Media Arts in Public Schools (MAPS) Develops Montana Health Department Documentary

A screening was held in the county administration building last week of a new documentary about the Ravalli County Health Department and the people who work there. The short video not only presents and promotes the services provided by the health department but shows us the real human faces that make the department an effective part of the community they live in.

By Michael Howell

The short ten-minute documentary was produced by Media Arts in Public Schools (MAPS) http://www.mapsmediainstitute.com , a local non-profit film making and media training program for valley students. It was commissioned by the Ravalli County Health Department and funded by a Federal Emergency Preparedness grant.

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Montana’s First Lady, Nancy Schweitzer (and her team) chose MAPS to produce a public service announcement promoting the study of Math and Science. The :30 PSA, targeted at 4th and 5th graders, stars Mrs. Schweitzer and two of our local kids – Grace Kravik and JT Vineyard.

To view, please visit http://www.mapsmediainstitute.com or just CLICK HERE http://www.mapsmediainstitute.com/gallery.html .

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On hand to celebrate the release of the documentary was the founder of MAPS Media Institute, Peter Rosten, MAPS teacher Ian Marquand, a former senior broadcast journalist for KPAX Television in Missoula, and former MAPS student and now MAPS Teaching Assistant Erin Belmont, all of whom worked on the health department documentary.

MAPS was formed in 2004 by Rosten, a former Hollywood film and television producer. In order to finance the program, Rosten formed the "Irwin and Florence Rosten Foundation" (in honor of his parents), a Montana based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Peter’s personal financial contributions, as well as charitable donations, got MAPS off the ground.

The idea behind the organization is to provide young people in high school the opportunity to learn how to create and produce documentary films, by providing the teachers, the training and the state of the art equipment required and to provide employment for young up and comers at the same time. Although the program is primarily designed to inspire, educate, and train high school students in filmmaking, digital media and real world documentaries, in addition students learn many essential life skills such as communication, teamwork, problem solving, leadership, public speaking, budgets and deadlines.

For the first four years, the program was exclusive to Corvallis High School and a state-approved, accredited arts class. During this time, the MAPS model to combine education and the real world of business was developed. In 2008, MAPS student filmmakers had commercials and documentaries running coast-to-coast including a tobacco prevention campaign that was acquired by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

In 2009, under the new name of the MAPS Media Institute, MAPS expanded its mission to include all the high schools in Ravalli County. It is now an after-school program located at the Westview Center in Hamilton.

Rosten said that when the Health Department contracted with MAPS to do the documentary, the general aim was simply to raise community awareness of the county health department and the services offered. He said the first step involved setting up a citizens’ focus group to try and determine what the community’s issues with the health department were.

"One of the biggest issues turned out to be questions of trust," said Rosten. "We realized that we needed to not only communicate the services being provided but to introduce the people who are providing the care to the community."

The first scene in the documentary shows Director of the Public Health Department Judy Griffin at home on the dairy farm run by her husband. We learn that the head of our health department is a native Montanan who has lived in the Bitterroot valley for 37 years, raised four children here, and goes to church and shops here. We learn all this in the first few seconds of the film.

We meet other members of the staff as they reach out to local citizens at various community events, spreading health related information, and we learn about the department’s various services from emergency preparedness, to immunizations, to family planning. And we learn about the three Ps: Prevent. Promote. Protect.

Rosten said that enrollment at the MAPS Media Institute had been increasing about 50 percent per year. He said the maximum current enrollment would be about 75 students. There are currently three teachers and two Teaching Assistants working at the institute.

He said that MAPS monitors its students’ grades in all their classes and regards anything under a "C" unacceptable. He said that over the past four years about 200 students had been through the program and only four had ended up not graduating.

"That’s one thing that I’m really proud about," said Rosten.

Anyone interested in the MAPS Media Institute can visit the web site: http://www.mapsmediainstitute.com.

http://www.bitterrootstar.com/valleyinfo.html#1