Documentary film The Nature of Healing kicks off the first annual 3 Ears Indigenous Film Festival, which takes place at the Patricia Theatre in Powell River from September 29 to October 30.
“qathet Film Society is launching an Indigenous film festival to coincide with National Day for Truth and Reconciliation,” said the film society’s executive director Gary Shilling.
The festival is free for audience members, but reservations are recommended. The event is in honour of National Day of Truth and Reconciliation/Orange Shirt Day on Saturday, September 30, which became a Canadian federal statutory day of commemoration in 2021 and is now recognized in BC.
Shilling said the idea to call the festival 3 Ears derived from a quote from Jody Wilson-Raybould’s book, Truth and Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change.
Tla’amin Spirit Singers will open the festival Friday evening, September 29. Saturday night features classic and award-winning film Smoke Signals, starring actor Evan Adams, with a question and answer segment via Zoom after the showing.
The 2022 film War Pony is playing Sunday evening and was a Cannes Film Festival winner: Camera d’Or.
The full length documentary Birth of a Family, will play Monday evening, preceded by short documentary Honour to Senator Murray Sinclair, directed by Alanis Obomsawin. Sinclair was chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which ran from 2008 to 2015.
Sinclair believes that: “The path to actual reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people requires understanding and accepting often difficult truths about Canada’s past and present.”
Obomsawin shared the speech the senator gave when accepting the World Federalist Movement Canada World Peace Award.
A majority of the films begin at 7 pm, except for a Sunday matinee at 1:30 pm, showing a 44-minute documentary titled My Name is Wolastoq, with a panel discussion following.
qathet Film Society and the Patricia Theatre have a few mandates including: “To cultivate film as a cultural, educational and economic driver in qathet region, and engage with Tla’amin, Klahoose and Shíshálh Nations in the ongoing process of decolonization and reconciliation.”
To find out more and reserve a seat, go to qathetfilm.ca/3-ears-indigenous-film-festival.
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