Laura Power
Northern News Services
Published Monday, November 19, 2007

FORT GOOD HOPE - One of the NWT's budding filmmakers is getting some invaluable experience before she even sets foot in film school.

Anne Marie Jackson, a 27-year-old Fort Good Hope woman, plans to attend Vancouver Film School in the new year.

Ever since she made short clips with her friends as a child, she has wanted to become a film producer.

"It's always been my dream, my vocation," she said.

But before she starts training, Jackson is already working on her first documentary, a tri-level project about the caribou hunt in the North. The inexperienced filmmaker picked up a camera to shoot the footage near Horton Lake and on the tundra.

"I really didn't have that much to work with and I was starting from scratch," she said.

However she has been receiving good reviews about her early work by peers who have seen some of the footage, including Chris White of Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP).

"I think she's got really good potential," he said.

The first level of the documentary will be an instructional video for hunters collecting samples, and the second will be for students who are using the samples in the lab at University of Calgary. The third level has not yet been decided.

Jackson is in Calgary working for the first time on other stages of filmmaking - narration and editing. She is learning many components of filmmaking that she never needed for her childhood film experiments.

"Back then you just picked up the camera and pushed the on button and started recording," she said. "I'm glad I'm learning before I've gotten to film school, just for a little preparation before I leave."

Though she's new to the field, Jackson's name is already recognized by some major players in Canadian film. Recently, she met with representatives from the National Film Board of Canada, who are interested in working with her in the future.

She has also received support from WAMP, which has already provided her with the resources to edit her work.

"As a society, we're really happy to support her in anything that we can do," said White. "We're really looking forward to seeing where she's going."

But it's not just about recognition for Jackson. As an aboriginal, she hopes to help other aboriginal people through her work.

"I think getting into film could (inform) aboriginal people across the North on their own conditions. It could unite people, and there's not (many) aboriginal filmmakers in the North doing it themselves," she said.

White agrees that film is an important tool for aboriginal people.

"It's absolutely necessary for people to be able to tell their stories in their own words," he said.

Jackson will begin her formal education in film in January.