Two Bathurst moms whose sons were killed in 2008 van crash start letter-writing campaign against The Phantoms
Click here to read original article on the Moncton Times Transcript website
Two Bathurst mothers whose sons were among those killed in the 2008 Bathurst van crash have started a letter-writing campaign to stop a television movie related to the tragedy from being filmed at Bathurst High School.
Ana Acevedo and Isabelle Hains say the goal of the campaign is to force the Department of Education to reverse a decision by local school district to allow the Dream Street Pictures to film The Phantoms at the local school.
Last month, the Fredericton-based production company Dream Street Pictures announced that a television movie, produced in conjunction with CBC, would begin filming in the fall.
Tentatively titled The Phantoms, after the team's name, the movie will be shot in Bathurst and Fredericton.
Filming is scheduled to be completed by November.
The movie will recount the school's inspirational basketball victory a year after a tragic accident on a northern New Brunswick snowy highway claimed the lives of seven young players from Bathurst High School and the coach's wife.
"We just started yesterday and already we have over 50 individual letters signed by people who agree this film should not be made in Bathurst," Acevedo said.
The letters will be collected, copied and mailed to area politicians.
Officials with School District 15 have given the producers of a film on Bathurst High School's run to the 2009 provincial basketball championship permission to film scenes on school.
Rick LeGuerrier, co-producer of the film, said it would have been possible to film the project elsewhere, but he strongly believes shooting the movie in Bathurst is the right thing to do.
"We're certainly grateful for the trust that the school district, and by extension the Bathurst community, is demonstrating by allowing us to shoot the movie in Bathurst and use the school facilities," he said.
"We really want to make sure that our approach to this production is really going to honour that trust that they're showing in us."
