Few forms of artistic media have the power to reach across cultures, languages, and even time itself to influence millions of people in the language of our daily lives. Film has such power.
Amnesty International Canada and the Interact Club at Howe Sound Secondary School will present the first Amnesty International Film Festival in Squamish from Thursday to Saturday (April 12 to 14) at the Eagle Eye Theatre. Through this three-day festival, students will strive to bring audiences documentary and dramatic films inform and provoke thought across a wide range of human rights issues. Each year dozens of talented filmmakers work against long odds, short finances, and threatening politics to bring to the screen powerful stories of human struggle, sacrifice, and triumph. Some documentary filmmakers have risked their very lives so that we may be moved by far-off stories that, once told, seem very close to home.
Howe Sound Secondary Grade 11 student and Interact Club director Geoff Campbell said the group - a youth branch of Squamish Rotary - formed to initiate humanitarian projects in the community and internationally.
"We do small things, and I know some things we do make a difference," said Campbell. "Just getting people more aware of the situation, and maybe signing up with Amnesty International would be great."
Amnesty International is a worldwide organization of more than two million people who campaign through research and action for internationally recognized human rights.
The film festival begins on Thursday, at 7 p.m. with a reception at the Eagle Eye Theatre. Don Wright, Pacific Regional Director of Amnesty International will be in attendance. The line-up includes a group of Squamish First Nation's who will perform "Women's Warriors," a song dedicated to the First Nation's women who have gone missing and Finding Dawn by acclaimed Métis filmmaker Christine Welsh.
Also screening: Friday - Children at War, Karim's View, The Devil's Miner.
Saturday - Between Midnight, The Rooster's Crow, Visioning Tibet and an Amnesty International video presentation of John Lennon's "Imagine."
Tickets are $5 each evening and are available at the door from 6:30 p.m. each night. For more information please contact Colin Chafer at Howe Sound Secondary School at 604-892-5261.
