KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER - Aspiring filmmakers have been busy making public service announcements designed to educate Nunavummiut on health and wellness at workshops in Clyde River during the last two weeks.

The workshops were organized by the community's Ilisaqsivik Society. Seventeen youth from Pond Inlet, Iqaluit, Clyde River and Pangnirtung participated in the hands-on workshop.

Ilisaqsivik Society's executive director Jakob Gearheard said the students learned about good mental health.

Before any of the movie-making could begin, representatives from the Department of Health and Social Services spoke to the youth on what wellness is and why it is important.

Then it was time to start learning about what it takes to make a 30 to 60 second public service announcement and how to work the equipment.

"By using the technology it really helps to reinforce the positive messages," said Charlotte DeWolff, one of the co-ordinators of the wellness workshop who works at Piksuk Media Inc. based in Clyde River.

DeWolff said the participants received technical training in lighting, audio, editing and in post-production, including the basics of voiceovers where sound is laid down to match the visuals and adding music. She said the same skills they learned could be applied to making short films or videos.

All the public services announcements were scripted in Inuktitut, DeWolff said "so that they are culturally relevant." English subtitles were then added in the post-production stage during editing.

Professional film and video director Evan Crowe came from Vancouver to be an instructor for the workshop. He said that one of the big skills he was focused on teaching the youth was on storytelling.

"It is about getting that story out of your head and onto the screen," he said.

He said it takes drive and energy to be a filmmaker. Recent high school graduate and aspiring filmmaker Julie Alivaktuk definitely has drive and energy.

Not only does she like film editing, but she said she enjoys filming, acting and dancing as well.

Her group put together two public service announcements that encourage youth to get active instead of being bored. In the first vignette, a teenage boy is convinced to play hockey with his friends instead of watching TV. The second sees Alivaktuk portraying a girl who is filing her nails until her friends come over to hip hop dance and a dancing scene breaks out where she shows off her moves.

The workshop was scheduled to wrap up on Sunday with a showing of all the public service announcements.

Alivaktuk she said that she would like to make more films in the future.

"I want to continue learning film in college, but I am also interested in photography or maybe acting; I like learning a little bit of everything," she said.

The other week-long workshop started on March 8. A community health representative came to talk to the participants from Clyde River about diabetes. Gearheard said those in attendance learned the signs and symptoms of the disease and how it can be prevented.

A total of 25 people were involved as participants, interviewees, providing information or in production. It was then time to get to work on brainstorming ideas for the public service announcements.

"We have to get the message out to people in the North, especially to young people to prevent diabetes," said workshop participant Mike Jaypoody.

Jaypoody said he and his team created an announcement targeted at younger people encouraging them to be healthier. The goal of his team's concept was to encourage youth to eat something healthy instead of junk food such as chocolate bars.

"I really liked the advice to try and be more active and eat more country foods," said Jaypoody.

The ideas were presented to a panel consisting of community members and technicians. Gearheard said the top entries were chosen and their creators were paid for their ideas. The entries that were selected were made into public service announcements during the remainder of the week.

Gearheard said this project was funded by Health Canada. The final copies of announcements will be presented to the GN Department of Health and Social Services. He said the plan is to have the announcements appear on CBC and APTN.