FilmMatters
Now in its third year, FilmMatters continues to offer students from participating schools the opportunity to attend free screenings of films that explore cultural and religious diversity. Through the generous support of both the Ontario Trillium Foundation and Cineplex Entertainment LP, we are able to offer this programme not just during the Festival, but also throughout the year.
Over the course of the last year, over a thousand students from schools across the GTA attended our screenings. Of particular note, was last year’s visit by Dr. Rick Hodes, the subject of the documentary Making the Crooked Straight. Selected by CNN as one of its heroes in 2007, Dr. Hodes has spent more than twenty years living and working in Ethiopia, raising money to secure life-saving surgery for numerous children. He has personally adopted five children of his own as a single parent and, at any given point, he has over fifteen children living with him at his home in Addis Ababa. Students and teachers alike were inspired by their interaction with him after the film and the principal of one school commented that bringing his students to the screening was the best educational decision he had made all year. The documentary will be screened later this year on HBO and FilmMatters is honoured that they will be using the study guide written by FilmMatter’s education coordinator. We are thrilled to be able to offer schools the opportunity to meet Dr Hodes again this year when we screen Making the Crooked Straight on Thursday, April 22nd.
Other highlights last year included the screening of the film Zrubavel, the first Israeli film to be written and directed by an Ethiopian. Students had the chance to meet the director and learn more about Israel’s Ethiopian community. We also held a moving commemoration on Yom Hashoah, the day set aside to remember those who died in the Holocaust. Holocaust survivor Judy Cohen shared her experiences with students, followed by Ann Wagner, the principal director of Stand Canada, the country’s leading youth-based organization dedicated to inspiring activism addressing genocide, particularly in Darfur. Finally, Hey, Hey It’s Esther Blueburger, a quirky coming age film from Australia provided some comic relief at the end of the Festival.
FilmMatters is committed to providing students with inspiring and engaging films. This year’s line up includes a range of films that are suitable for a range of subjects across the curriculum. For more information about specific film on offer this year, please refer to the Screenings section under the Education/Youth tab at the top of the page.
