REEL CANADA Blog : Tags : Emily Hunter

Students from across Windsor in attendance at the Capitol Theatre

Another successful partnership between REEL CANADA and the Windsor International Film Festival is in the books. This year’s festival at the beautiful Capitol Theatre featured over 500 high school students from eight schools across both local school boards! The morning featured two of our most inspiring films, the ever-popular BREAKAWAY and the environmental documentary SHARKWATER, featuring a special guest, “eco-warrior” and filmmaker Emily Hunter (daughter of Greenpeace co-founder Paul Hunter). Following the screening of BREAKAWAY, a fascinating discussion involving several students regarding what it means to be Canadian and growing up under pressure was led by the co-founder of REEL CANADA, Jack Blum. The students of Windsor were very eager to share their stories with their fellow students.

Windsor Star sports journalist Bob Duff

The afternoon also featured two films, including the hockey epic THE ROCKET. We brought in hockey expert and sports journalist for the Windsor Star Bob Duff to discuss Maurice Richard, today’s NHL and the current lockout with the students. Our other feature presentation in the afternoon was a new film to the REEL CANADA program, director Nathan Morlando’s bio-pic about Canada’s most notorious bank robber, Edwin Boyd. It was a packed house for REEL CANADA’s first official screening of EDWIN BOYD: CITIZEN GANGSTER. We were fortunate enough to reach the director of the film in Los Angeles via Skype for a very interesting post-screening conversation.

EDWIN BOYD director Nathan Morlando via Skype 

Over a dozen students lined up to ask Nathan questions ranging from what it was like to spend time with the family of Edwin Boyd to how to make it in the Canadian film industry. One student asked Nathan, “What advice do you have for [those of ] us who want to become filmmakers?” Nathan replied, “Get a cheap camera or borrow one from your parents and start writing stories and making movies with your friends. Your circle of friends, whether it’s from high school or college, will be the ones you work with over and over again because they share the same love for storytelling and they will work for free!”

Nathan was a great guest to the students of Windsor and we’re looking forward to his followup to EDWIN BOYD.

Students and teachers from Toronto District School Board at Sheppard Grande Cinemas

It's amazing to think that we've been doing these multi-school Cineplex events in Toronto for five years. The first year, we started with the nine alternative schools that are part of the Toronto District School Board, and nearly all 500+ alternative school students from across the city attended. The second year, we opened it up to the entire board, and got about a dozen schools in. Every year, the event gets a little bit bigger, and the audiences get more diverse. Some schools come year after year, but we attract new ones every single time. This year, a record 20 schools participated. 

Dwain Murphy (left), Daniel Keith Morrison (left middle), Jack Blum (right middle), and Kevin Duhaney (right).

At this year's event, we kicked things off with a screening of the hilarious short PEDESTRIAN JAR, with director Evan Morgan in attendance to talk to a packed house, before they settled into a screening of GUNLESS. Across the way in another equally full auditorium, another group of students watched SHARKWATER, which was followed by a spirited and inspiring talk with Emily Hunter. But the room (and the enthusiastic crowd) was our HOW SHE MOVE audience, which was treated to a visit by Dwain Murphy (who plays the lead role, Bishop, in the film) as well as co-stars Kevin Duhaney and Daniel Keith Morrison, the only bonafide dancer in the bunch (Kevin and Dwain modestly claim to be actors who only pretended to know how to dance). 

How She Move Q&A

At lunch, Pizza Pizza came in with 100 pizzas to feed the 1000 students who came to the event. It was a madhouse, but nobody was left hungry, and by the time the afternoon screenings started, we saw a lot of happy faces heading back into the cinema (with seconds or thirds of pizza tucked under their arms). 

In the afternoon, students watched BOLLYWOOD/HOLLYWOOD, BON COP BAD COP and THE ROCKET - truly a program with something in it for everyone. As we were leaving the Cineplex Sheppard Grande at the end of the day, I overheard one student say to a friend that the film he saw (BON COP) was "dope". I didn't realize that slang was even in use anymore, but back in my day, it meant "awesome". 

Above: RC's Winnipeg representative Terri Cherniack (left) and executive director Jack Blum (right) flank guest filmmaker and Eco-warrior Emily Hunter.

After something of a “soft opening” last week in Stonewall, we blew into Manitoba with a more robust event at River East Collegiate:  six films, six hundred kids.  Organized almost entirely by a couple of great teachers, Pat Chellack and Anita Kumar, the films were chosen along certain thematic lines – social justice, sustainability, global poverty.

This was because River East is a “UNESCO School”, which is something I didn’t know existed until I went there.  Apparently there are some 9,000 UNESCO schools in 180 countries around the world, from primary to high school, vocational and teachers colleges.  They are all especially dedicated to promoting peace, democracy, human rights, sustainable development, and intercultural learning.

