Ida Makes a Movie is a 1979 Canadian after school special short film produced by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who aired the film on December 8, 1979. The story was adapted from the 1974 children's picture book Ida Makes a Movie, which was written by Kay Chorao. Schuyler, a former media teacher at Earl Grey Senior Public School, was introduced to the book via the school's librarian, and purchased the film rights from Chorao for $200. The film led to a series of further short films that aired on the CBC, which later developed into The Kids of Degrassi Street, the first series in the Degrassi teen drama franchise. Plot 9-year-old Ida Lucas and her 6-year-old friend, Cookie, are having a day in the park on Degrassi Street. Ida is upset by the amount of litter around the park, despite the signs posted. After Ida has the disgusting experience of stepping on someone's discarded sandwich, Cookie (who cannot read) points out another sign, an advertisement for a children's film making contest by the National Film Board of Canada. When Ida reads it to her, Cookie asks if she's going to enter. Ida initially says no, but reconsiders. Later that day, Ida goes rooting around in her house's attic for an old movie camera of her father's. She is disheartened to find it broken, but her mother encourages her to go to the camera store and get an estimate on what it would take to repair it. There, Ida gets another shock when she find out that not only will she have to leave it there, but that it will cost about $20 overall, both to repair the camera (which has a broken spring), and to buy a roll of film. Although she leaves it there, Ida does not know where to get that much money. Ida and Cookie are talking it over later, when Ida's brother Fred, a baseball player, comes home from a game. Fred is angry over having lost the last game of the season, and is scornful of Ida's plans, to say nothing of being unwilling to give her any money. He coldly suggests that Ida earn the money, which she is not sure how to do. But then her mother calls to Ida about the junk she left all over the attic, when she was searching for the camera. She