I have to say it was an honour to be a part of this video, especially as the writer and director. To be honest, I have a deep love of film and have always wanted to do something like this. I have to admit, I bugged my executive director until she gave me the project. It started off small. I was supposed to make a short 30 second commercial or something like that but, after hearing the inspirational stories from these youth, I wanted to balloon it into a full blown documentary. I hope the rawness of this video and the real people with real stories will help someone, somewhere.

The youth I work with have been mentioning that young people talking to young people might be more effective in schools. I hope they are right. I am also very excited about the DVD. It has some very cool special features in there including more information about the Action Centre, the drugs of the documentary, Sudbury resources, and even an audio commentary by myself. I love listening to audio commentaries and was very excited to do one. It was a lot harder than I expected. Go check that out as you can learn a lot about the centre, the youth in the video, the music, and some of my thoughts on drugs and youth.

Pete Sinclair. The editor. Well, without him, the video would never have been made. He stepped up and donated A TON of his personal time to the cause and did it all from his personal computer. I pushed him pretty hard like I think I push a lot of people and co workers that I work with. I think everyone has the potential to do anything if they are not afraid of failure. I basically had this whole thing mapped out and Pete was able to meet everything and every sequence I wanted and he did a great job with the opening and blooper sequences (which he sequenced himself). I hope to one day do another video and work with him again. Thanks Pete.

I am so proud of every youth that participated. They have been through so much yet they want to help other youth and they have demonstrated immense courage to fight their addictions. Their messages need to be heard. Thank you to every one of you.

I hope that we can take this video on the road, bring the youth involved and other staff at the centre, and reach the community. There are a lot of shocking truths in this video and I hope we can not only stop some youth from taking drugs but also help educate the public on drugs and where to get help.

I now understand why directors in Hollywood never sleep. Thanks for the positive responses and I hope you enjoy the DVD. If you need me, I will be sleeping.

- Derek Newman (Writer, Director)