Festival broadens meaning of community

Gulf Islands Driftwood
Tuesday, February 01, 2000

By Tanya Lester, Gail Sjuberg

Salt Spring globe-trotted vicariously and swapped wisdom closer-to-home at the fledgling Our Island, Our World: A Celebration of Community film festival at Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) last weekend.

Through the 25 films offered, islanders gathered inspiration from people around the world who strive to live in harmony with the earth or those who question prevalent values.

In the school’s multi-purpose area, non-profit groups set up tables and displays expressing their purpose and what matters to them. Others made presentations upstairs — often using videos — in what was dubbed “the community room,” and musicians played while festival patrons grabbed a snack prepared by GISS students.

Organizers were pleased with the first-ever multi-faceted festival.

“Everyone that came by my table said, ‘oh my, what a wonderful event. I hope you’re going to do it again’!” said Maggie Schubart.

One benefit was the interchange that took place between members of community groups who might not normally interact with each other.

“I think that was one of the benefits of having the volunteer space, and it was a congenial space.”

According to Schubart, the only thing in short supply at Our Island, Our World was written feedback the organizing committee could use for future festivals. Schubart said people could call her at 537-9804 or Marg Simons at 653-4283 to offer suggestions or an evaluation.

With so many venues drawing interest at the same time, it was hard to get a sense of how many people attended. Crowds surged by and dispersed at the end of films, and the numbers relaxing to the sounds of local musicians ebbed and flowed throughout both days.

The celebration began Friday night in the cafeteria where 105 islanders feasted on exotic Middle Eastern cuisine. The sold-out event raised funds for a Voice of Women project helping refugee Afghanistan widows and children.

After dinner, a sense of community was brought into focus by a biographical film on Jane Goodall.

For decades Goodall’s community was inhabited seldom with people, but with chimpanzees who led her to make scientific observations that reflect on the nature of being human. The chimpanzees also inspired her to work to preserve their African habitat and to encourage natural conservation throughout the world.

In the film, Goodall said being human is about being the best one can be. It also showed that the world has become her community.

These ideas of community were reinforced in film after film during the rest of the festival.

It is a community that can turn against some of it members as was discussed in Yantra Walker’s film called Mrs. Murakami, a Family Album. In the film, Kimiko Murakami talked about how her Japanese Canadian family had their Salt Spring property confiscated during World War II before being sent to an internment camp.

“If I won a million dollars I would buy that property back,” Murakami tells her granddaughter in the film.

Rose Murakami, Mrs. Murakami’s daughter, stood up after the film was over and talked about how discrimination persisted on Salt Spring even when the family returned to the island after the war. While 99.9 percent of islanders were and are good, supportive friends, she said, the other .01 percent had a “cross-burning mentality.”

The same kind of mentality led to the murder of Chico Mendes as shown in a series of videos about this Brazilian man who was described as a rain forest doctor based on his knowledge of the medicinal qualities of plants that grow along the Amazon. His fight against deforestation and his organization of hundreds of rural workers caused his death.

In Hoods in the Woods, the audience again saw how violence can be the price individuals in a community face if they defend the earth.

This film includes interviews with people who tried to save the Stoltmann forest in B.C. using non-violent direct action which included occupying the trees slotted for clear-cutting.

They talked of the violence, including physical beating, that was inflicted on some of them by the loggers.

After the showing, Salt Spring residents discussed their feelings with some off-islanders involved in the direct action at Stoltmann forest.

Differing viewpoints were expressed from among those who are opposed to Texada clear-cutting. One stance was that there is no ill feeling towards the loggers themselves. It was stated that past experience has proved those opposed to clear-cutting can reach reconciliation with the loggers.

Another response was that a film like “Hoods” can cause inaction against clear-cutting based on fear.

Others believed that the film inspires by showing how people are willing to follow through with their beliefs regardless of opposition that can sometimes become extremely hostile.

Schubart said Tuesday the group had not yet determined if it covered costs. Festival admission was free, although donations were gratefully accepted.

E-mail the writer: Tanya Lester, Gail Sjuberg