Iqaluit (Jan 10/05) - A new short video lets students see what life is like in Nunavut through the eyes of three kids living in Iqaluit.

"Je vis au Nunavut" is a 20-minute documentary made by L'association des francophones du Nunavut and Dugasfilm for Nunavut's Ministry of Education. The title means "I live in Nunavut" in English.

"It's first meant for schools, but it will also be distributed to libraries," said Isabelle Rouffignat, economic development officer for RDEE (Reseau de developpement economique et d'employabilite) Nunavut and the film's co-writer.

Two of the students profiled in the documentary, Nathalie Martel and Rachel Cuerrier, are students at Iqaluit's Ecole des Trois Soleils and Oshea Jephson is a student at Inuksuk high school.

To show the cultural diversity of Nunavut, the producers chose students with a range of backgrounds, some of French parentage and some Inuit. The documentary follows the students' everyday lives at school, home and travelling by ATV and snowmobile.

For Rouffignat, the video serves a vital purpose. "We get so many questions when we go back south," she said. "Now we don't have to answer. We can give them the DVD."

The documentary was a six-month project, which was a relatively short turn-around for such an endeavour. Shooting was quick because the producers had extra scenic footage left over from their last project -- the promotional tourism film Destination: Nunavut.

Destination: Nunavut was translated into both English and Spanish to market it as widely as possible.

Though "Je vis au Nunavut" is currently only available in French, Rouffignat said she is hoping they find funding to translate it into English.

"I would like it for schools across the world," she said.

The video was shown recently to Iqaluit city council, but even though most of them don't speak French, Rouffignat said they enjoyed the finished product.

"People laugh when they look at it," she said.

Ideally, Rouffignat would also like the video to have a companion booklet for classes and libraries.