REEL CANADA Blog

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. 

On Tuesday April 17th, REEL CANADA makes a splash in Winnipeg with a three-venue, six-film event for over 400 students at River East Collegiate. The school is managing the tech and logistics for this event, while REEL CANADA brings in the films, the talent, and the awesome discussions about Canadian culture and identity, of course. We're thrilled to be working with Pat Chelack, the teacher at River East who first contacted us not long ago with big dreams of a festival event before the end of the school year. 

In the morning at River East we'll be screening THE CORPORATION (with a Q&A via Skype with Kat Dodds, producer of the multi-media web project for the blockbuster documentary), THE ROCKET (with a Q&A via Skype with NHL Publisher and hockey-whiz Dan Diamond) and SHARKWATER (with eco-warrior, filmmaker, and REEL CANADA superstar Emily Hunter in attendance, live). 

In the afternoon, students will be watching the documentary SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (with a Skype Q&A with director Peter Raymont) as well as the films PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI and MAMBO ITALIANO.

River East collegiate is a UNESCO Associated School, which means that they're dedicated to supporting international understanding, peace, intercultural dialogue, sustainable development, and quality education. The school contacted REEL CANADA in the hopes of putting together a festival on social justice and environmental issues to complement and support the work they're already doing in those areas. The doc-heavy programme of thought provoking films will spark some engaging dialogue and hopefully inspire some bright young Winnipeggers to change the world! 

Students in a film class at Stonewall Collegiate Institute in Stonewall, MB will be treated to a special screening of the short documentary MEMERE METISSE on today with filmmaker (and documentary subject!) Janelle Wookey in attendance to answer their questions. The film is a heartwarming family tale of Janelle's journey to try to get her grandmother to acknowledge her Metis heritage. Students will get the opportunity to discuss Canadian and Aboriginal identity as well as the craft of filmmaking with the talented young filmmaker.  

This event will be our first in the province of Manitoba, and while we're coming back next week for a 400+ student event in Winnipeg, we're still pretty pumped about getting our feet wet in Manitoba with Stonewall Collegiate - all thanks to the efforts of our teacher contact there, Cathy Redman-Chalmers, who contacted us about bringing a filmmaker into her classroom, and made it all happen. 

REEL CANADA's 'Manitoba maven', Terri Cherniack, will be running this event (it's her first time, too). Janelle is a veteran of the program - she came to Sudbury with us for a screening of MÉMÉRE MÉTISSE in 2010.

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.