ARMIDALE Armidale City Public School’s Class 5/6R has been named a winner of the M.A.D at Heart Community Challenge for schools at this year’s North West Film Festival.
They won the environmental section of the competition for their short documentary film which addressed the issue of wood smoke pollution.
“The children were thrilled to hear of their success,” teacher Maria Russell said.
“The class had put considerable effort into creating the film and was particularly excited to know that they were one of the few primary schools entered into the competition which was also open to secondary school students and TAFE.”
The Armidale City Public School class partnered with the Air Quality Group at Armidale Dumaresq Council to research the issue of wood smoke pollution and to create the documentary about ways to make the community a better place to live.
“With the help of Carol Davies from Council, we were able to collect information and visuals and then script the documentary,” Mrs Russell said.
“The students also created an original piece of music for the film.”
The completed documentary was entered into the Environmental Category of Community Mutual’s M.A.D (Making a Difference) at Heart Community Challenge.
The challenge offers primary and secondary school and TAFE students the opportunity to partner with a local community group and document what they are doing to make their community a better place to live.
The challenge was to create a small video up to five minutes in length that answered the question: “What is making, or could make, a difference in our local community”?
Maria Russell travelled to Bingara on 13 September with students Lucy Cook and Beth Do to attend the North West Film Festival and receive the award on behalf of the class.
The prize, which included a certificate, $2500 for the school and $2500 to be donated to the environmental group of their choice, was presented by 2012 Tropfest winner, Alethea Jones.
“The film was the result of a whole class project, but I would like to give special thanks to Margaret Conroy, Kate Jones, Malakye Cook, Henry Sindel, Jesse Streeting and the students who spent extra time to ensure the film was the best it could be,” Mrs Russell said.
“It was wonderful to be a part of the festival. Each of my students can be congratulated on their efforts. I am very proud of them!”
