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Eel Ground students in media spotlight

Monday, Apr 21, 2008
Miramichi Leader

Page: B1, Section: Community, Byline: Judy Bowman

Since the official announcement of winning the Kaiser Award of Excellence in Aboriginal Programming, the Eel Ground Drama club has received significant national media attention.

Apart from newspaper, radio and television coverage, Shelagh Rogers, host of Sounds Like Canada, visited the school on March and spent time at the school interviewing Peter MacDonald, John Bosma, Felicia Dedam and Zachary Simonson about the win. She was fascinated by what the students were accomplishing with technology and Mi'kmaq culture and the media projects that garnered them the award.

Felicia Dedam, one of the drama students, spoke to Rogers about the impact of the work on teenage stress and suicide and fetal alcohol syndrome on a personal, community and national level.

"Doing these plays has helped us and our community and it is really good to know that we are making a difference in people's lives," she said.

The aired March 25 and can be accessed through CBC archives.

One of the high points of this media attention was having award winning film maker Malcom Carter come to Eel Ground to film the award winners for the awards night. Carter's work as been viewed by more than 500 million people internationally. Nominated for 16 motion picture awards including: best documentary, best director documentary, best educational film and best educational film and best public service project, he was most recently nominated for the International Health and Medical Awards for the educational and life saving impact of his documentary on diabetes. The Kaiser Foundation contracts Carter to film the winners in each of the seven categories each year. Last year, he visited Miramichi to film Sara MacDonald, last year's award recipient in the Excellence in Youth category.

Known for his passion to use film and other communications media to inspire and excite people about his subjects, these qualities were in evidence during the filming at Eel Ground School. Carter, with his patience, attention and respect for each of the students, staff and community members, brought out the best each person had to offer. At one point he took an hour to sit with students who were editing their own film footage. He showed his own work and gave pointers on how to achieve tension and suspense and timing in shot sequences, information that the students took seriously.

The Eel Ground School video will premiere at the Kaiser Awards dinner and then be presented along with a cheque for $10,000 to Dedam. She will attend the awards dinner along with her mother Natalie Patles and Peter MacDonald will attend the awards dinner in Calgary on April 24.

Having achieved national attention with this award, as well as having copies of this video will be valuable to these drama students in future endeavors whether they are applying for post secondary education or employment or for funding for future media productions.