500 YEARS - 2017 - USA
109 min
Director: Pamela Yates
Year Presented: 2018
From an historic genocide trial to the overthrow of a president- 500 Years tells the sweeping story of mounting resistance played out in Guatemalas recent history through the actions and perspectives of the majority indigenous Mayan population- who now stand poised to reimagine their society.
Sponsors: 98.9 XFM- Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Solidarity Network- Municipality of the County of Antigonish- A Partnership in Caring- StFX Association of University Teachers (AUT)
A Silent Transformation - 2017 - Canada
70 min
Director: Simon Brothers, Luke Mistruzzi, Mark Preston & Anton Smolski
Year Presented: 2018
The cooperative model has the power to transform our lives and our society: to bring the human values we share to our workplace and the earning of our livelihoods, the human values sadly missing from the capitalist system. With the focus on Ontario cooperatives, several innovative businesses are explored.
Sponsors: East Coast Credit Union: Bergengren Branch, Lyghtesome, StFX Enterprise & Innovation Centre, StFX Extension Department
ABACUS - 2016 - USA
91 min
Director: Neil Barofsky- Ti-Hua Chang & Margaret Colin
Year Presented: 2018
Abacus- a small family-run bank in New York City's Chinatown community- was deemed small enough to jail as opposed to too big to fail and so becomes the only US bank to face criminal charges in the wake of the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis. The indictment and subsequent five-year legal battle forces the Sung family to defend itself and its banks legacy.
Sponsors: Anonymous- Antigonish Financial Services
ALIVE AND KICKING - 2016 - South Africa
20 min
Director: Lara-Ann de Wet
Year Presented: 2018
The village grannies- ?Vhakegula Vhakegula?- of Limpopo South Africa lace up their soccer boots and start kicking their way through centuries of taboos. They play serious soccer then they break into laughter and traditional song as they wage a singular fight for a decent life- true health and a snatch at joy in a brutal world.
Sponsors: Friends of the Antigonish Library Society- The Highland Heart Weekly- A Partnership in Caring- Town of Antigonish
BAREFOOT ARTIST - 2014 - USA
95 min
Director: Glenn Holsten & Daniel Traub
Year Presented: 2018
Lily Yeh is an artist who has committed herself to creating community-based art projects in some of the worlds most troubled areas. The film shows Yeh working in various locations such as the US- Kenya and Rwanda- where she teaches survivors of war and calamity to make murals and build sculptures drawn from their own experience. Working with Yeh on these projects- they are able to regain hope- a sense of purpose and a belief that life can be about creation as well as destruction..
Sponsors: Cineplex Theatre- Eckova Film and Media Production- StFX Dept. of Art
BERKLEY IN THE SIXTIES - 1990 - Australia
117 min
Director: Mark Kitchell
Year Presented: 2018
From the Free Speech Movement to the anti-war protests to the last stand over Peoples Park- Berkeley- California became synonymous with a generations quest for social- political and cultural transformation. Six years in the making- Mark Kitchells extraordinary chronicle of those years was named Best Documentary of 1990 by the National Society of Film Critics and was noated for an Oscar in 1991. It remains relevant today.
Sponsors: Anonymous- Unifor Local 2107
BETTER MAN - 2017 - Canada
85 min
Director: Lawrence Jackman & Attiya Khan
Year Presented: 2018
This is Attiya Khan’s first film. She and her previous boyfriend Steve revisit a physically abusive relationship that ended 23 years ago. With the guidance of an abuse counsellor, they are able to discuss this period in a manner that is both honest and illuminating for both of them. Even though their memories of the same incidents frequently differ, their willingness to hear each other in an effort to heal and achieve restorative justice is inspiring.
