FARMINGTON – Student filmmakers’ work aimed at changing attitudes toward tobacco can be seen online prior to a festival highlighting their efforts.

CUT the Habit recently launched a Web site featuring six films made by area students. They can be viewed at www.cutthehabit.org, then viewers can vote for their favorites, said Lorri Mealey, program coordinator for the Healthy Community Coalition, which organized the film project. The top three films will be given to local schools, community groups and movie rental stores.

All the films will be shown at a festival beginning at 7 p.m. April 10 in the Ben Franklin Center at Franklin Memorial Hospital.

About 60 students from Jay, Livermore Falls, Mt. Abram, Mt. Blue High School and Foster Regional Technology Center began their projects with training last summer about tobacco and filming, she said.

Their three to five minute films show the harmful effects of tobacco and how media, particularly movies, influence youth choices about tobacco.

Students wrote, acted, filmed and edited their own films by February. Most had an interest in theater or film, she said.

Mt. Blue graduate, Desi Van Til, and her husband Sean Mewshaw, spoke to students about their experiences working on movies in Hollywood. They also gave advice on how to make a short film and how to take an idea and make it into a film, she said.

“It opened their eyes … that a person from Mt. Blue could go to Hollywood and work with the stars,” she added.

Another Mt. Blue graduate, Chris Sweet, an MPBN executive producer, offered technical advice.

For more information about CUT the Habit student films, the film festival or joining CUT the Habit, contact Mealey at 779-2929.