BANA debuts new promotion video

By Jolene Perron

Three local high school girls had their vision realized on the big screen at St. Clair Centre for the Arts on Sept. 26 during the debut of their music video “Rise Up.”

Devon Paolini, 18, started the project during her internship with the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association last summer. She was approached by a co-worker with a song given to him by singer and songwriter Nicole Barron. She approached BANA and gave them her song “Rise Up,” written after  the hospitalization of a friend who was battling an eating disorder.

Luciana Rosu-Sieza, interim executive director at BANA worked closely with the girls during the production of the video.

“It’s a very touching song and we were thinking of opportunities to help promote this song to other people,” said Rosu-Siez.

Paolini asked her two friends Bryanna Dunbar, 18, and Taylor O’Halloran, 18,  to help her on the project. The three girls applied for the Dare to Dream Grant program through The Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health.

After establishing the grant, the team worked together to create a script and get actors to portray the scenes. Jeff Bouton donated his time as executive producer of the video and hired full time director Jon Gillies .

“We wanted to make it a more universal message, that everybody is beautiful just the way they are,” said Rosu-Sieza. “There’s greatness in everybody and although we feel defeated at times there’s ways to surpass that”

Cast, crew and their families were able to watch the video appear on the big screen at St. Clair Centre for the Arts before it went online.

“It’s just really cool to watch it all come together, it’s exactly what we wanted,” said O’Halloran.

Rosu-Sieza hopes to use this video in their future promotions. The video can be accessed by going to www.riseupvideo.com.