No Boundaries Film Club presents the 2016 Travelling World Community Film Festival
By Contributor
Friday, February 26th – 7 to 9:30 pm
Saturday, February 27th – 9 am to 9:30 pm
Sunday, February 28th – 9 am to 5:00 pm
Grand Forks Secondary School Auditorium
Welcome to the 11th annual Grand Forks screening of the Traveling World Community Film Festival. The World Community Development Education Society, based in Courtenay, BC has been holding the festival in the Comox Valley since 1990. No Boundaries Film Club in Grand Forks has screened the Traveling World Film Festival every year since 2006. Find out more about our parent organization at http://worldcommunity.ca/
Admission Prices (same low prices as 2006!)
Festival Pass $20 Low income $10 GFSS Students Free
Per Session $5 Low income $3
Tickets available at the door only
Please note – all times are approximate. However, films will not start before
the scheduled time. With a festival pass you can come and go as you please.
Friday, February 26th– evening session
7:00 pm ĀINA 23 min.
2015 Living Ancestors Directors: Dave Mossop & Josh Thome
ĀINA (pronounced “eye-nah”) means “that which feeds us” in the Hawaiian language. Some of the world’s largest chemical companies use the island of Kaua`i as an open-air testing ground for pesticides on genetically modified crops. The film highlights a way to address some of the most pressing environmental and health crises facing the island of Kauai – and of island Earth. As ĀINA vividly illustrates, such is the power of sustainable agriculture. The focus is on solutions, the beauty of Kauaʻi and the wisdom of Hawaiian culture. Grand Jury Prize at the Oregon Film Awards
7:35 pm How To Change the World 110 min.
2015 Kinosmith Director: Jerry Rothwell
Greenpeace was founded on tight knit, passionate relationships forged in Vancouver in the early 1970s. Together these pioneers created a template for environmental activism which mixed daring iconic feats with worldwide media; placing small rubber inflatables between harpooners and whales, blocking ice-breaking sealing ships with their own bodies, spraying the pelts of baby seals with dye to make them valueless in the fur market. The group had a prescient understanding of the power of media, knowing that the advent of global mass communications meant that the image was becoming a very effective tool for change. How To Change The World is an intimate portrait of the group’s original members and of activism itself; idealism vs. pragmatism, principle vs. compromise. They agreed that a handful of people could change the world; they just couldn’t always agree on how to do it. Environmental Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest ; Special Jury Award for Editing, Sundance.
Saturday,February 27th– morning session
9:00 am We Call Them Intruders 56 min.
2015 Cinécoop Productions Filmmakers: Susi Porter-Bopp & Tamara Herman
How well do you know your money? Two Vancouver-based filmmakers trace their investments to Canadian mines in Eastern and Southern Africa. If you live and work in Canada, chances are you’re connected to Canadian mining companies, whether you know it or not, through your savings, taxes, Canada Pension Plan contributions, RRSPs and other investments. We Call Them Intruders is a documentary that travels from Canada to Africa and back again to unearth the stories behind some of the continent’s largest Canadian-owned mining projects. The film brings viewers on a journey, taking a hard look at why communities, governments and corporations are so often pitted against each other in an explosive battle over extracting the Earth’s riches.
10:05 am Hishuk-ish t’sawalk (Everything Is One) 15 min.
2013 Writer/Producer: Drew Burke Filming/Editing: Mark Wyatt
Our coast is one of the most beautiful places in the world, but decades of destructive logging, mining and development practices have left vast expanses of our rainforest in need of a helping hand. Many wildlife species have become endangered and the wild salmon runs that once teemed with life are struggling to survive. This is a beautiful and insightful film about the Central West Coast Forest Society’s work to restore forest and stream ecosystems in the Nuu-chah-nulth territory. Traditional knowledge of local First Nations Elders is key to the success of these projects.
10:30 am Food Chains 86 min.
2015 www.foodchainsfilm.com Director: Sanjay Rawal
Farm labour has always been one of the most difficult and poorly paid jobs and has relied on some of the most vulnerable people. Exploitation still exists, ranging from wage theft and sexual harassment to modern-day slavery. This exploitation is perpetuated by the corporations at the top of the food chain, supermarkets. Their buying power has kept wages pitifully low, but desperately poor people are willing to put up with almost anything to keep their jobs. In this exposé, an intrepid group of Florida farmworkers battle to defeat the $4 trillion global supermarket industry through their ingenious Fair Food program, which partners with growers and retailers to improve working conditions for farm workers in the US.
12:00 pm to 1:00pm Lunch Break
Saturday, February 27th–afternoon session
1:00 pm Hadwin’s Judgement 91 min.
2015 NFB Director: Sasha Snow
Grant Hadwin loved the forest, and made his living finding the best routes for roads that cut deep into BC’s remote and ancient forests for logging companies. But the utter devastation wrought by clear-cutting these beautiful forests began to obsess him and gradually drove him to commit an act that ran contrary to all he had come to love—killing the most beautiful and sacred tree on Haida Gwaii. Based on John Vaillant’s award–winning book, The Golden Spruce, director Sasha Snow interweaves speculative re-enactments, Haida legends, interviews and stunning cinematography to explore the motives and pressures that led to Hadwin’s unprecedented crime. Hadwin’s Judgement charts his crusade against the destruction of the world’s last great temperate rainforest—a crusade that ends tragically with his disappearance and prophetic warning, sealing Hadwin’s fate as both madman and visionary.
2:40 pm Facing Fear 23 min.
2014 McNabb Connolly Filmmaker: Jason Cohen
Worlds collide when a former neo-Nazi skinhead and the gay victim of his hate crime attack meet by chance 25 years after the incident that dramatically shaped both their lives. Together they embark on a journey of forgiveness that challenges both to grapple with their beliefs and fears, eventually leading to an improbable collaboration…and friendship. Nominated for Best Short Documentary, Academy Awards; Audience Award, Best Short Documentary, Outfest LA
3:05 pm Little Moccasins 10 min.
2014 Ken Matheson Productions
Little Moccasins is about young students honouring First Nations children who died and were buried in unmarked graves while attending the Dunbow Indian Residential School near Calgary from 1889 to 1924. Elementary students in the Strathcona Tweedsmuir Outreach Program are shocked to learn that the Dunbow Indian Residential School had been located only 15 minutes from their present day classroom. Struggling to come to terms with this dark period in Canadian history, the students embark on a journey to honour, give voice and identity to First Nations children who were buried and forgotten there long ago. Best Documentary, Vancouver Short Film Festival
3:30 pm The True Cost 92 min.
2015 McNabb/Connolly Director: Andrew Morgan
This is a story about clothing. It is about the clothes we wear, the people who make them and the impact it’s having on our world. The price of “fast fashion” clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary that pulls back the curtain on an unseen part of our world and asks each of us to consider who pays the price for our clothing.
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm Dinner Break
Saturday, February 27th–evening session
7:00 pm Jumbo Wild 60 min
2015 FilmSprout Director: Nick Waggoner
For decades, First Nations, conservationists, backcountry skiers and snowboarders have fought a proposed large-scale ski resort deep in the Purcell Mountains near Invermere, BC. After 24 years of opposition, what more will it take to keep Jumbo wild for good? Vancouver-based architect, Oberto Oberti, hopes to develop this valley as the site of North America’s premiere ski area, his lifelong dream. As an emblem of the conflict between development and nature, Jumbo quickly becomes an ideological battle about how we value land and why we care so deeply about our wild backyards. Jumbo Wild features intimate access to key players on all sides of a divisive issue. Stunning cinematography!
8:10 pm Circus Without Borders 70 min.
2015 Kinosmith Director: Susan Gray
Circus Without Borders is a documentary about Guillaume Saladin and Yamoussa Bangoura, best friends and world-class acrobats from remote corners of the globe who share the same dream — to bring hope and change to their struggling communities through circus. Their dream unfolds in the Canadian Arctic and Guinea, West Africa, where they help Inuit and Guinean youth achieve unimaginable success while confronting suicide, poverty and despair. Seven years in the making, this tale of two circuses, Artcirq and Kalabante, is a culture-crossing performance piece that offers a portal into two remote communities and an inspiring story of resilience and joy.
Sunday, February 28th –morning session
9:00 am Lowdown Tracks 86 min.
2015 McNabb/ Connolly Director: Shelley Saywell
Music is an expression of the spirit for everyone. But for some who survive on the periphery of society, it can also be a life-saving coping mechanism and the last stand of their dignity. Emmy-winning Director Shelley Saywell’s moving and inspiring documentary was created with singer/activist Lorraine Segato. It captures the music and stories of five musicians who are homeless or on society’s margin. The causes, from abuse to mental health to simple bad luck, are all touched on in their stories in the film. But at its heart, Lowdown Tracks is about bringing into focus the heartache and the beautiful potential we should see when we walk by someone on the street. In the end, it is a celebration of the power of music and survival. Second Place Audience Favourite Film at Hot Docs 2015
10:35 am The Hand That Feeds 84 min.
2014 McNabb Connolly Filmmaker: Robin Blotnick
At a popular bakery café, residents of New York’s Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. Behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick. Risking deportation and job loss, the workers team up with innovative young organizers and form their own independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. In one roller-coaster year, they must overcome a shocking betrayal and a two-month lockout. Lawyers battle in back rooms and workers walk the picket line with support from the “Occupy” crowd. If they can win a contract, it will set a historic precedent. But whatever happens, these workers will never be the same. Audience Award, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; Audience Award, DOC NYC; Best of Fest, AFI Docs
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm Lunch Break
Sunday, February 28th – afternoon session
1:00 pm After Winter, Spring 74 min.
2013 McNabb/Connolly Director: Judith Lit
After Winter, Spring is a beautiful and intimate look into the lives of contemporary French peasants who heroically struggle to maintain the dignity of traditional farming ways in an age of EU homogenization. It makes a compelling case for re-imagining the policy assumptions that take us down a pathway for large scale, standardized agricultural methods. This farming community caught between tradition and an uncertain future struggles to hold on to their farms and to a set of values that comes from their intimate relationship with the natural world. The film reveals the human story of family farming at a turning point in history. Best Foreign Documentary, Arizona International Film Festival; Audience Award, Mill Valley Film Festival
2:25 pm Landfill Harmonic 85 min.
2015 The Film Collaborative Director: Graham Townsley
Landfill Harmonic follows the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, a Paraguayan musical youth group of kids that live next to one of South America’s largest landfills. This unlikely orchestra plays music from instruments made entirely out of garbage. When their story goes viral, the orchestra is catapulted into the global spotlight. With the guidance of their music director, they must navigate this new world of arenas and sold out concerts. However, when a natural disaster devastates their community, the orchestra provides a source of hope for the town. The film is a testament to the transformative power of music and the resilience of the human spirit. VIFF Impact: Int’l Audience Award
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