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason

Instant Star - Epitome Pictures Inc.
Producers Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn

Make Some Noise - Omni Film Productions Ltd.
Producer Brian Hamilton

The Snow Queen - Amberwood Entertainment Corp.
Producer Chantal Ling

For more information on the 2007 Shaw Rocket Prize and Shaw Rocket Fund,
visit www.rocketfund.ca.

For further information: Media contact: Jessica Gold, Holmes Creative
Communications, (416) 628-5613, jgold@hccink.com