Quebec contest encourages youth to share heritage on film

A Quebec group is calling on English-speaking high school students in the province to share their heritage on film.

The Quebec Community Groups Network, which represents English-speaking groups across the province, has teamed up with CBC to sponsor a video contest to learn about the history and heritage of youth across Quebec.

The My Quebec Roots Video Contest aims to highlight the stories of English-speaking communities across the province through pictures, sound and spoken word, while exploring communities’ traditions through family elders and oral history.

Contest organizers are also encouraging Nunavimmiut and other Aboriginal groups to take part.

“This is not just about Quebecers whose mother tongue is English,” said QCGN spokesperson Rita Legault. “We hope to receive videos from far and wide that represent all of Quebec’s communities that share English as a common language.”

Legault points to 2006 Canadian census data that show that there are almost one million Quebecers (994,723) who share English as their first official language spoken.

Of that number, some 17,790 also speak an Aboriginal language.

Starting this month, students aged 13 to 18 years can upload a two- to three-minute English-language video highlighting their cultural heritage and identity.

Students can use digital cameras or cell photos to create their videos, which must be uploaded to www.cbc.ca/montreal before April 30, 2012.

The voting public will choose the top ten videos posted online at CBC’s website, from which a panel of judges will select the winning three videos.

The creators of the winning videos could win an iPad, and iPod or a gift certificate to the CBC Shop.

Full contest details are available at www.qcgn.ca/myquebecroots.

The QCGN is a non-profit group that brings together 38 English-language organizations across Quebec.