Just Film Festival - Feb 11-13, 2016
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- Published on Monday, 18 January 2016 08:15
- Written by editor
r18.
Pop the popcorn and dim the lights!
The Just Film Festival returns February 11-13 with a complete program full of Vancouver premieres.
Get Your Passes Today!
Join Amnesty International, CoDevelopment Canada, Langara College, and Village Vancouver February 11-13 at the Vancity Theatre for the festival's 15th anniversary, bringing social justice and activism to the big screen. Visit justfilm.org for program details and more information.
Thursday, February 11 double-feature
7:00 - Lowdown Tracks 9:00 - The Hand that Feeds
The festival kicks off on Thursday, February 11th with two powerful films about struggle and survival, the Vancouver premieres of Lowdown Tracks, and The Hand that Feeds.
Emmy-winning Director of Lowdown Tracks, Shelley Saywell, teams up with musician/activist Lorraine Segato to present the stories of five musicians who are homeless or on society's margins. Lowdown Tracks is about bringing into focus the heartache and the beautiful potential we should see when we walk by someone on the street. In the end it is a celebration of the power of music and survival. At a popular bakery café in New York's upper-east side, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery and abusive managers. The Hand that Feeds tells the story of the workers, risking deportation, and some innovative young organizers who form their own independent union. In one roller-coaster year they endure a lock-out and betrayal. Winning a contract would set an historic precedent, but whatever happens, these workers will never be the same. *****************
Friday, February 12 double-feature
7:00 - We Call Them Intruders 9:00 - The Troublemaker
The festival continues on Friday, February 12th with two thought provoking films about international issues, the Vancouver premieres of We Call Them Intruders, and The Troublemaker.
Two Vancouver-based filmmakers trace their investments to Canadian mines in Eastern and Southern Africa. We Call Them Intruders is a documentary that travels from Canada to Africa to unearth the stories behind some of the continent's largest Canadian-owned mining projects. Taking a hard look at why communities, governments and corporations are so often pitted against each other in an explosive battle over extracting the Earth's riches. We are proud to have the Vancouver filmmakers, Susi Porter-Bopp & Tamara Herman in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. For over a year, the filmmaker Roberto Salinas followed the most unlikely President of the United Nations General Assembly, Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann - a Nicaraguan priest, a revolutionary theologian, and advocate of the developing world, a reformer. The Troublemaker gives us a front row seat to how the UN dealt with some of the most severe crises to have rocked the world in recent years and how in the only global government we have, best intentions are thwarted, but also the dysfunction, the pettiness, and the power dynamics that have rendered progress impossible. *****************
Saturday, February 13 all-day festival & social justice bazaar
12:00 - 6:00 pm
All day Saturday we feature a series of short films and feature films about social justice and activism, and will host a number of community organizations in attendance at the social justice bazaar where you can meet fellow activists, buy fairly traded goods, and sample some great food!
12:00 - short film double-feature Knitting Nannas & Cooking Across Cultures
Knitting Nannas is the story of a group of sweet ladies who find an original way to protest the growing coal seam gas industry in Australia, by unfolding some lawn chairs, popping the kettle on, and knitting. Immigrants to Canada arrive healthier than the average Canadian, but this reverses in 5-10 years after arrival. Cooking Across Cultures looks at four groups - three immigrants and one Aboriginal - and discusses how food and culture affects them. Members of the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. *****************
1:05 - Feature Film Milk Men
Psychologist and filmmaker Jan Haaken re-visits the region where she spent childhood summers and follows the lives of four dairy farming families as they try to survive while most dairies go under. Regardless of the size of their operations these families all struggle to hold onto traditions while adapting to change. Milk Men also explores the place of dairy cows in public imagination and the discomfort with industrializing a business long associated with rural America. The filmmaker Jan Haaken will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening. *****************
3:10 - short film double-feature Facing Fear & Nefertiti's Daughters
A former neo-Nazi skinhead and the gay victim of his hate crime attack meet by chance 25 years following the incident. In Facing Fear they embark on a journey of forgiveness that challenges both to grapple with their beliefs and fears, eventually leading to an improbable collaboration ... and friendship.
Told by prominent Egyptian artists, Nefertiti's Daughters witnesses the critical role revolutionary street art played during the Egyptian uprisings. Focused on the role of women artists in the struggle for social and political change, it spotlights how the iconic graffiti of Queen Nefertiti placed her on the front lines in the ongoing fight for women's rights and freedom in Egypt today.
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4:30 - Feature Film The Wanted 18
Bought by the residents of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, the purchase of 18 cows was a symbol of freedom and resistance, allowing them to provide milk for their children rather than buying it from an Israeli company. But soon the West Bank was rising and the illegal cows were being sought by the Israeli army. With humour and passion, The Wanted 18 captures the spirit of the 1987 uprising through the personal experiences of those who lived it, bringing to life one of the strangest chapters in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The festival is excited to announce that Canadian filmmaker Paul Cowan will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening.
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Saturday, February 13 Closing Finale & Reception! 7:00 - Valentino's Ghost
The festival is proud to present this timely and important film, in the midst of Donald Trump's tirades, and refugees getting tear-gassed right here in Vancouver, about the history of how Islam and Muslims have been portrayed by Western popular media.
The Filmmaker, Michael Singh, will be in attendance for a Q&A, and to discuss the film its making and its suppression in the US following the screening.
Join us for a reception following the film to mingle with your friends and talk to all the directors in attendance.Narrated by Mike Farrell, Valentino’s Ghost exposes the way America’s foreign policy agenda in the Middle East influences Hollywood and mainstream media portrayals of Arabs and Muslims. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, Italy, to a standing ovation, Valentino’s Ghost tracks the transition from the Arab as Romantic Hero to the Arab today as the embodiment of evil.
The 95-minute film features fresh, riveting and often stunning perspectives from the legendary late American writer Gore Vidal; John Mearsheimer, author of “The Israel Lobby”, celebrated British war correspondent Robert Fisk, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anthony Shadid, Harvard and Oxford historian Niall Ferguson, historian Melani McAlister, TV star Tony Shalhoub, media expert Jack Shaheen, and Hollywood writer Alan Sharp.
Biting social commentary by comics Maz Jobrani, Aron Kader and Ahmed Ahmed ensure that the documentary maintains a constant flow of astonishing and eye-opening revelations. Buy tickets, view the full festival schedule, sign up for news and alerts, or to contact us, visit the Just Film Festival site, night and day!
A big thank you to our amazing sponsors!
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