Sponsors: StFX Sexual Violence Prevention Committee
BURKINABE RISING - 2018 - Burkina Faso/USA/Bulgaria
72 min
Director: Iara Lee
Year Presented: 2018
Burkina Faso is home to a vibrant community of artists and engaged citizens who provide an example of the type of political change that can be achieved when people come together. Through music, film, ecology, visual art and architecture, the people featured in this film display a range of creative resistance in the pursuit of peace and justice that permeates every aspect of daily life.
Sponsors: Lyghtesome, MacLean Brothers Woodworking, A Partnership in Caring, StFX Association of University Teachers (AUT), StFX Dept. of Art
CALL OF THE FOREST - 2016 - Canada
85 min
Director: Jeffrey McKay
Year Presented: 2018
In this beautifully filmed documentary we journey through the sacred sugi and cedar forests of Japan, the ancient Raheen Wood of Ireland, the walnut and redwood trees of America, to the great boreal forest of Canada. Visionary scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger tells us the amazing stories behind the history and legacy of these ancient forests while also explaining the science of trees and the irreplaceable roles they play in protecting and feeding the planet.
Sponsors: Archibald and Fraser Architects, Friends of the Antigonish Library Society, Lyghtesome, MacLean Brothers Woodworking, StFX Dept. of Religious Studies, Waffle Bus Stop
CANADIAN DELEGATION - 2017 - Canada
80 min
Director: Greg Elmer
Year Presented: 2018
"In 1989, as the Soviet bloc crumbled and China fended off a democratic revolt, the head of Canada’s Young Communist League, Chris Frazer, led a delegation to the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in North Korea, one of the most isolated and enigmatic nations in the world and one of the very few states that today remains defined by the terms of the Cold War. Those Canadian delegates reflect on their experiences and give their present day perspectives. Frazer, now a professor at StFX, is active in union and solidarity work, and in organizing the LGBTQ community. He has also developed a career as a drag performer. He will be present for Q&A following the film."
Sponsors: "StFX Association of University Teachers (AUT), StFX Sexual Violence Prevention Committee"
DENIAL - 2016 - USA
92 min
Director: Derek Hallquist
Year Presented: 2018
"David Hallquist, a Vermont utility executive, has made it his mission to limit emissions from the electric grid by building a transparent company whose honest approach can get stakeholders to accept the realities of how we generate and deliver electricity. In the course of filg this documentary he realizes he must apply that same transparency to his personal life and reveals to his son a lifelong secret: the chainsaw-wielding, hardhat-wearing CEO in a male-doated industry is a woman inside."
Sponsors: "Liz & Mike Brennan, Town of Antigonish"
EVEN WHEN I FALL - 2017 - Uk
93 min
Director: Kate McLarnon & Sky Neal
Year Presented: 2018
"This intimate, beautiful film harnesses the visual power of circus to give a unique perspective on the complex world of human trafficking. We follow two young women who confront the families that sold them, seek acceptance within their own country and begin to build a future. With eleven other young trafficking survivors, they form Circus Kathmandu, Nepal’s first and only circus."
Sponsors: "Nova Scotia Community College: Strait Area Campus, Park Bench Players, StFX Sexual Violence Prevention Committee, St. Francis Xavier University"
EVOLUTION OF ORGANIC - 2016 - USA
7 min
Director: Mark Kitchell
Year Presented: 2018
"Evolution of Organic brings us the story of organic agriculture as told by those who built and are building the movement. We hear from some of the 1960s motley crew of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers, and farmers' sons and daughters who rejected modern chemical farg and set out to invent organic alternatives. We meet producing farmers in the mainstream organic movement and hear thoughts and predictions on the future path of organic agriculture."
Sponsors: "Antigonish Farmers' Market Association, Liz & Mike Brennan, Just Us! Coffee Roasters"
FREE LUNCH SOCIETY - 2017 - Austria
95 min
Director: Christian Tod
Year Presented: 2018
"Just a few years ago, an unconditional basic income was considered a pipe dream. Today, this utopia is more imaginable than ever before and intense discussions are taking place in all political and scientific camps. This film provides background information about the basic income idea and searches for explanations, possibilities and experiences regarding its implementation."
Sponsors: "StFX Centre for Employment Innovation, StFX Dept. of Adult Education, StFX Extension Department, Sisters of St. Martha of Antigonish: The Martha Justice istry"
FREIGHTENED - 2016 - USA
91 min
Director: Denis Delestrac
Year Presented: 2018
"The cargo shipping industry is a key player in the world economy. This audacious investigation answers questions such as: who makes the decisions in this multi-billion-dollar business, to what extent does the industry control our policy makers, how does it affect the environment above and below the water line, and what is life like for modern seafarers?"
Sponsors: "101.5 The Hawk, Nova Scotia Community College: Strait Area Campus, StFX Dept. of English"
FROM REDNECK TO RAINBOW - 2018 - Canada
37 min
Director: Cara Jones & Truelee Love
Year Presented: 2018
The passage of Bill 10 to amend Alberta’s Bill of Rights in 2014 and the adoption of Gender Guidelines for Best Practices in 2016 inspired the City of Grande Prairie’s Youth Council to collaborate with local filmmakers to learn documentary filmmaking skills in order to help their voices be heard. This documentary is an educational tool that highlights not only the many youth perspectives across Alberta and Ontario but also the support of professionals the young people themselves admire.
Sponsors: "Anonymous, Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library, The Tall and Small Café"
IN WHOSE BACKYARD - 2017 - Canada
30 min
Director: Pink Dog Productions
Year Presented: 2018
"Members of Mi'kmaw and African Nova Scotian communities share their stories and struggles on environmental racism. Historically, studies on environmental issues have predoantly focused on outcomes and not the decision-making process, which has created a disproportionate exposure to industrial pollution and other environmental hazards for disadvantaged communities. This is an attempt by these communities to address the institutional mechanisms that perpetuate inequitable distribution of these activities."
Sponsors: "East Coast Credit Union: Bergengren Branch, StFX Dept. of Anthropology, StFX Dept. of English, StFX Dept. of Political Science, Sisters of St. Martha of Antigonish: The Martha Justice istry"
LEONARD COHEN BIRD ON A WIRE - 2017 - UK
95 min
Director: Tony Palmer
Year Presented: 2018
"Palmer’s intimate documentary of Leonard Cohen’s tour of Europe and Israel was filmed in 1972. Cohen was unhappy with the initial edit and extensive re-editing was done, but in the meanwhile the BBC decided against showing it and the film dropped out of sight and was considered lost. In 2009 the 296 original 16mm film canisters were found in an attic and Palmer was able to reconstruct his original film. Warning: Palmer includes some graphic footage of the Vietnam war"
Sponsors: "Antigonish 5¢ to $1.00 Store, Archibald and Fraser Architects, Cineplex Theatre"
LOST IN LEBANON - 2017 - UK
82 min
Director: Georgia Scott & Sophia Scott
Year Presented: 2018
"As the Syrian Civil War continues to leave entire generations without education, health care or a state, Lost in Lebanon closely follows four Syrians as they struggle to rebuild their lives in Lebanon. The resilience of this Syrian community, currently making up a fifth of the population in Lebanon, is astoundingly clear as they work hard to collaborate, share resources and attempt to advocate for themselves in a new land."
Sponsors: "Antigonish County Adult Learning Association (ACALA), StFX Extension Department, Syria - Antigonish Families Embrace Society (SAFE)"
MAGIT'S DOLL - 2017 - Canada
11 min
Director: Ann Verrall
Year Presented: 2018
"Between 1930 and 1967 over 1000 Mi’kmaw children were sent to the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School. Taken as a four-year-old, Magit Poulette describes her experience there. Having no toys to play with, she used her cleaning rags to make herself a doll, and she passes on that ability to the students of the We’koqma’q Mi’kmaw School as they film her story."
Sponsors: "Antigonish County Adult Learning Association (ACALA), StFX Faculty of Education"
MESHES OF THE OCEAN - 2017 - Canada
16 min
Director: Hannah Lewis and Jessica C
Year Presented: 2018
"Ron Ingraham, a charming 97-year-old fisherman from Grand Bruit, Newfoundland recounts events from his long life: his immigration into Canada from Newfoundland, the changes he has seen in the fishing industry and some of the environmental throes he has experienced first hand. Ron also shows us the skill of hand knitting nets, a practice being employed less and less with each passing year and a craft he would like to pass on."
Sponsors: "Antigonish County Adult Learning Association (ACALA), Archibald and Fraser Architects, Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library"
NINETEEN PAPER CRANES - 2018 - Japan
5 min
Director: Michael Joseph
Year Presented: 2018
"In this ninth film in the L’Arche #AsIAm collection we meet Sachiko, a woman living with an intellectual disability who makes recycled paper and is a member of L’Arche in Japan. As an act of commemoration, she recycles paper on which the murderer of nineteen Japanese members of the L;Arche community justified his actions. She uses it to make nineteen Origami cranes. According to Japanese tradition, the cranes’ task is to carry souls to paradise."
Sponsors: "Liz & Mike Brennan, Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL) Community Workshop"
NUNS, THE PRIESTS, AND THE BOMBS IMAGE - 2017 - USA
105 min
Director: Helen Young
Year Presented: 2018
Nuclear disarmament activists challenge the security and legality of America's nuclear weapons when they break into two top-secret facilities: the ‘Fort Knox’ of uranium in Tennessee and a Trident nuclear submarine base near Seattle. Are they crials or prophets sending a wake-up call to the world?
Sponsors: "Antigonish 5¢ to $1.00 Store, StFX Dept. of Adult Education"
PEOPLE ARE THE SKY - 2014 - North Korea/South Korea/USA
93 min
Director: Dai Sil Kim-Gibson
Year Presented: 2018
"Kim-Gibson seamlessly weaves her own personal story as a native born North Korean with the fractious history of the North/South division and pinpoints the roots of North Korea’s hatred of the United States, offering some of the best political and social history of those relationships. The film is also a contemplative exploration of the meaning of home — at times startling — for hers is an up close look at the hurts and desires, beauty and contradiction, pride and aspirations of the long demonized nation."
Sponsors: "Cineplex Theatre, StFX Dept. of Art, Sisters of St. Martha of Antigonish: The Martha Justice istry"
RIVER OF LIFE - 2007 - USA
53 min
Director: Werner Walcher
Year Presented: 2018
"The Yukon River Quest is the world's longest annual canoe and kayak race. Athletes come from around the world to test their endurance as they race day and night along 740 km of rugged river from Whitehorse to Dawson City. This film chronicles the experiences of the all-female 2006 Paddlers Abreast team, a group of women who have faced death and understand how precious life is."
Sponsors: "Antigonish 5¢ to $1.00 Store, The Casket, Municipality of the County of Antigonish, St. Francis Xavier University"
RUMBLE - 2017 - Canada
103 min
Director: Catherine Bainbridge & Alfonso Maiorana
Year Presented: 2018
"Opening with Link Wray, the influential Shawnee guitarist, playing the revolutionary 1958 instrumental of the title, Rumble tackles the vital job of correcting the record on American music history to include the missing chapter of widespread Indigenous influence. Among many awards, Rumble won the Sundance Special Jury Prize for Masterful Storytelling, the Hot Docs Audience Award and the Hot Docs Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary."
Sponsors: "East Coast Credit Union: Bergengren Branch, Municipality of the County of Antigonish, StFX Dept. Of Anthropology, StFX Faculty of Education, Town of Antigonish"
SISTERS IN RESISTANCE - 2000 - USA
60 min
Director: Maia Wechsler
Year Presented: 2018
"During World War II four young women risked their lives to fight Nazi oppression and brutality in occupied France, not because they were Jewish or in danger themselves, but because it was the right thing to do. They were all arrested by the Gestapo and deported as political prisoners to Ravensbruck concentration camp. The documentary follows the paths of these women from their resistance to the present."
Sponsors: "Antigonish Legion, Antigonish Women's Resource Centre & Sexual Assault Services Association, St. James United Church Social Justice Committee"
THE COMING WAR ON CHINA - 2016 - UK
113 min
Director: John Pilger
Year Presented: 2018
"A major United States military build-up is under way in Asia and the Pacific with the purpose of confronting China, according to award-winning journalist John Pilger. Pilger reveals what the news doesn't: that the world's greatest military power, the United States, and the world's second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, are on the road to war. Pilger's film is a warning and an inspiring story of resistance."
Sponsors: StFX Dept. of Political Science
TIMBAKTU - 2012 - India
30 min
Director: Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh
Year Presented: 2018
"A small farming community in South India decides to switch from their decades-old practice of chemical agriculture to organic farming. By showcasing the exemplary efforts of farmers in this tiny village in Andhra Pradesh, Timbaktu explores critical issues of food security and sovereignty, the relationship that a farmer shares with the land and the seeds, and highlights the fact that food is the very essence of human life."
Sponsors: "Antigonish Quaker Worship Group, Just Us! Coffee Roasters, St. James United Church Social Justice Committee, Wishing Wells Society"
VISITOR'S DAY - 2016 - Mexico
75 min
Director: Nicole Opper
Year Presented: 2018
"Sixteen-year-old Juan Carlos ran away from an abusive home and lived on the urban streets of Mexico City for years before landing at a rural group home for runaway boys. It is here, among goats, an artisanal cheese factory and 71 new brothers that we witness him transform himself from a victim to a leader, and prepare to journey back to Mexico City to offer his father forgiveness for the abuse he endured as a child."
Sponsors: "Friends of the Antigonish Library Society, Nova Scotia Community College: Strait Area Campus, St. Francis Xavier University"
WAKING THE SLEEPING GIANT - 2017 - USA
93 min
Director: Jon Erickson & Jacob Smith
Year Presented: 2018
"Against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s dramatic electoral victory and amid widespread discontent, five remarkable individuals wrestle with persistent racial injustice, growing economic inequality and the corrupting influence of money in politics in an attempt to build a re-energized progressive movement in the US. This point in American political history has the potential to be a watershed moment in that struggle."
Sponsors: "Antigonish Quaker Worship Group, StFX Dept. of Adult Education, Unifor Local 2107"
WATER PROTECTORS JOURNEY - 2018 - Canada
26 min
Director: Eliza Starchild Knockwood
Year Presented: 2018
"In May, 2016 Mi’kmaq Water Protectors, supported by non-Indigenous allies, set up a treaty truck house along the banks of the Sipekne’katik River (aka Shubenacadie River) near the proposed Alton Gas brine-dumping site. Focusing on an intimate and personal journey along the river, which leads to a sacred island known to the Mi’kmaq as the traditional campsite of Glooscap’s grandmother, the film explores the proposed Alton Gas project and how it would devastate the river and all the life that depends on it."
Sponsors: Responsible Energy Action
YOU'RE SOAKING IN IT - 2017 - Canada
75 min
Director: Scott Harper
Year Presented: 2018
"In the brave new world of advertising, Mad Men have become Math Men. Rapid advances in digital technology have revolutionized the advertising industry and fueled a heated conversation about persuasion and privacy. What was once best guesses and creative leaps is now precise, targeted surveillance and metadata. Rooted in hard science, complicated math and high technology, the often very personal information is used to influence you at the precise moment you are most ready to spend."
Sponsors: Media Ladder Digital Marketing, StFX Dept. of English, Simply Ducky