REEL CANADA Blog : Tags : Iron Road

Jack Blum, Vinay Virmani, Veronica Tennant, Joanne Vannicola, Michael McGowan

The spillover from Hurricane Sandy had touched down in Toronto but that did not keep 900 Adult ESL learners from attending our annual event at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on October 29th.

It was an exciting day for REEL CANADA as we screened ONE WEEK, BREAKAWAY and IRON ROAD, followed by Q&A’s with guests from each film. 

For ONE WEEK, REEL CANADA veteran facilitator Marvin Karon led a fantastic discussion with the writer/director of the film Michael McGowan. McGowan has been a major supporter of the REEL CANADA program for several years and has always provided our audiences with thoughtful insight into Canadian filmmaking and his process as a storyteller. Michael discussed the difficulties and joys that come with the territory of shooting a film in the Canadian outdoors in several different locations across the country. The adult ESL crowd was very gracious and happy to have Michael speak with them about his film. We at REEL CANADA are excited for Michael’s latest film STILL, which is set to hit theatres before the year's end.

While one group was discussing life, and the journey to find oneself, another group of ESL learners were discussing hockey and the difficulties of trying to live up to the expectations of the generation before you. The film was BREAKAWAY and the writer/star of the film Vinay Virmani joined a very enthusiastic audience to discuss his heartwarming film. The crowd was eager to hear Vinay’s inspiration for the film. Vinay intimately revealed that he too had experienced a similar kind of pressure to follow in his parents' footsteps but had other life goals and desires he needed to pursue first. Vinay continues to place himself in the ranks as REEL CANADA’s most beloved guests and his gracious and humble ability to engage his audience is a pleasure to watch.

Fern & Doug Hum

Our biggest crowd of the day was for the epic period piece IRON ROAD. The audience, which included a large contingent of recent arrivals from China, was very interested to discuss the film with local Chinese-Canadian Doug Hum, an expert on the building of the railroad who was able to provide fascinating historical context for the events in the film. The audience also had the pleasure of a double bill as one of the producers of the film, Anne Tait, stopped by to entertain the crowd with stories and anecdotes from working on the film with Chinese born director David Wu.

It was another successful day at the TIFF Bell Lightbox for REEL CANADA and we are anticipating an even bigger event when we return to the Lightbox on November 20th!

Iron Road Producer Raymond Massey answering questions via Skype

The students of the Markham region were pumped up for a day of Canadian film!

 
A diverse crowd of more than 500 ESL students from Middlefield HS, Markville SS, Miliken Mills HS, and Thornlea SS packed the Markham Theatre to capacity on the morning of May 15th excited and eager to see IRON ROAD, a film about the story of Chinese migrant workers on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Roars of laughter and screams of excitement came from the crowd throughout the film; it was like nothing I had ever seen at a REEL CANADA screening.

Following the film, the students had a fantastic Q & A with Raymond Massey, one of three producers of IRON ROAD. The students had a lot of questions on everything from what locations in China and British Columbia were used, the difficulties of shooting certain scenes, to plot elements like why a love story was used to tell a piece of history.  It was obvious that Raymond was really enjoying the enthusiasm of the students as they asked about the involvement of Chinese Canadian people in the film and about the business of filmmaking.

Following an amazing morning screening, a couple classes had to return to the “real world” while the rest of the students stayed for another fantastic screening:  Michael McGowan’s ONE WEEK, which featured a      Q & A with star Liane Balaban. Liane joined us via Skype from the comfort of her back yard garden in LA.

The students were thoroughly engaged, asking astute questions about decisions Liane’s character makes in the film. It really showed me how involved the students were and how much they got out of the screening. The students of Markham region got really excited when it was mentioned Liane did some voice work for the popular video game Assassins Creed. Apparently there are a lot of gamers in the Markham region!
 

All in all, our first event in Markham at the Markham Theatre was a complete success. The crew at the theatre, everyone from the tech guys and ushers to the theatre manager, were amazing to work with and we look forward to returning next season and bringing more Canadian films to Markham!

On May 15^th, 300+ ESL high school students from schools across the Unionville area will be descending upon the Markham Theatre for a day of films.

