By Joel van der Veen
June 14, 2010

HANLEY - For the third year in a row, Hanley Composite School won the top award at the Prairie Spirit School Division Film Festival in Saskatoon.

The school received the Outstanding Overall Picture award for The Sower, based on the poem by Canadian writer Charles G. D. Roberts.

The film, created by the school's Grade 12 class under English teacher Brett Kirk, took the form of a TV variety show with different sketches.

For instance, one skit depicted a cowboy correcting others' usage of obscure words contained in the poem, while another sketch featured a scientist literally "dissecting" the poem to analyze its contents.

Hanley's projects were especially well-received this year, receiving 8 of the 12 awards given at the festival, held June 1 at the Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon.

Kirk said that creating the movies helped his students develop a variety of skills, including problem solving and the use of technology.

"I think that movie-making is a great skill for the kids to learn," said Kirk, who has been teaching in Hanley for five years. "The kids that like it really get into it."

The movies were created for school projects throughout the year and then later submitted for consideration in the festival.

Several were based on Lois Simmie's novel The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson, studied by the Grade 12 class this past year. One was a music video featuring the song Tik Tok by hip-hop artist Ke$ha. Its creators rewrote the lyrics, relating them to Simmie's novel, and the resulting clip won in the Outstanding Music Video category.

Another long film, entitled Last Minutes, won an award for Effective Sound and/or Special Effects. The Sower also won awards for Outstanding Writing/Screenplay and Outstanding Long Film. A commercial illustrating the origins of poutine in the style of the Canadian Heritage Minute ads won for Outstanding Short Film.

Deb Bidulka, a learning support facilitator who helped to organize the festival, said the goal is to help students demonstrate their understanding of curriculum in a fun and fresh way.

The students enjoy seeing their work projected on the big screen, she said, and the competition portion is almost an afterthought.

The festival judges watched around 400 minutes worth of footage to select winners for each category.

Other awards went to the students of Colonsay School, Aberdeen Composite School and Delisle Composite School. Other schools to nominate films included Laird School, Borden School, and Hepburn School.

The leaderonline is a division of The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada.