One from the heart, one for the heart
THE NFB streams Alanis Obomsawin’s chronicle of First Nations students’ cause; Casablanca is restored in time for Valentine’s Day
Canada’s other Alanis is making big news. That’s Alanis Obomsawin, not Morissette.
A member of the Abenaki Nation, Obomsawin is the foremost film chronicler of First Nations culture and history in this land since the mid-1960s, not to mention one of Canada’s most respected filmmakers. A marvel at 81, Obomsawin is getting her due, both here and abroad.
She recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Women’s International Film & Television Showcase in Los Angeles. Next month, she will be presented with the Humanitarian Award for “exceptional contributions to community and public service” at the Canadian Screen Awards.
The latest of her 30 documentaries, Hi-Ho Mistahey!, which stands out as one of her most uplifting, has been nominated for best featurelength documentary at the Canadian Screen Awards. The doc made its world première at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the runner-up for the People’s Choice Documentary Award. It was then showcased at the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal in November.
For those who missed it, the National Film Board of Canada’s online screening room, NFB.ca, is offering three days of free streaming of Hi-Ho Mistahey!, Friday through Sunday, in conjunction with not just Valentine’s Day, but Have a Heart Day, an awareness campaign for First Nations children. The NFB is also making the documentary available to nearly 3 million Canadian students through Campus, the board’s educational portal.
Obomsawin is currently in Paris, where Hi-Ho Mistahey! received rave notices at the Festival international du film d’environnement. The documentary will also be screened Feb. 24 at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois.
Hi-Ho Mistahey! focuses on the emotionally charged, youth-led drive for a longpromised school for the children of the northern Ontario Cree community of Attawapiskat. The genesis of the story goes back 34 years, to when a diesel-fuel leak contaminated the land on which the Attawapiskat school stood.
Leading the drive for a new school in 2008 was 14-year-old Cree student Shannen Koostachin. She engaged fellow students for the cause. She got NDP MP Charlie Angus involved. She gave speeches around the country, mobilizing young and old and imploring them to write to the federal government. But in a tragic twist of fate, Shannen, while looking for a school to attend outside her community, was killed in a car accident in 2010.
Undaunted, Shannen’s fellow students and her friends took up the fight, not just throughout Canada but all the way to the United Nations in Geneva. Their rallying cry, inspired by Shannen, was that “no child should have to beg for an education.” That message eventually got through to Ottawa, with construction on the long-awaited school expected to be completed by September.
“What’s extraordinary is that it was really children who won this battle,” Obomsawin said in a recent interview. “Not just children from the community, but children all across the country echoing the message of Shannen.”
Hi-Ho Mistahey! streams free of charge from Friday to Sunday at nfb.ca. Sad but true: Bogey never blurted “Play it again, Sam.”
Great utterance, but truth be told, the line from Casablanca goes: “Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By.” Furthermore, it is spoken by Ingrid Bergman, not Humphrey Bogart.
Regardless, as time goes by, this classic continues to top many cinephiles’ lists of the greatest movies ever. And, of course, the greatest movie romances.
So what better way to spend Valentine’s Day or the evenings to follow than by catching Casablanca again — or, horrors, for the first time? Cinéma du Parc is screening a newly restored print of the film, Friday through Feb. 20.
For those unfamiliar: In war-torn Casablanca, Bogart, as the elusive American exile and cynical nightclub owner, and Bergman, as the former love of his life, make movie magic together. Sigh.
Casablanca screens at Cinéma du Parc, 3575 Parc Ave., Friday to Wednesday at 4 and 6:45 p.m., and Feb. 20 at 4 p.m. Not exactly Valentine’s mush, but it will touch the heart — invariably with a butcher’s cleaver or a stake. The second annual Sinister Cinema series kicks off Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Forum cinema with the première of the spooky horror flick Odd Thomas.
Odd is an apt description for Odd Thomas, a macabre albeit comically melodramatic adaptation of the Dean Koontz bestseller. Directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy), this is yet another supernatural thriller wherein the principal character sees dead people.
Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin) is an amiable young clairvoyant who toils as a short-order cook in the creepy desert outpost of Pico Mundo.
His life is turned upside down when a ghoul called Fungus Bob and his coterie of bodachs — monsters who appear to have been fashioned from Saran Wrap — show up in town. It seems they wish to trigger a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. Odd will now have to shed his smock and spatula to save the world. Yikes.
A joint venture between Cineplex and Raven Banner Entertainment, the Sinister Cinema series is expected to present 10 … well … sinister film packages until the end of the year at 28 theatres across Canada.
In addition to the main feature, the packages also include homegrown short films. On that note, Raven Banner invites Canadian filmmakers to take a stab at creating their own short horror classics. The blood-curdler deemed the best and most horrifying will screen as part of the series on May 29, before Cabin Fever: Patient Zero, directed by Canadian filmmaker Kaare Andrews.
These are the rules: There are no theme restrictions, but the more sinister, the better. Films must be between four and six minutes long. The deadline is April 14. The short must be shot in HD and finished as an Apple ProRes 23.98 1920x1080. Contestants must upload their videos to the Sinister Cinema Short Film Contest group: vimeo. com/groups/sinistershorts.
The winning filmmaker will be notified by April 30. In addition to having their film showcased theatrically across the country, they will receive 10 passes for their nearest participating Cineplex theatre.
Next up in the series, March 13, is In Fear, which left ’ em shivering at last year’s Sundance fest. This is the terrifying psycho-horror tale of a couple trying to make it through the night in their vehicle, all the while being stalked by a diabolical and unseen tormentor.