Film Festival Builds Community

This article first appeared in The Working Centre's Good Work News in September 2007.

By Ken Westhues

In June of 2007, in the midst of celebrating its 25th anniversary, The Working Centre added an important new dimension to its work of community development. The Council Chamber at Kitchener City Hall was the setting for the first-ever Multicultural Film Festival, hosted by The Working Centre with support from the Social Planning Council, Generation X Alternative Video, the City of Kitchener, the Waterloo Region Arts Council, and various local news media.

The screening and discussion of memorable, thought-provoking films from other countries formed part of this event, but the centerpiece was the premiere showing of "Northern Choice," an hour-long documentary about immigrants to Waterloo Region.

In at least four ways, this film qualifies as a means of developing the Kitchener-Waterloo community. First is how it was made. Azam Fouk Aladeh, who brought rich experience and credentials in film-making with him when he moved from Syria to Canada, conceived of the film from the start as more than a personal project. It would involve collaborative learning for all concerned, a practical outcome of The Working Centre's Diploma Program in Local Democracy that he completed in 2006.

With support from Margaret O'Shea Bonner and others at The Working Centre, Azam organized a Multicultural Youth Cinema Club. It was this group of young people under Azam's direction that did the actual production, gaining thereby both technical skills and knowledge of their hometown.

The second way "Northern Choice" nourished community was in the respect shown in every scene for the people being filmed, the immigrants sharing their stories for fellow Canadians. In stark contrast to the sensationalism, exploitation and objectification of interviewees commonly seen on network TV, The Working Centre's film-makers treated their subjects as human beings like themselves, entitled to speak in their own voices and listen with their own ears.

The interviewees reciprocated this respect by trusting Azam and his camera crew. Whether from the Middle East or China, Europe, Africa, or Latin America, they spoke honestly, often with much vulnerability. They welcomed Azam and his camera crew into their own homes and workplaces, and let themselves be filmed amidst the cherished symbols of their respective ways of life.

More than anything else, it was the mutual respect and trust between makers and subjects of the film that defined it as a grass-roots community production. The wide variety of paths toward integration into Canadian society came through in a powerful way.

Being professional and self-critical, Azam lamented the technical inadequacies that a bigger budget might have remedied. The inadequacies that bothered him utterly escaped me, and I think most of those who attended the opening at City Hall. The box-office success of Michael Moore's films and the popularity of youtube are compelling evidence that audiences these days prefer authenticity to glitziness, plain truth to polish. Today's audiences have grown weary of too much stage management. I told Azam I think he should forever be restricted to low budgets, lest his emphasis on democratic film-making be corrupted by money.

A third way The Working Centre's debut production nourished community was by its visual depictions of Kitchener-Waterloo. Woody Allen's films took on special meaning for me years ago when I was living in New York, because most of them are set in that city. I could recognize the street or park where some scene was filmed. In a similar way, "Northern Choice" made me want to shout, "Hey, this is our town." It is wonderfully indigenous to Kitchener-Waterloo. The viewer sees the cityscape as it looks to a new arrival wondering what the future holds in this specific place.

Fourth and finally, this film strengthened community by the way people gathered for its premiere showing. The members of the youth cinema club were there. So were most of those whose stories the film told. Those in attendance did more than watch and applaud. In the discussion period afterward, they commented, questioned, and argued. Margaret called the producers and subjects to the front and gave each one a Working Centre wildflower bouquet.

The first Multicultural Film Festival was a triumph. An October Movie Fest is already scheduled. Plans for more films are in the works. The cinematic dimension of The Working Centre is off to a promising start.