Raglan Area School students are using filmmaking and humour to inspire safe choices on the road.
The Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD) members – Ayla Standley, 13, Jaime Witters, 12, Josie Harder, 12, Riley Harding, 11, Isa Dobbins, 11, Mickey Brajkovic,11 and Malachy Geoghegan, 11 – have entered their short film into the 2019 Raglan Arts Film Festival Awards (RAFFA).
“SADD month is coming up next month and we wanted to do something different to make people think about dangerous driving,” Ayla says.
SADD is a student-led programme encouraging positive road user behaviours to reduce road trauma with six key messages – sober driving, safe speeds, no distractions, avoiding risks, driving to the conditions and building experience.
The six filmmakers are all taking roles in the six vignettes to promote road user safety and instead of cars they are using scooters and a lot of humour to get their message across.
“We think if it’s funny people will be more likely to remember it,” Ayla says. “We want to make it memorable and use a bit of comedy.”
Road trauma is the greatest cause of harm for 15-24-year-olds in New Zealand and speed has been a factor in more than half of the fatal crashes involving young people.
“We hope that people will enjoy the movie and take away some good messages.”
It’s no too late to enter your film into the 2019 Raglan Arts Film Festival Awards online at Facebook @creativeraglanfilmfestival or call the Old School Arts Centre office 07 825 0023 – submissions due by Monday 12 August completed films by Monday 19 August
Janine Jackson.
