Meet the Filmmakers at the Film Festival!

Local filmmakers and film guests will be in the spotlight as they present their films at the Salt Spring Film Festival from March 3 to 5 at Gulf Islands Secondary School, along with visitors from as far away as Toronto, Whitehorse and North Carolina.

The local housing crisis is addressed in a new film co-directed by Kajin Goh, spokesperson for the Warming Space, which last winter provided an ongoing refuge despite repeated evictions from public parks. IN FROM THE COLD explores the particular challenges of rural homelessness, interviewing service providers and local residents experiencing housing insecurity. Goh will be joined by one of his co-directors, Community Services Operations Manager Rob Wiltzen, along with Executive Director Rob Grant, for the World Premiere of this very topical film.

An outspoken advocate for the inclusion of women in adventure sports, Salt Spring resident Debora De Napoli is profiled in Darcy Hennessey-Turenne’s lively THE DEBORA EFFECT, which follows the indefatigable De Napoli returning to mountain biking after a lifealtering brain injury. Equally indefatigable is DAISSI Board member and Community Response Network Coordinator Jean Burgess, who will introduce Ondi Timoner’s deeply moving LAST FLIGHT HOME to address the importance of keeping end-of-life decisions in the hands of individuals, with support from friends and family.

Four short films with Salt Spring connections are part of a water-themed program entitled SALISH SEA STORIES, including local free-diving photographer Flossy Roxx’s filmmaking debut, FELLOWSHIP OF THE SEA, profiling the Salt Spring Seals and their dedication to year-round ocean swimming. Whitehorsebased multimedia artist Joyce Majiski returns to Salt Spring to present SONG OF THE WHALE, in which she painstakingly reproduces a full-sized humpback whale skeleton from oceansalvaged Styrofoam.

Local self-taught stopmotion animator Ryan Haché is joined by co-director Ritchie Hemphill to present their delightful claymation film TINY, illustrating the mostly cheerful and sometimes harrowing recollections of Ritchie’s mother, Colleen Hemphill, Chief Negotiator for the Gwa’sala- ‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations, as she reminisces about growing up on a float house on northern Vancouver Island. Rounding out SALISH SEA STORIES is a short film on the importance of protecting Salt Spring’s watersheds. Directed by local photographer and filmmaker Alex Harris, FRESHWATER SALT SPRING features renowned local author Briony Penn, John Millson of the Water Preservation Society and Indigenous water defender Sulatiye’ Maiya Modeste

Among a number of films on Indigenous issues at the Festival, Victoria-based filmmaker Leslie Bland and co-director Harold Joe from Duncan will present A CEDAR IS LIFE, on the centrality of cedar to West Coast First Nations, and TZOUHALEM, on the legendary 19th-century Cowichan Chief.

Award-winning filmmaker Teresa Earle will join us from Whitehorse to present VOICES ACROSS THE WATER, which she wrote, produced and edited and which was directed by her partner Fritz Mueller, about the disappearing Indigenous art of traditional canoe construction. Also traveling south is Texada Island textile artist Deborah Dumka, the subject of her daughter Claire Sanford’s short film VIOLET GAVE WILLINGLY, which screens in a package of shorts entitled THE WORDS UNSPOKEN.

This powerful trio of films includes FINDING MY FATHER, directed by Toronto multimedia artist Maziar Ghaderi and produced by Patricia Marcoccia, returning to Salt Spring three years after presenting their controversial feature THE RISE OF JORDAN PETERSON, one of the most popular films at the 2020 Festival. Joining them are Maziar’s parents, Hossein Ghaderi and Pari Kaveh, who are featured in the film. Maziar will also present Nahid Persson’s BE MY VOICE, along with special guest Maryam Malekpour, a Vancouver-based Iranian human rights activist who freed her brother Saeed from an Iranian prison after 11 years of captivity.

An award-winning film on Vancouver’s drug crisis, LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL will be presented by film subject Ronnie Grigg, Founder and Executive Director of Zero Block Society. Also from Vancouver are filmmaking duo Hayley Gray & Elad Tzadok, presenting UNARCHIVED, on the efforts of marginalized communities to fill in the blanks in the historical records of BC. And traveling from farthest away is Jamie Berger from Raleigh, North Carolina, who wrote and produced THE SMELL OF MONEY, on the environmental hazards of the American pork industry.

Returning to Gulf Islands Secondary School for the first time in three years, the Film Festival features over 40 documentaries from around the world, opening with STILL WORKING 9 TO 5 on Friday, March 3, at 7 pm, preceded by a Gala dinner at 5:30 pm. Full Festival passes are available in advance at the ArtSpring Box Office; other tickets and passes are sold only at the door.