Documentary series to go forward

Valley Docs, the project started by three Wolfville area residents, will start screening, for free, award-winning documentaries.

The trio organized a successful fundraising campaign to bring informative, thought-provoking films that don’t usually make it to commercial theatres.

The Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville will be the site of the first screening in Canada of ‘Accidental Anarchist’ on Saturday, Oct. 14.

This project grew out of some good ‘new fashioned’ social networking, said Michael Caplan, a software developer with Henry Schein in Wolfville.

The documentary covers many themes important to Caplan, including the Syrian war and how the autonomous region of Rojava is remaking society around directly democratic and feminist lines.

Lisa Lowthers, a community development specialist, and Andy Horsnell, co-founder of Common Good Solutions, which is a global leader in the social enterprise movement, connected over a related post that Horsnell put up discussing the co-operative movement in the Rojava region.

Early on, Lowthers, Horsnell, and Caplan decided they wished to use the screening as a trial to determine if there was interest in an ongoing documentary series that explores important social issues. The trio wishes to create an environment, Caplan says, to not only view award winning hard-to-come-by documentaries, but to also foster community discussion and action.

The screening will include a virtual address by several individuals involved in the Rojava region.

Confirmed as part of the lineup is Debbie Bookchin, an awardwinning journalist. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, and The New York Times. She has written and spoken extensively on her father’s work, Murray Bookchin (1921 – 2006). A pioneer in the ecology movement, his career informed the politics of the Rojava region.

The group also hopes to involve someone else who has served in the Rojava-based militia in their fight against ISIS for the evening’s presentation.