Awareness Film Night

One of the most memorable Awareness Film Nights occurred in February 2014 when we devoted the evening to telling the story of residential schools in B.C..  It went long past closing time and featured a film and powerful talks by residential school survivors telling what they had undergone both during and after their residential school experiences.  Also among the speakers was Carey Newman, introducing his new project the “Witness Blanket”.

Fast forward to October 2018 and Carey’s film about the making of that blanket, called “Picking Up the Pieces: The Making of the Witness Blanket” premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival to sold-out audiences.

Filmmaker and master carver Carey Newman created the Witness Blanket over several years by weaving together hundreds of found items from residential school buildings, churches and other cultural structures across Canada, including shoes, bricks, photos and even a door, to create “a national monument to recognize the atrocities of the Indian Residential School Era”.  The result is a 40 foot long “quilt” made up of beautifully carved and thoughtfully placed wooden panels, homes to memories that “individually…. are paragraphs of a disappearing narrative (but) together they are strong, collectively able to recount for future generations the true story of loss, strength, reconciliation and pride” and that appear to be an undulating  blanket.

In this moving film Carey seamlessly weaves the two stories together with his same artist’s eye; the story of the making of the Witness Blanket and the more poignant story of the residential school legacy as borne by survivors and their families.

As our post-screening speaker/filmmaker in attendance, Carey will be returning to Sooke, where he grew up and where his parents, Victor and Edith Newman are well known as artists, as key partners in the Sooke Reconciliation Group and as the remarkable people that they are.

Consider bringing a food item for the EMCS students’ “10,000 Tonight” Food Bank drive being held on the same evening.

Unable to see or hear after a severe illness at 19 months old, Helen Keller, with the help of Annie Sullivan, learned so much more than basic communication.  She became a writer, activist, and lecturer, inspiring many people over the almost 88 years of her life. She described “her most productive pleasures” as curiosity and imagination.

The Miracle Worker filmed in 1962 is regarded as a classic, Patty Duke Astin and Anne Bancroft both won Academy Awards as Helen and Anne, and of course, Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 100% approval rating.  It was adapted from the play of the same name by Arthur Penn who also directed the film. A line from a review by Wesley Levell describes it well: Two well-deserved Oscars grace this unflinching portrait of selfishness in direct resistance to selflessness.

Sounds like something that could come in handy in our world today.

Why wildfires have gotten worse – and what we can do about it.

The rise of highly destructive megafires has become one of today’s most pressing and complex problems.

This 2018 film is a 60 minute multi-media presentation that combines the research of Dr. Paul Hessberg of Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S. Forest Service with the visual storytelling of award-winning film company North 40 Productions, including video vignettes, animation and the work of wildfire photographer John Marshall.

Facing the reality of this issue can be daunting, but like all wicked problems, through education we can change the way fire comes to our forests and communities.

To bring the issue home to B.C. and Vancouver Island, the post screening discussion will be lead by Jens Wieting, Senior Forest and Climate Campaigner with the Sierra Club of B.C.

In just 22 short, thunderous minutes “Water Warriors” is the story of a New Brunswick community’s successful fight to protect their water from fracking.  A familiar scenario – a small determined group of First Nations and local activists go up against a large foreign corporation that has plans to tear up the ecosystem and pollute and use vast amounts of their water in order to develop a fracking site in their region.  It sure looks hopeless at times, and not much fun in the cold weather, but they persevere.

All over the world people are standing up and saying no more eco-destruction and no more corporate takeover of the commons (“land or resources belonging to or affecting the whole of a community”).  Whether it’s stopping sand dredgers in Cambodia, standing up to mining companies who are polluting your village in South America, Help(ing) Our Wolves Live in Sooke or growing non-GMO, unsprayed food, organizing a reconciliation group, monitoring local species at risk or bringing solar cooking stoves to remote villages in Africa or India, the list of people making a difference is long.

THE FILM WILL BE FOLLOWED BY AN OPEN MIC……A call to community-builders and activists!

The Season Finale of Awareness Film Night will be your chance to share with us what you are working on to bring about a more just, beautiful, sane, connected world. 

It can be a big, time-monopolizing effort, or a small effort.  Come and talk about it…………we will have 1 and 1/2 hours to share.  Not a time for boasting, rather a time to rouse us so that we may go off into the summer inspired, knowing what is being protected and what innovations are being created and how many people are working behind the scenes to make a better world.

