Niagara stories wanted for Canada 150 doc
What’s your Niagara story? The Niagara Grape and Wine Festival is searching for strong, proud and free citizens to be featured in a documentary for Canada’s 150.
No connection to vineyards is required, just a willingness to share a personal story in which Niagara plays a significant role.
“Being that the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival is the largest community celebration annually and we had the 150, we really wanted to do something during those celebrations to recognize the 150,” said festival executive director Kimberly Hundertmark.
“The festival itself has that drawing power. It has the tradition. It has the story. It’s been in existence for 66 years, so it is a big piece of who we are as the greater Niagara community.”
The festival wanted to do something unique and organically Niagara for Canada’s birthday. They decided to invite people to tell the story of the region through their own stories.
To do that, the festival applied for a grant from Ontario’s Strong Proud and Free program and received $70,000 to create a documentary.
It then recruited Niagara residents for a promotional video encouraging citizens to submit their stories. Swimming sensation Trinity Arsenault, St. Catharines BBBlooms owner Brad Baker and Grape Growers of Ontario CEO Debbie Zimmerman and others can be seen on the festival’s website and YouTube video asking people to share.
“We’re opening this up to everyone in the community, from Grimsby right through to Fort Erie,” Hundertmark said.
“All stories are going to be considered. You may not think your story is interesting but there’s going to be somebody that’s going to be excited about the story you have to share.”
They may be stories of heritage, adversity, accomplishments or something else.
St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik, who’s in the promotional video, said there’s a lot of focus across the country on moments that define Canada, but it’s the people who live in the country and call Canada home who have wonderful stories, too.
He said the festival is getting the average person to tell their story about how they feel about Canada and why they call Niagara home.
“It’s builds that more communal history of who we are,” Sendzik said. “It’s about the people who live here and it’s the people who live here that make our country and our community strong.”
St. Catharines member of Parliament Jim Bradley, also in the promotional video, said Canadians tend by nature to be not braggarts about their country. They don’t seem to be as steeped in their history as the people south of the border and aren’t flag-wavers to the extent of people in the U.S.
“Trying to get people to tell their story about why they came to Canada or what they like about Canada or the local community is what, I think, everybody is trying to foster for the 150 celebration.”
Submissions can be made at www.niagaraspf150.ca and the deadline is June 18. They’ll be vetted and shortlisted by a committee.
The Strong Proud Free 150 documentary will be presented on a big screen during September’s Niagara Grape and Wine Festival in St. Catharines’ Montebello Park and online.
Hundertmark is excited about the documentary’s potential.
“I just think as a community we’re pretty amazing,” she said. “We have a can-do attitude, as much as some people may say we don’t. I would argue the fact that when we decide we want to come together as a community we can achieve really wonderful things.”