Society and Social Justice
The Downtown Project
Sat 12:00 pm Theatre 4
52 minutes 2011
Director: Isabelle Longtin
Seventeen hundred tenants from 70 different countries, with an average household income of $12,000, in a series of buildings covering almost a square kilometre: Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance is the largest social housing complex in Quebec. Built in 1959 where the red-light district used to be, just a stone’s throw from Montreal’s bustling Sainte-Catherine Street and Saint Lawrence Boulevard, it has retained something of the area’s seedy reputation for poverty, prostitution, drugs, and violence. But who really knows the projects and the people who live there?
Delving beneath the prejudices and stereotypes, director Isabelle Longtin ventured inside and met the residents. The result is The Downtown Project, a documentary that reveals a complex multi-ethnic reality made up of compelling personal stories and social movements. Grappling with the stresses of immigration and cultural integration, the projects’ diverse inhabitants pride themselves on the sense of community they share.
nfb.ca
Survival, Strength, Sisterhood
Sat 12:15 pm Theatre 5
34 min. 2011
Filmmakers: Alejandro Zuluaga and Harsha Walia
Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: Power of Women in the Downtown Eastside documents the 20-year history of the annual Women’s Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. By focusing on the voices of women who live, love, and work in the Downtown Eastside, this film debunks the sensationalism surrounding a neighbourhood deeply misunderstood, and celebrates the complex and diverse realities of women organizing for justice.
Raw Opium
Sat 2:45 pm Theatre 5
84 min 2010
Director: Peter Findlay
Opium is a commodity that has tremendous power, both to ease pain and to destroy lives. For centuries, the opium poppy has played a pivotal role, not just in the lives of people who grow, manufacture and use it, but also in the sphere of international relations. In Raw Opium, we meet a variety of people with different perspectives including opium growers in Southeast Asia, a UN drug enforcement officer on the border of Afghanistan and a former Indian government drug czar.
We are introduced to Portugal’s new, revolutionary policies toward its drug situation and to Vancouver’s Insite Clinic with its creative approaches to this complex issue. Assumptions about drug addiction and the War on Drugs are profoundly challenged.
rawopium.com
California Dreaming
Sunday 12:15 pm Theatre 1
51 minutes 2010
Filmmaker: Bregtje van der Haak
California is the state of new beginnings, dreams and movie stars, surfers and a wonderful climate. But the Golden State is bankrupt and the city of Los Angeles is running out of cash. Public services are being cut and unemployment keeps rising. At the same time, optimism, entrepreneurship and the belief in the American dream are stronger than ever.
In Los Angeles, we follow five people who are going through a transformation in their lives during this crisis. Meet some of the pioneers reinventing the new America and learn how they see the future.
vo.do/californiadreaming
Freedom Riders
Sun 3:30 pm Theatre 2
115 min. 2010
Director: Stanley Nelson
Freedom Riders is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed the United States forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.
Freedom Riders features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the Riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and journalists who witnessed the Rides firsthand. Filmmaker Stanley Nelson: “The lesson of the Freedom Rides is that great change can come from a few small steps taken by courageous people. And that sometimes to do any great thing, it’s important that we step out alone.”
firelightmedia.tv
Kinshasa Symphony
Sun 3:30 pm Theatre 5
95 min. 2010
Filmmakers: Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer
Kinshasa is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the third-largest city in Africa. Almost ten million people live here and they number among the poorest inhabitants on this planet. Kinshasa is also the home of Central Africa’s only symphony orchestra.
Two hundred orchestral musicians are playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. A power cut occurs just before the last movement. Problems like this are the least of the worries facing the orchestra. In the 15 years of its existence, the musicians have survived two putsches, various crises, and a war, but concentrating on the music and hopes for a better future keep them going. Kinshasa Symphony is a study of people in one of the world’s most chaotic cities doing their best to maintain one of the most complex systems of joint human endeavour, a symphony orchestra. The film is about the Congo, the people in Kinshasa and the power of music.
Awards include: Most Popular Nonfiction Film Award, 2010 Vancouver International Film Festival; Best Cinematography, Rhode Island International Film Festival 2010
kinshasa-symphony.com
Comments are closed.