Not a Festival Review, I just felt like writing

Whenever I start getting depressed, worried, afraid, I think about the Earth.

Right now, the cars are parked. The airplanes are grounded. The cruise ships are docked. The skies are a little clearer, and the ocean looks refreshingly clean. The birds continue to sing, the flowers continue to bloom. It's springtime, and the Earth is taking a hesitant breath for perhaps the first time since the start of the industrial revolution, a couple of hundred short years ago. 

Our Covid situation is filled with irony.  Indigenous humans, so often exploited or ignored, lived on these lands for hundreds of thousands of years, with reverence and respect for the Earth.  The path of "modern" humans, focussed on industrialization, animal agriculture, and profit, has led us to this place, collectively and globally fighting extinction.

That Higher Level - Victoria Film Festival 2019

For now there remains an occasional place in the world (ie Cuba) where all young people are encouraged to become whoever they aspire to be.  However sparse, resources are made available to guide and nurture an individual's innate talents.  The result?  A society overflowing with music and dance, art, philosophy, healing.

That Higher Level immerses us into a world few of us are privileged to experience, a world where human emotion and experience merges with centuries old music that's brought again to life during "the most ambitious tour of probably any orchestra in the country ever."

That Higher Level was produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB)’s BC & Yukon Studio in Vancouver in association with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and will enjoy its world premiere in Victoria with filmmaker John Bolton in attendance.

That Higher Level screens Saturday, February 9th at 6:15 pm at The Vic Theatre.  You can buy your tickets HERE.

Easy - Victoria Film Festival 2019

Life.  Death.  Birth.  Rebirth.

Serendipity.

A merging of cultures.

An unlikely hero.

This film has all that, and more.  

Easy screens Thursday February 7th at 6:30 pm at Odeon #5, and Saturday February 9th at 12:15 pm at SilverCity #3.

You can buy your tickets HERE.

Warrior Women - Victoria Film Festival 2019

What does freedom feel like?  

I'd say it's about being seen for who I am (rather than judged for who I "should" be), accepted and loved as an independent spirit, encouraged to live and grow without fear of any sort of invasion, psychological or physical, in a place where I'm surrounded by people who share my values and my worldview.  

How about you?  What's your idea of freedom?

Listen to the stories these Warrior Women share. Some were stolen from their parents,  survived boarding schools (similar to Canada's residential schools), found strength during the civil rights movement, witnessed or participated in the occupations of Mt Rushmore, Alcatraz, Wounded Knee and most recently Standing Rock.  All their lives they've fought back against a systemic policy of genocide intended to erase any trace of them and their ancestors.  Somehow they are still alive, still organizing, still laughing.  

We're blessed to hear their stories and to imagine, for a moment, how freedom might feel for them.

Warrior Women screens Thursday February 7th at 8:45 pm at The Vic Theatre.  You can buy your tickets HERE.

Seder-Masochism - Victoria Film Festival 2019

Have you ever wondered about what goes on in the hearts/minds/spirits of men who believe that there's only one deity?  That it's absolutely all-powerful, and decidedly of the male variety?  It must be quite the ego rush to live in that world.  Right?!?

In fact, early civilizations incorporated a lot of Goddess representation in their spiritual belief systems.  There are actually tons of artifacts, it's quite fascinating.  But God the Father won that particular spiritual battle, and here we are.

Award winning filmmaker Nina Paley might not have graduated from Community College, as her Father wanted her to, but it seems she read some of the best books on the subject (they're listed in the credits) and she's obviously spent a lot of time thinking about it all.

Plus, she has a very creative imagination and is some kind of technological wizard. You'll want to see this film. And you'll want to buy the soundtrack.  

Seder-Masochism screens Wednesday February 6th at 6:00 pm at Parkside.  Buy your tickets HERE.

L’autre Rio (The Other Rio) - Victoria Film Festival 2019

If you've been fortunate enough to witness, or be part of, the often creative and colourful Olympic protest movement, you'll already be aware of the multi billion dollar, private, NGO International Olympic Committee's (IOC) neo-colonialist policies and influence as they move from city to city around the globe.  

In 2016 the IOC landed in Rio de Janeiro and while L'autre Rio doesn't show the impact on the entire other city, it does offer a rare glimpse into one very interesting community just across the tracks from the Maracanã stadium.  

As they go about their daily tasks for survival, a TV blares, "in this Olympic world we are all equal."

Yes we are.  We are all equal victims of the IOC and the question we could (and should) be asking is, why does the IOC insist on establishing themselves, like a virus, in a new neighbourhood in a new city every two years?  And why do we let them?  Why don't they just build one site, like the original Games in Athens, and leave the rest of the world alone?!  (Hint: the answer has to do with ongoing money and power and land appropriation and corporate and government corruption).  

Do not miss this rare opportunity to witness the otherwise invisible brilliant, hard-working determination of the 100+ families who occupy the IBGE squat in the abandoned government building.   

And stay tuned for the IOC's next project, L'autre Tokyo.  

L'autre Rio screens Monday February 4th at 9:15 pm at the Capitol Six.  You can buy your tickets HERE.

Animal Behaviour - VFF 2019

Adorable, isn't it, watching animals dressed up and behaving like humans?  They show us something about ourselves in a cute, nonthreatening way. 

This brilliantly directed and produced short film could easily inspire a weekly TV or Netflix series.  The characters might evolve beyond the anthropomorphic, and express how they're really feeling, inside their own skins.  

The female Pig, representing animals with mental capacities similar to a 3 year old human, could talk about what it's like to spend her life in a gestation crate, unable to move or turn, repeatedly impregnated until she's finally sent to slaughter.  A male Pig could share how he feels about being castrated without painkillers, also a common industrial farming practice.  The endangered Gorilla could finally find the source of her/his rage - loss of habitat due to increasing human populations demanding more land for agricultural activities like palm oil production.  Etc.

Animal Behaviour offers a safe and fun way to look at some aspects of human behaviour.  But what if human behaviour is inextricably linked to and influenced by the ways we collectively and unconsciously treat our animal friends?  If you were an animal, subjected to human behaviour, what would you want to talk about in a group therapy session?

Animal Behaviour is currently shortlisted as Best Short Animation for the 2019 Academy Awards.

Animal Behaviour screens alongside 3 other short films Monday February 4th at 8:00 pm at Parkside, you can buy your tickets HERE.