Second Take

Enlarge Image

The Call of Life, playing at the Global Justice Film Festival. (SUPPLIED PHOTO)

"We’ll make a big deal out of the 10th anniversary," laughs Janice Hamilton, executive director of the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation. What’s amazing is that a bigger deal hasn’t already been made of the Global Justice Film Festival, with the ninth consecutive instalment taking place this week.

"Sadly, it’s a function of low resources," says Hamilton, who’s also been co-chair of the GJFF steering committee the past few years. But it’s also a function of competition: "There are many more film festivals now than when we started; we’ve come to be seen as one more among many."

Yet this is more than your typical film fest. Yes, many of the films programmed — documentaries such as The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, Reel Injun and Soundtrack for a Revolution — are of exceptional quality, and provide people who are simply lovers of good cinema a chance to catch up, should previous Winnipeg screenings have been missed.

All audiences are more than warmly welcomed, Hamilton says — and that’s because the more pressing concern remains raising awareness. Both the MCIC, involved with the event since its inception, and other organizers have always regarded the featured themes to be inextricable from reaping social and global consciousness.

"Our high point was 500 attendees," Hamilton says. Last year it was 400. These are modest numbers for a film fest, to be sure, a reflection of organizers’ targeting that sector of the population already more politically and socially engaged — even active.

"The films we program are about people making a difference," Hamilton continues. "We don’t just want to propagate ‘doom and gloom.’"

Positively, there are signs the message is breaking through. "Half the people who come now are new to the festival," Hamilton says. "And it facilitates an opportunity for both newly conscious and like-minded people to meet, network and share their thoughts."

And that’s what’s so vital, where issues that pertain to all people everywhere are concerned. "We’re not here alone — we’re part of a much larger system," Hamilton says. "Global justice is about human rights, decent standards of living and creating a better world for everyone.

"These concerns are just as important locally as they are globally."

Take documentary Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, co-directed by famed filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner), which screened at Cinematheque  this time last year. The film, comprised of interviews with Inuit elders across the Arctic, puts forth important new empirical evidence to buttress the already mountainous case for the effects of global warming.

"Regarding public awareness on this issue, things are even more urgent than they were nine years ago," Hamilton says.

And the sheer proliferation of like-themed film fests throughout the year in Winnipeg is encouraging. The GJFF, Reel Green and Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Fests now all do cross-promotion with one another.

"These various themes, subjects and even films are connected," Hamilton says. (One could also cite the Mayworks Festival of Labour & the Arts.)

"I’m optimistic," Hamilton says, and you can even it in her voice.

The ninth annual Global Justice Film Festival takes place Nov. 4 & 5 in Winnipeg. For complete screening and scheduling information visit globaljusticefilmfestival.ca.