Inuvik (July 31/06) - In and around this year's Great Northern Arts Festival, Inuvik got a taste of amateur filmmaking.

A series of features were produced by students of Inuvik filmmaker Dennis Allen's four-day filmmaking workshop and premiered on Friday night at the first Top of the World film festival.

"These people got a taste of the industry, they had late hours and little sleep," Allen said.

Three amateur projects were the highlight of the festival, which Allen said was the first of its kind in Inuvik.

The first project was produced by Inuvik's Terry Halifax and Lillian Wright, starring Ayla Gully.

Their feature was called "Ayla and the Boy Who Ran" and was about a girl who had to find a new way to get to school after her car keys get locked inside the vehicle..

The film had an interesting use of different camera angles and quick short shots.

The second feature, called "Faith Preserved" was produced by Jonathan Churcher and Julian Tomlinson and starred Ruth Wright.

It was a comedic look at gardening and how frustration can override common sense.

The whole feature was shot with little speech and resembled a silent Charlie Chaplin film, with the animations Wright used in her performance.

The third film, which was made by the Katz family, Gadi, Etai and Sharon, was called "Stitch and Bitch."

It was about two artists who chose the same model for their paintings.

The true comedic skills came with the confrontation between the two painters who realized what had happened.

Insults were thrown back and forth between the two. The dispute is put to an end when the subject of the paintings scolds the two of them for being childish.

In the end, both artists become attracted to each other and leave the scene together for coffee.

The festival started Friday night, and ended late Saturday evening following a day full of features by filmmakers from the Delta and around the Territories.