 Anita Kumar and Pat Chellack

Anita Kumar is relatively new at River East, but she’s been a UNESCO teacher from day one, at the middle school that preceded this posting and as an organizer of conferences and other extra-curricular projects.  She was eager to have REEL CANADA return to Winnipeg for a special conference that is happening there next December, involving teachers and students from across Canada, Israel and Germany.  (Really.)

River East partners with Free the Children and Habitat for Humanity, and, to name just one of its many initiatives, its students have raised $14,000 to build a school in Sierra Leone.

It was great to plug Canadian film into the mix. 

Social-issue docs like SHARKWATER, THE CORPORATION, SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL, and PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI made for great jumping-off points for discussions of sustainability, capitalism, genocide and racism.  Eco-warrior and REEL CANADA superstar Emily Hunter came in person to get the kids fired up about what they themselves could do to change the world for the better.  And Peter Raymont joined us via Skype to talk about the challenges of accompanying General Romeo Dallaire on his return to Rwanda ten years after the genocide shocked the world.

Equally exciting was to witness the creativity of these teachers as they got their students looking beneath the surface of films like THE ROCKET and MAMBO ITALIANO to explore the themes of social justice around which each of those films revolve.  For THE ROCKET they were helped by the Skype appearance of Dan Diamond, Canada’s foremost hockey authority, who speaks with such insight into the meaning of the Richard Riots of the 50’s.

All in all it was a perfect blend of film fun and serious purpose and we were pleased to support River East in its association with UNESCO.

 Guest filmmaker and Eco-warrior Emily Hunter.

One of the interesting ways in which REEL CANADA introduces itself to a school board is by offering a board-wide event to which every school in a community can come, on a field trip. Usually these are held at theatres – and most frequently theatres provided by our Premiere Corporate Sponsor, Cineplex Entertainment.

In the Peel District, we’ve been putting on “Cineplex Days”, as we call them, for three years. In 2010, the inaugural Peel Cineplex day drew hundreds of high school students to the SilverCity in Mississauga. Last year, an equally large number of middle school kids attended a similar event. This year, we’re back to the high school group, this time at the SilverCity in Brampton (giving another community in the Peel District a chance to host).

Nadia Litz, a longtime supporter of our program, came out as a guest for the short film EVELYN: THE CUTEST EVIL DEAD GIRL, and Nadia was surprised when students mobbed her for her autograph. Nadia’s officially the latest inductee in the REEL CANADA heartthrobs hall of fame!

Nadia wasn’t the only short film guest that wowed the group from Peel. Comedians Adam and Dave, regulars on the “REEL CANADA circuit”, showed some of the short films from their Unreel Sports Series and took questions from a very excited crowd. REEL CANADA veterans Emily Hunter and Dan Diamond rounded out the day, talking to students about SHARKWATER and THE ROCKET, respectively. Both Emily and Dan have shown real dedication to the REEL CANADA cause this year, coming out to an incredible number of events in person and via Skype.

Because of a generous sponsorship from Pizza Pizza, we were able to provide a free pizza lunch to all participating students – something which they definitely appreciated (some came back not just for seconds, but even thirds). There’s no happier sight than a bunch of smiling, well fed kids, and the afternoon screenings were packed and animated. Students had lots of questions for PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI producer Patricia Aquino, who said afterwards that it was one of the most engaged groups she’s ever spoken with, in dozens of screenings of the film to thousands of students.

On April 18th we did it all again at the Cineplex Sheppard Grande for a group of nearly 1,000 students from the Toronto District School Board. This event kicked off the Ontario portion of our National Tour.

Our fifth annual Cineplex Day for the Toronto District School Board will be taking place on Wednesday, April 18th at the Sheppard Grande Cinemas in North York. After four successful events with the TDSB, teachers have the annual REEL CANADA event marked in our calendars, and as soon as this year's festival was announced, a staggering 1,300 students signed up for it. 

The students will be watching six films over the course of the day. In the morning, HOW SHE MOVE (with stars Kevin Duhaney and Daniel Keith Morrison in attendance), SHARKWATER (with eco-warrior Emily Hunter in attendance) and GUNLESS, which will be preceded by the short film PEDESTRIAN JAR (with director Evan Morgan in attendance). In the afternoon, BON COP BAD COP, THE ROCKET and BOLLYWOOD/HOLLYWOOD will entertain students and teachers alike. 

Over the course of our seven years in existence, over 75 TDSB schools have participated in the REEL CANADA program, and we're incredibly proud that the enthusiasm of teachers and students within the city continues to grow every year.