This is what happened to me last night...

Details: Published on Friday, 15 May 2015 13:00; Written by editor

Yesterday I showed my landlord the new trailer for our upcoming documentary “Whoa Canada”. He got so paranoid about me uploading “dangerous” videos from his internet connection that he actually confronted me in the middle of the night and asked me to pack up and leave. I’m now sleeping at a friend’s house. As unfortunate as this is, my landlord was right.

The film we’re making is going to be “dangerous”, but in all the right ways.

Did you know that 40% of Canadians say they haven’t had a single conversation about politics in the last year?1 For those of us who are politically engaged sometimes its easy to forget what it was like to first become interested in politics.

For me, film played a huge role in my journey. When I was 18 years old I saw the documentary The Corporation for the first time and it really articulated something that I had been feeling for years but couldn’t quite put into words. Then when I was 22 I saw a documentary by political pranksters The Yes Men and it blew my mind. It had the hyjinx and fun of a skateboarding video but it actually used creativity and courage to achieve political goals.

At a young age, these documentaries shifted my perspective of the world and my role within it. Now I’m 23 years old and I’m working with ShitHarperDid as a videographer and editor. Through my work here I’ve gotten to meet The Yes Men and Mark Achbar (Co-Director of The Corporation). Two days ago they joined our documentary “Whoa Canada” as Executive Producers. It is a profound honour I still can’t quite believe. Under their guidance we have very ambitious plans for the 2015 election.

In recent weeks 450+ people who have chipped in to bring us 70% of the way to our crowdfunding goal.

There are 24 hours left. Can you watch our new trailer and consider contributing?

In the last election only 62% of my peers voted.2 More of us voting isn’t going to create the deep changes we need. However, it would have prevented the Harper Conservatives from forming a majority government.

The film we’re making is for my friends who don’t pay attention to politics. We’re making this movie not as passive observers but as active agitators and we’re not alone. More than 1,400 people have signed our action pledge and are willing to risk arrest confronting the Conservative agenda. Our vision is to create something unprecedented. A movie that shatters myths about this nation and contributes to the a deep cultural shift that is already under way.

This film makes it clear that we are at a fork in the road. Once we learn the degree to which we are living under police state surveillance, there are two options. One option is to live with it, to self censor, to close ourselves off, like my landlord did last night. The other option is to reject fear and organize against it and in spite of it. For us it’s clear that’s the only acceptable option.

We have 24 hours left to bring together the resources necessary to finish this film.
Can you help?

With ferocity and hope,

Nicky

Nicky, SHD.ca
http://www.shd.ca/

SOURCES:

*1 CBC: "4 in 10 Canadians never talk politics"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cbc-asks-many-canadians-distrustful-of-federal-politics-poll-indicates-1.3005779

*2 The Tyee "Young Voters Could Defeat Harper, So Why Don't They?"
http://thetyee.ca/News/2015/04/06/Young-Voters-Could-Defeat-Harper/