If you are interested in sharing a brief description of the actions you have been taking to promote justice, hope, preservation of the ecosystem, the creation of beauty and/or healing in our world, send off an email with a few details to: info@awarenessfilmnight.ca

The 11th Annual Farm and Film Gala co-presented with Sooke Region Food CHI will feature vendors of farm and garden supplies, seeds, plants and locally grown/made produce and wares, info tables from regional non-profits concerned with sustaining our beautiful community, local teas and garden-inspired goodies from the EMCS culinary arts  students, gift baskets and the film “Evolution of Organic”.

Academy-award nominated filmmaker Mark Kitchell’s insightful 2017 documentary retraces, through lots of archival photos and videos, the first steps of the motley crew of rebellious back to the landers, spiritual seekers and sons and daughter of farmers who rejected chemical farming and set out to explore organic alternatives. Kitchell is known for documenting social change movements and in “Evolution” he takes filmgoers from the counter-culture 1960’s through the eventual consolidation of much of the organic food production into larger, continent-wide businesses and Alice Waters and the Foodie movement to exciting and important future innovations such as carbon farming.  This is an uplifting and entertaining film and it features a lively soundtrack of music from the mind-expanding 60’s such as The Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish and Bruce Springsteen.

We will welcome the following vendors and info tables:  ALM Farms, Full Circle Seeds, Metchosin Farms, TransitionSooke/ZeroWaste Sooke/Planet Earth Party, Cast Iron Farm, Silver Cloud Farm, Seaweed Soil Additives, Herbal Tea Station, Sooke Food CHI/Sunriver Gardens, Sooke Pesticide Education Group, Sea Bluff Farm, Livin’ the Dream Farm, Habitat Acquisition Trust, EMCS Home Ec students

Doors will open at 6:30 for a chance to visit the vendors (don’t forget to bring some cash), have some tea and goodies and schmooze.  Film will start at 7:45.

Whale Rider is a 2002 New Zealand-German film directed by Niki Caro, based on the novel of the same name by Witi Ihimaera.

The film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes as Kahu Paikea Apirana, a twelve year old Maori girl whose destiny is to become the chief of the tribe. Her grandfather Koro believes that this is a role for males only. The film was shot on location on Whangara, the setting of the novel.

Director Niki Caro transcends ordinary film making with Whale Rider. The film played to standing ovations at both the Toronto and Sundance film festivals, and with good reason. It is not a film that tells us anything is possible. It shows us. It does not sink into despair over the disappearing way of life of the Maori people. It shows us that any group of people, any tribe or village, any nation, can survive and even prosper if we rely on what we feel in our hearts.

This is a film about traditions, about beliefs, about growing up, about magic, and about love.

Doors open at 6:30, film will start at 7:00

 In the theatre at Edward Milne Community School, 6218 Sooke Rd, Sooke, BC.

Admission is by donation

Featuring Ana Maria Peredo, PhD, UVic professor and and aficionado of all    things cooperative, and local working co-op member Steve Unger as post-screening speakers.  Dr. Peredo is the former director of the UVic Centre for Cooperative and Community-based Economy and currently is at the School of Environmental Studies. Steve is a professional electrical engineer with the Viridian Energy Cooperative, designing and installing renewable energy systems.

CO-PRESENTED WITH TRANSITION SOOKE

What if working together for the good of all was the most common business model?

Watch as several organizations and businesses strive towards building a more cooperative future.  By putting humanity before the bottom line, they are finding their place in a new economy no longer dominated by profits and big business.  Featuring a small craft-brew, a peer-to-peer open hardware lab, an urban agriculture social enterprise, a string quartet and more.

Vancouver director Trevor Meier states:

“This film formed around the question of what a more cooperative world could look like….We went through more than 600 potential case studies in selecting the seven included in the film.  The new economy world is dynamic and changing fast.  My hope is that this film can be a catalyst for everyday people to be inspired that this new world is something that is open to all….that it doesn’t require massive amounts of capital or the support of the most wealthy; that right here, today, we can band together and form a new, more participatory economy ourselves.”

Cinematography is by Grant Baldwin who we met as both filmmaker and protagonist in 2 previous AFN/TS collaborative screenings “The Clean Bin Project” and “Just Eat It”.

“Spirited away”  Wednesday January 10^th  

Doors open at 6:30, film will start at 7:00

 In the theatre at Edward Milne Community School, 6218 Sooke Rd, Sooke, BC.

Admission is by donation.

This film has been selected by the BBC as number 4 in the top 100 films of the 21st century. (so far).

Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, it was released in 2001 and became the most successful film in Japanese history.  The fame spread around the world and a U.S. production was done in English (not subtitled).

