Moose Factory Training....November 2007

You might think it's easy to get to Moose Factory, Ontario but don't fool yourself...It takes all manner of transportation but still it's pretty fun. In November 2007 I set out for Moose Factory to meet some girls and young women from the DDEC's High School. My friend Fred Rickard from the Weeneebeg Film Festival that happens in Moose Factory every year hooked us up with some girls and young women there that were interested in learning more about video.

If you want to go to Moose Factory there are two ways....

You can go to Cochrane and take the Polar Bear Express train for about 5 or 6 hours, if memory serves me well. You will end up first in Moosonee and the you have to take (depending on the season ) some form of transportation over to the island. If you don't take the train you are going to have to fly to Moosonee but still find your way over to the island. If you go in the summer you will take a water taxi. If you go in the winter you can take a skidoo taxi or a vehicle that will drive over the ice. If you go just when the river is freezing or breaking up then you will have to take the helicopter.

I arrived in Moosonee and took a boat taxi. This was the second last day they ran the boats before the river began to freeze up. The slush was hard and thick and I was a little bit freaked out!

I later met up with my collegue Chris Kang, Executive Director of School Without Borders who was coming to work with a group of young me doing video training. We stayed at the Cree Eco-Lodge which is an amazing industry there on the island. An environmentally sustainable business and enterprise.

Finally we made our way over to the highschool and met the amazing youth we would be working with. It was really interesting to be there meeting new people, working and having fun. We were able to make 3, 30sec commercials that were submitted to a national contest for youth campaigning to end racism!

Pretty cool....check out the pics and video these youth made!