Salt Spring Film Festival

Film Festival 2015: Coastal Tarsands: Journey to Deleted Islands

The following article was written by Robert McTavish as part of a series of articles about filmmakers coming to the Salt Spring Film Festival on March 6-8, 2015. Filmmaker Dennis Allen will be attending the festival and lead a discussion about the film. The filmmaker series is sponsored by Harbour House. ----------------------------- Coastal Tarsands: Journey to Deleted Islands Filmmaker Richard Boyce could have made a documentary about the dubious geographical claims of the Enbridge Corporation without paddling his own kayak in from BC’s northwest coast towards the port of Kitimat. “All the films dear to my heart came from first-hand accounts,” he says, pointing out that this way he could meet the locals and experience the actual natural environments that face the pending onslaught of oil supertankers. “My passion really awakened,” he continues, “I mean, I knew there were whales out there, but it’s different having one bump into my kayak. Being there made it much more…

Film Festival 2015: The Pristine Coast

The following article was written by Robert McTavish as part of a series of articles about filmmakers coming to the Salt Spring Film Festival on March 6-8, 2015. Filmmaker Dennis Allen will be attending the festival and lead a discussion about the film. The filmmaker series is sponsored by Harbour House. ----------------------------- The Pristine Coast Scott Renyard trained as a scientist before becoming a filmmaker, and it’s evident in the thorough nature of his new documentary. Yet combing through the complex layers of the fish farming industry he acts the detective as well, revealing a dark undercurrent off British Columbia’s so-called “pristine” coast. The shocking results made him worry: “Are the conclusions I’m drawing correct?” Cue the years connecting the dots between countless research papers and government documents, because he soon found “every time I thought it was over, I would find something new.” It all began modestly enough while fishing on the Ved…

Salt Spring Film Festival Guide and Schedule

The 16th Salt Spring Film Festival - March 6 - 8, 2015 (presented by Country Grocer) Welcome to your annual film festival feast! After many months of the selection process, the 16th Salt Spring Film Festival is ready to showcase the best of international and Canadian documentary films. From the Yukon wilderness to the slums of Mumbai. From a whistleblower holed up in Hong Kong to a teenager on a solo round-the-world voyage. From Indonesian street musicians to Canadian politicians fighting for their dignity. Let the Salt Spring Film Festival bring the world - and more - to your doorstep. Program Guide Program Schedule

Film Festival 2015: Crazywater

The following article was written by Robert McTavish as part of a series of articles about filmmakers coming to the Salt Spring Film Festival on March 6-8, 2015. Filmmaker Dennis Allen will be attending the festival and lead a discussion about the film. The filmmaker series is sponsored by Harbour House. ----------------------------- Crazywater How do you get people to open up about the most difficult times in their lives? When filmmaker Dennis Allen first pitched the National Film Board for a documentary inspired by Mohawk writer Brian Maracle's 1993 book Crazywater: Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery, it had already been difficult for him to find people willing to talk about such painfully personal issues. Then, just when he was ready to film the interviews the cold feet began and “all of a sudden people started dropping like flies." His own alcoholic past had drawn him to the project in the first place, and he now realized what he had to do. "If I committed to …

Film Festival 2015: All The Time In The World

The following article was written by Robert McTavish as part of a series of articles about filmmakers coming to the Salt Spring Film Festival on March 6-8, 2015. Filmmaker Suzanne Crocker will be attending the festival and lead a discussion about the film. The filmmaker series is sponsored by Harbour House. ----------------------------- It wasn't supposed to be a film at all. But when Suzanne Crocker told friends and relatives down south what she was planning - a nine month sojourn with her husband and three young children deep into the wilderness beyond her Dawson City home - they were incredulous. In the bush her family had the chance to unplug and reconnect. Her Yukon neighbours said "way to go!" The southern city folk said "Film it!" Thank the documentary gods that she did, because the end result, All The Time In The World has met with standing ovations, festival awards, and countless fans such as David Suzuki grateful for the experiment. "As a filmmaker your go…

Film Review: When I Walk

The following article was written by Marianne Grittani as part of a series of articles about filmmakers coming to the Salt Spring Film Festival on Feb 28-Mar 2. Jason DaSilva’s mother Marianne D’Souza and brother Leigh DaSilva (also director/producer of the film) will be on hand to lead a discussion following the film. Jason Da Silva / When I Walk Director Jason DaSilva has been a prolific filmmaker since 1996, travelling the world making documentary films. He has directed 4 short films Olivia’s Puzzle, A Song For Daniel, Twins of Mankala and First Steps. He’s also made two feature length films, Lest We Forget and When I Walk. Olivia’s Puzzle premiered at the 2003 Sundance Festival and qualified for an Academy Award. Three of his films have had national broadcasts on PBS, HBO and CBC. He also produced Shocking and Awful, a film installation on the anti-Iraq war movement, exhibited at the 2006 Whitney Biennial. Each one of these works advanced Jason’s objective to give voi…

The Importance of a Forgiving Heart: The Bill Williams Story

The following article was written by Marianne Grittani as part of a series of articles about filmmakers coming to the Salt Spring Film Festival on Feb 28-Mar 2. Bill Williams, his wife and the filmmaker Jon Funder will be at the festival to introduce the film and answer questions afterwards. The Importance of a Forgiving Heart: The Bill Williams Story One would be hard pressed to find a more loving, kind or genuine person than Bill Williams. And when you realize all that he’s been through in his life, it makes him all the more impressive as a human being. Bill is the subject of the film The Importance of a Forgiving Heart. Right from the start, Bill had challenges to face. He was born with clubfeet and severe deafness at the Nootka Mission Hospital in Esperanza, BC., a place whose name means ‘hope’. But surely there seemed little hope for this child, born into poverty and already so physically compromised. His father died of TB the same year he was born and it was t…

Salt Spring Film Festival - Filmmaker Profile - Yoni Marmorstein

Yoni Marmorstein is a 25 year old Salt Spring resident, raised here since age 5, whose life path was directed by a happy accident. On a trip to South Africa in 2010 to volunteer coaching basketball and teaching life skills to South African youth through an organization called Hoops 4 Hope, his camera broke. Instead of replacing it with another regular camera, he bought a camcorder. That changed everything. He wanted to document his time there as any travelling youth would, but it ended up going much further than that. Volunteering with Hoops 4 Hope led him into a friendship with Head Coach Lala, who we see a lot of in A Day in A Life - The Hoops for Hope Story. Marmorstein stayed with Lala in his shack in the township of Khayelitsha and got to know him and the basketball players on his team. Because of his relationship with Lala, a trusted and respected member of the community, he was accepted and was granted an intimacy that made the film possible. He was able to provide a …