Spirited Away is frequently ranked among the greatest animated films.

It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, making it the only hand drawn animated film and Japanese animated film to win best animated film; the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival, and is on the British Film Institute‘s list of “Top fifty films for children up to the age of 14”.

In 2016, it was voted the fourth best film of the 21st century as picked by 177 film critics from around the world, making it the highest ranking animated film on the list. It was also named the second “Best Film of the 21st Century So Far” in 2017 by the New York Times.  And the film critics at Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 97 on the 100 scale.

What is the story about?

It centers around a 10-year-old girl who begins with some fear and trembling related to a move to a new town, new school, new house.  She goes through a profound transformation via many challenges in the spirit world and finds strength and courage through love.  Simple story and an amazing film for all ages.

This is not a typical cartoon feature, so even if you have never enjoyed an animated film in your life,

you may love this one.

Children and teens are especially vulnerable to the radiation emitted during the everyday use of tablets, cell phones, laptops and wireless routers.  This eye-opening documentary investigates the potential dangers of prolonged exposure to Radio Frequencies (RF) from wireless technology and its effects on our health and well-being as well as the health and development of our children.

What does “prolonged” look like?  Most teenagers in the mall, all day in a wi-fi classroom or office, sleeping with a cell phone on at the bedside, to name a few scenarios.

In interviews with oncologists, pediatric cancer scientists, public health specialists and a neurologist and brain development researcher, among others, this film makes an excellent case for using the “precautionary principle” when it comes to our use of wi-fi and cell phones.

Director’s statement:  “As a mother of teenagers I am concerned with the shadow side of wireless technology on our children….the increased health risks and how it is sociologically impacting children’s development and behavior…..I love technology and the many conveniences it has offered us, yet I believe that increased transparency is vital.”  –  Sabine El Gemayel

The film presents the essentials of both why and how to protect ourselves and our children from excessive exposure to wireless radiation.

There will be a post-screening discussion lead by Katharina Gustavs. Katharina believes that electromagnetic fields matter.  In her experience the electromagnetic quality of our living environment is just as essential to human health as fresh air, clean water and healthy food.  After performing hundred of EMF (RF) assessments and with a background in environmental and occupational health, building biology and nutrition, she enjoys the detective work of identifying elevated sources of electromagnetic fields and developing strategies on how to measurably reduce the exposure. She recently translated the “EMF Guideline for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of EMF-related Health Problems and Illnesses” by the European Academy for Environmental Medicine.

Katharina will arrive early (before 7:00) if anyone is interested in having a one-on-one with her. She will bring some copies of the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) guide to safer cell phone use.

Since the film night is on the same evening as the EMCS students’ “10,000 Tonight” drive to collect donations for the Sooke Food Bank, consider bringing a food item (or 10) to contribute to their effort.

The new INTERMISSION FILM SERIES!

November, January, March and May we’ll be showing comedies and dramas that may make you laugh and cry, while they heighten your awareness.

First up is Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times”

Partly inspired by a conversation with Mahatma Gandhi about the damaging effects of industrial technology, and partly as a result of the poverty and suffering during the Great Depression, Modern Times is often seen as Chaplin’s greatest film.  Fifty-three critics gave it a 100% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes film rating site.

It was released in 1936 and here are some snippets from a review in The Guardian dated 14 July 1936:

“Watching Modern Times, one is compelled to marvel again at the miraculous soundness of taste which has led people of so many countries to take Chaplin to their hearts. His reaction to life has a humble, saintly, and therefore triumphant quality.”

Chaplin was acutely preoccupied with the social and economic problems of this new age. In 1931 and 1932 he had left Hollywood behind, to embark on an 18-month world tour. In Europe, he had been disturbed to see the rise of nationalism and the social effects of the Depression, of unemployment and of automation. He read books on economic theory; and devised his own Economic Solution, an intelligent exercise in utopian idealism, based on a more equitable distribution not just of wealth but of work.

Sound familiar?

Modern Times is perhaps more meaningful now than at any time since its first release. The twentieth-century theme of the film, farsighted for its time—the struggle to reject alienation and preserve humanity in a modern, mechanized world—profoundly reflects issues facing the twenty-first century. The Tramp’s travails in Modern Times and the chaotic comedy that follows should provide strength and comfort to all who feel like helpless cogs in a world beyond control.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 15TH,

Doors will open at 6:45, film will start at 7:00.

In the theatre at Edward Milne Community School, 6218 Sooke Rd, Sooke, BC.

 Admission is BY DONATION

See you then!.