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Dunsmuir students snare documentary award with Capturing Stories

READ Society program offers youth a new view of the world
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Dunsmuir student Trent Henry works the boom and fellow student Tina Tejano films as part of the Capturing Culture Program. The students are among a team of 10 that won top documentary for their finished product.

Capturing Stories scored a film award for 10 Dunsmuir middle school students.

The six boys and four girls aged 13 to 15, earned the Youth Award for Best Documentary Film at the Cowichan International Aboriginal Film & Arts Festival. The production was the culmination of the READ (reading, evaluation and development) Society’s Capturing Stories 14-week program.

Under the guidance of Dano Underwood, READ’s Capturing Stories media co-ordinator, participants explored their own lives, histories, cultures and values and came together as a crew to develop a video reflecting the individual and group interests.

“As part of this program we learned that our families and our communities have high hopes for us,” said participant Rudy Charlie. “We found that when things get rough you have to work as one – as a family. We have to walk one way – to look one way and to not look back.”

By bringing people together from across communities and generations the program opened new ways of learning and new venues for people to talk about what was important to them.

“It’s partnerships like the one we have with the READ Society that really help to strengthen the relationships between our First Nations and school district communities,” said Kathleen King-Hunt, Sooke School District principal for aboriginal education. “The outcomes of these partnerships have an amazing impact on the culture and identity of both our aboriginal and non-aboriginal students, and these positive impacts spread throughout the communities.”

Visit www. readsociety.bc.ca to learn more about upcoming programs.