...	ERIC WYNNE/Staff St. Pat's High School students Elise Sinclair, left, Harrison Newman-Jardine, Sarah Dubé, Nelle Duinker and Emma Leslie took part in the filming of their trip to a student-led peace conference in Serbia.

By ANDREA NEMETZ / Entertainment Reporter

When Sarah Dubé saw Teaching Peace in a Time of War at the Atlantic Film Festival last September as part of her film and video class at St. Patrick's High School in Halifax, she was inspired.

"The film's impact is hard to explain," says Dubé, a Grade 11 student. "I was impressed by Hetty (Van Gurp, the teacher and activist spotlighted in the film) as well as the maturity in the group there. They are so serious and adult-like as youth. I realized education to promote peaceful ways must begin early, with the youth."

When film and video teacher Greg Albers decided to screen the 45-minute documentary for other St. Pat's students, they too were impressed.

"The film itself is really moving," said Grade 12 student Elise Sinclair. "Everything about the film caught my attention."

Afterwards, Dubé and Sinclair, along with eight other students from St. Pat's decided they wanted to take part in a youth-led peace conference in Serbia in March.

"I didn't know much about the situation in Serbia," said Grade 11 student Nelle Duinker. "But I joined the group the night of the screening. I realized I couldn't pass up the chance to go to Serbia."

The 10 St. Pat's students joined with 18 students from Eastern Shore District High to form Students for Teaching Peace (SFTP) and raised nearly $20,000 towards the 12-day trip (it didn't cover half). In all, 29 Nova Scotia students along with students from B.C. and Gatineau, Que., and 11 chaperones including teachers Greg Albers from St. Pat's and Janna Bayer-Smith and Pat Barrington from Eastern Shore took the trip to Belgrade.

Besides the sociological learning experience many of the students took cameras to document the trip, with guidance from Teresa MacInnes and Kent Nason, respectively, the writer-director and cinematographer, of Teaching Peace in a Time of War, who travelled to Serbia.

The National Film Board lent the students cameras - two big ones and three handicams. Students were given a one-day training session and were divided into groups under the banners stills, adults, youth and diary cam.

"It made sure no one filmed the same thing," said Duinker, 16.

Getting involved in the community brought things into perspective, said Dubé, 17.

Among the students observations were "the old, beautiful buildings and the really clean streets," (Duinker), "lots of shoe shops" (Harrison Newman Jardine, Grade 10), "lots of stray dogs" (Dubé) and the lack of fruits and vegetables in the daily diet of the host families with which they stayed.

"On a walking tour of Belgrade, we saw bombed buildings, something I never expected to be standing in front of, and it was shocking," said Sinclair, 18. "I thought the buildings would be repaired and restored.

"It was something the people we were staying with would see every day on their way to work, 15 minutes from downtown," said Emma Leslie, 17.

The students filmed their peers' reactions to the bombed buildings along with shots of the scenery to be used as transitions. Duinker and Leslie were filmed counting to 10 in Serbian.

"As soon as we got out of the airport, they gave us cameras and left them with us for the whole trip," said Newman Jardine, at 15 the youngest student from St. Pat's.

"My group had the old people. We set out to interview the elders about their thoughts on the war and it was really hard. We didn't get the feeling we could go up to people on the street and ask them about their experiences."

Newman Jardine and Dubé, along with Eastern Shore students Nik Hamm and Kelly-Lynn Russell, are also editing the footage into a five-minute rough-cut that will be shown tonight at 7 p.m. at Oxford Theatre, prior to the screening of the ViewFinders opening gala Millions.

They're spending five, eight-hour days at CBC.

"Initially we're logging the footage, going through and putting on the appropriate time code so we can narrow down what we want to see in the trailer, which will be a promo for a feature film," said Dubé, who is aiming for a career in the arts.

Newman Jardine appreciated all the hands-on experience in Serbia.

"There's not that much to know about filming," he said. "Gradually you get better and the end of the trip, I felt like I'd really improved. Teresa thinks filming is the hard part and editing is fun, but most of us disagree."

Albers, who teaches sociology as well as film and video, was thrilled with the trip.

"One of my big philosophies is that we should get out of the classroom to really learn, get out of our box and frame of reference. Going to another country, where they don't know the culture or language, forces them to learn a lot about themselves and its invaluable. Making our own film is the frosting on the cake."