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actors for a MADD awareness video

Impaired Driving Awareness
Eamonn Maher
Actors Alex Anisman (left) and Frances Townend play an impaired driving crash victim and detective, respectively, during an interview at the police station for a Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada awareness video filmed in Georgetown last week.

The Georgetown detachment of the Halton Regional Police Service was transformed into a movie set for a couple of days last week for a Mothers Against Drunk Driving public awareness film that will appear in hundreds of schools across Canada.

MJM Media, a production company from Hamilton, filmed the indoor scenes of the tentatively named In the Blink of an Eye for about 12 hours each day, causing some changes in daily routine for HRPS personnel, who had to keep quiet during the various shoots and use alternate entrances to the building.

But it’s nothing new to most of the station’s employees as this is the seventh straight year that MADD Canada has based its annual movie in Georgetown.

“It’s a good central location and the local police have been very accommodating to us,” said Dawn Regan, chief operating officer for Oakville-based MADD Canada.

“And (MJM Media) has been very gracious and open to us about bringing an end to the concept of impaired driving.”

The 45-minute film is based on true-life stories that include three impactful testimonials from impaired driving victims and survivors directed at a teen audience.

In this film, a young woman and her boyfriend driver are involved in a drunk-driving crash that takes the life of their female friend. A re-enactment of the crash was shot near downtown Milton the night after filming was completed in Georgetown.

Regan noted that since 1994, MADD Canada has made approximately 23,000 video presentations a year in schools throughout the country.

“With the victim testimonials, we actually do re-create as we’re telling the victim’s story and we’ll re-enact those stories so that the kids can relate to what they’re seeing on screen,” she added.

“The intent is to educate young people about how to make the smart decision so that they can be the generation that stops impaired driving. From Grades 7-12, those students will see a new show every year, so if you don’t think that’s generational changing… That’s why it’s so important for us to be doing this.”

The cost of the videos and the $1,000-per-school presentations are covered by the LCBO’s annual Giving Back In Our Community Campaign, which takes place in December.


Source: theIFP.ca