FARMINGTON – CUT the Habit, a student-led film project organized by the Healthy Community Coalition, recently launched its Web site featuring six student films from area schools.
The films can be viewed at www.cutthehabit.org. Students from Jay, Livermore Falls, Mt. Abram, Mt. Blue and Foster Regional Technology Center worked from July through February to create unique short films that show the harmful effects of tobacco as well as media, particularly movies, influence youth in their choice of whether or not to use tobacco products.
CUT the Habit is funded through a grant from the American Legacy Foundation. 1,200 smokers die each day world wide from tobacco related causes. “Big tobacco” advertises their 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 tobacco 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.
The CUT the Habit films are currently open for voting on the Web site. All films will be shown at a film festival, scheduled for April 10, 2009 at the Ben Franklin Center in Franklin Memorial Hospital. The top three films will be distributed on DVDS and given out 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, contact program coordinator Lorri Mealey at (207) 779-2929 or lmealey@fchn.org
