CUT the Habit Student Film Project Promotes Changing Attitudes Toward Tobacco
Film festival will take place Friday, March 26
February 22, 2010
CUT the Habit, a student-led film project organized by the Healthy Community Coalition, recently launched its Web site featuring 19 films produced by students from area schools. Students from Jay, Livermore Falls, Mt. Abram, Mt. Blue, and Foster Regional Technology Center worked from July 2009 through January 2010 to create unique short films that depict the harmful effects of tobacco, as well as media’s—particularly movies’—influence on youth to use tobacco products.
The films can be viewed at www.cutthehabit.org and are open for voting for the best film.
CUT the Habit is funded through a grant from the American Legacy Foundation. “1,200 smokers die each day worldwide from tobacco-related causes,” said Lorri Brown, program coordinator for the CUT the Habit film project. “Big Tobacco advertises its products to entice young people into a lifetime of smoking. The goals of the American Legacy Foundation through this grant are to counter the use of products by youth and educate consumers about the cause and prevention of diseases associated with the use of tobacco products.”
Throughout the project, students worked with MPBN Executive Producer, Chris Sweet, a graduate of Mt. Blue High School, who offered technical assistance. Another Mt. Blue graduate, Desi Van Til, along with her husband Sean Mewshaw, spoke to students about their own experiences working on movies in Hollywood, offering advice for telling an effective short story through film.
All films will be shown at a film festival, scheduled for Friday, March 26, at the Ben Franklin Center at Franklin Memorial Hospital.
“The winning film team members will each receive a MacBook Pro laptop,” said Brown. “The top three films will be put on DVDs and distributed to local schools, community groups, and movie rental stores.”
For more information about CUT the Habit student films, the film festival, or joining CUT the Habit, please contact Lorri Brown at (207) 779-2929 or ljbrown@fchn.org.
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