Wrigley (Feb 04/05) - Not a piece of steel has yet been ordered or laid, but already a proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline is causing a major ripple effect in the Deh Cho.

Anyes Fabre-Dimsdale, who lives in Wrigley, is aiming to capture the effects of the pipeline in a documentary.

Anyes Fabre-Dimsdale, of Wrigley, is making a documentary on the potential impacts of a Mackenzie Valley pipeline.

So few people in the south seem to be aware of the scale of the project and the potential impact it could have on the North's people, lifestyle and land, she said. "I don't want to be pro or against, just more grassroots: what I'm seeing at this level and giving the people in this community a chance to express their concerns about it," she explained.

"(The pipeline) could potentially transform their lives in a good or a bad way. It's a huge, huge deal here."

Fabre-Dimsdale, a Fine Arts graduate from Concordia University in Montreal, moved to Wrigley almost two years ago with her husband, Wilson, who has family in the community. She dove into the documentary project a year ago using money out of her own pocket.

Just last week the Department of Education, Culture and Employment announced that she is among the recipients of funding through the NWT Arts Strategy. The financial boost will help, said Fabre-Dimsdale, a mother of two children with a third on the way.

"That pretty much takes up most of my time," she said of motherhood. "But whenever I get a chance I plug along on my project. Now that I've got a little more money to work with I can start gathering more information."

In this, her first documentary, she is the cameraperson, the interviewer and the editor. She said she plans to talk to community members, representatives of conservation groups and industry executives. She has already interviewed Imperial Oil's Randy Ottenbreit, who is overseeing the Mackenzie Gas Project.

The scope of the proposed pipeline can feel overwhelming as volumes of paperwork have already been filed, Fabre-Dimsdale acknowledged.

"The more I learn about the whole thing it's like this huge multiple-armed octopus. It touches on so many levels," she said. "I'm determined to see it through, however long it takes."