The students will be watching IRON ROAD in the morning and talking to producer Raymond Massey via Skype from Vancouver. In the afternoon, the film will be ONE WEEK and the students will get the chance to meet one of the stars, Liane Balaban, who will also be connecting to them via Skype, from LA.

This event was put together with the help of our awesome lead teacher, Brenda Pugh, at Unionville High School. Brenda contacted the REEL CANADA team with a plan to bring ESL students from across the city together for this event. It’s always great to work with a dedicated teacher who brings their own vision and enthusiasm to the project and works with us to create something really cool.

Welcome to Canada.

That’s the name of the REEL CANADA program that began last year with one event and this year is growing like the US Space Program in the Sixties. This season a five-fold increase; next year who the hell knows?  Ten events?  Twenty?

It’s called the Welcome to Canada Program because it is aimed at recent arrivals to this country, whom we reach via their English as a Second Language classes.  For this initiative we’ve begun to grow beyond our traditional high school audience to include special events for adult ESL students.

I can’t begin to convey how emotional these screenings are. The audiences – coming as they do from an astonishing variety of backgrounds and cultures – are so open in expressing their gratitude, their sense of literally being welcomed by these movies which give them an immediate sense of the fabric of Canadian life and the values we share as a nation.

Last week 600 of them came to the Eau Claire Cineplex in downtown Calgary to view two feature films of their own choosing:  HOW SHE MOVE, the Toronto-based dance movie, and IRON ROAD, which dramatizes the experience of Chinese labourers building the railroad in the late 19^th Century. (They were also treated to WILD LIFE, the wonderful Oscar-nominated short animation by Calgarians Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbes).

As it turns out, each of these films, in its own way, deals with the challenges that immigrants face as they try to build a new life in this country, and the audiences responded to that theme very viscerally. But the big thrill came when after the screening they found themselves face-to-face with the respective stars of the two features.

Jack Blum (right) and actor Luke Macfarlane (right)

Luke Macfarlane (known to many from his five-year run on the ABC series BROTHERS AND SISTERS) set hundreds of hearts a-flutter when he took the microphone after the screening of IRON ROAD. Many female audience members began their “questions” with comments like “You are very handsome” and “I would like to know if you are married” (By happy coincidence, Luke, who lives in LA, was able to take advantage of the REEL CANADA appearance to enjoy an Easter celebration with his twin sister Ruth, who moved to Calgary a couple of years ago).

Actor Dwain Murphy (left) and Jack Blum (right)

Over in another screening room, HOW SHE MOVE star Dwain Murphy caused a similar sensation with an equally enthusiastic audience. Dwain considers himself an actor not a dancer, so when someone asked him to show some moves, he dodged the request charmingly, “It’s called ‘How She Move’, not ‘How He Move’.”

Given how critical it is to our country’s future to open our doors to hundreds of thousands of new immigrants each year, it is clear that REEL CANADA has stumbled on a way to speed up their integration into Canadian society that is exciting, emotional, human, and (most important) fun. If last week’s audience response is an indication, I’ve no doubt that the “Welcome to Canada” Program will continue to grow by leaps and bounds.

Our third annual Cineplex day with the Peel District School Board will be taking place on today at the SilverCity Brampton. Over 650 secondary school students from across the Peel DSB will participate, selecting from three feature film screenings in the morning and three in the afternoon. AM films include THE ROCKET (with NHL publisher and hockey mega-expert Dan Diamond in attendance), ONE WEEK, preceded by some comedy shorts by Adam Brodie and Dave Derewlany (with the always hilarious Adam & Dave in attendance) and SHARKWATER (with eco-warrior and filmmaker Emily Hunter in attendance, who's been setting students on fire with her enthusiasm and passion throughout REEL CANADA's seventh season, making stops on our national tour in Montague PEI, Montreal QC, and soon, Winnipeg MB).

In the afternoon, students will watch the zombie comedy FIDO, preceded by the short film EVELYN: THE CUTEST EVIL DEAD GIRL (with star Nadia Litz in attendance), the documentary PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI (with producer Patricia Aquino in attendance), and IRON ROAD. 

This event kicks off the "Ontario leg" of our national tour, which will include one more large Cineplex Day in Toronto on the 18th, and six other Do-It-Yourself festivals between now and mid-May.