Student reporting team from Ciné Institute in Jacmel, Haiti, on Friday. (Andrew Bigosinski/Ciné Institute)

A group of young Haitians trained at a filmmaking school in the coastal city of Jacmel are providing reports from the frontlines of the damaged city.

The Ciné Institute, started by New York filmmaker David Bell, began as a film festival in Jacmel in 2006.

Last September, Annie Nocenti was one of a group of U.S. filmmakers who taught students at the film school, which only recently opened.

For most of her students it was the first time they'd picked up a camera — many had seen no more than a handful of films, Nocenti told CBC's Q cultural affairs show on Friday.

On Tuesday, they watched their school crumble during the 7.0-magnitude quake, then climbed through the rubble to find their cameras.

The reports they've sent back are among the first from an area cut off from Port-au-Prince and cut off from any kind of aid.

"They're out on the streets. They're posting reports on a website. It's the only positive story to come out of Haiti, that these students are able to hit the ground using the skills that we taught them and they're just rising above everything," said Nocenti, a journalist and filmmaker who was once an editor at Marvel.

"They're rising above personal problems and loss of homes to get out there and do what filmmakers do which is report," she said.

None of the 30 students she taught was killed, but many lost friends and many are homeless, she said.

Jacmel, a centre for arts and culture in Haiti, has not seen as many deaths as Port-au-Prince, but there is still substantial damage.

"Jacmel is not getting any of the aid. They're all sleeping in the streets," she said.

Wake up from a bad dream

The footage they send out is being posted on a Cine Instituté website. Nocenti said what's coming out is raw, sometimes with the shock of the filmmakers themselves evident in the footage.

"One young filmmaker, his report is that this has to be a dream. Haitians are very spiritual. He's convinced this has to be a dream and he will wake up soon," she said.

Nocenti said she was struck by the energy of the students she taught last September.

"Their eye doesn't know cinema history — it's a very fresh vision," she said.

"That's the difference between CNN and a Haitian filmmaker. Haitian filmmakers want to find a positive story. They don't want their country seen as a place to be written off because it's already hell."

Nocenti said the Ciné Institute is hoping to rebuild in Jacmel.