Yellowknife (July 24/06) - This year's Folk on the Rocks music festival brought musicians and music lovers from around the North.

Thousands descended upon the site near Long Lake in Yellowknife to take in six stages of music and performance s by a variety of musicians.

Inuvik's Razamajazz!, Hay River's K'atlodeeche Drummers, Behchoko's Diga and Inuvik's William Greenland, who served as master of ceremonies for the main stage, were all part of the event.

The festival also included performances from Fred Eaglesmith, the Agnostic Mountain Gospel Choir, African Guitar Summit and many others.

Behchoko's Diga made his mark on the festival's main stage, as well as in collaborations with African Guitar Summit. Despite a bad case of nerves, he said he felt good about the main stage performance, which included drummer Dale Peltier, bassist Mel Sabourin and percussionist Jon Powell.

The K'atlodeeche drummers were prominent throughout the event, performing at the festival's cultural stage, as well as opening and closing the main stage.

On Saturday, the group collaborated with percussionists Theo Boakye, Kofi Ackah and Naby Camara, of Ontario's African Guitar Summit.

On Sunday evening, the drummers, who include Hay River's Fred Martel, Joe Tambour, Phillip Fabian Sr., Phillip Fabian Jr., and Frank Fabian, closed out the show, again performing with Summit.

The power of the two combined acts was enough to inspire the crowd of people at the front of the stage to start a drum dance, moving clockwise with joyous abandon.

Yellowknife's Folk on the Rocks music festival is now in its 26th year and ran from July 14-16.

Before the Top of the World Film Festival hit Inuvik last week, filmmaker Dennis Allen was teaching newcomers the ropes.

A series of workshops gave a lucky few the chance to produce their own films, to be shown during the first annual film festival which runs during the Great Northern Arts Festival.

"This is a guerilla course in dramatic filmmaking," said Allen of his latest undertaking.

The course was a four-day journey through the ins and outs of filmmaking, starting with scriptwriting.

"I want to give these people a look into what goes into a script, and how to storyboard their ideas as well," Allen said.

The first night of the workshop introduced the group to the task of developing characters and planning their stories.

"The group is split up into three groups," said Allen. "Each group will produce their own video."

Will Belcourt, of the National Film Board of Canada, came to assist Allen in the workshop, giving advice to the audience while Allen instructed them on the finer points of editing.

The features will be shot on digital tape and will be edited at the Inuvialuit Communications Society studios.

"Once they have their plans made, and the shooting has been done, we'll go down and edit the films, which should be about three minutes in length," explained Allen.

The films were premiered during the weekend's Top of the World Film Festival for an audience to enjoy.

Julian Tomlinson was one of the eager participants in the workshop, and said he is excited to be developing his ideas into film.

"Don't we all have an interest in making movies?" he asked.

"I had lots of questions, and they did a good job of answering them for me," he said.

He said the workshop was a useful tool and he was happy to be working with Allen for the first time.

During the first night of the workshop, Tomlinson said they covered many of the necessary bases in scriptwriting.

"We learned about drama and how to structure our ideas," he said.

Terry Halifax was another of the participants in the course and said he was also eager to work with Allen.

"I was curious about the work involved," Halifax said.

For Halifax, who is keen on photography, the idea of building ideas and planning a script enticed him.

"I'm fascinated by the process I've seen so far," he said.