Student film festival to put human rights in spotlight

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This article was published 30/11/2021 (1732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Student creatives, copywriters and camera operators from all over Manitoba are in high demand as recruitment efforts get underway for a new human rights-themed film festival in the Seven Oaks School Division.

The Winnipeg division and Canadian Museum for Human Rights have partnered to present the Film for Human Rights student film festival. Novice filmmakers will have their creations — dramas, advertisements and films of any other genre that can range between 30 seconds and 10 minutes in length — screened during the inaugural event in May 2022.

“A film gives you a voice. It gives you an outlet for your voice through creativity,” said Jasmine Dhalla, a Grade 12 student at Maples Collegiate. “(Students) don’t really get a voice in our daily lives to raise awareness on the issues that we think are important. This film festival really gives students a voice… and (an opportunity) for others to really listen to what you have to say.”

While noting public health orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic restricted extracurriculars last year, Jasmine said she was thrilled when one of her teachers asked her if she’d be interested in participating in the event.

Like much else, the division’s annual student film festival, which typically has a broad student voice theme, was held remotely in 2020-21.

Organizer Saul Henteleff said he wanted to switch up the focus of the festival in recognition of all the major human rights events that have been in the public eye in recent months.

It is not lost on Henteleff, a film studies teacher, that many of the atrocities that made headlines this year took place on grounds that were supposed to be safe spaces for students; hundreds of gravesites were located on former residential school land across the country through the use of ground-penetrating radar technology in 2021.

“We’ve just got to do the very, very best we can now to make sure teachers have the tools to empower their students, and that kids have a voice,” he said.

Given the organizers want to ensure curricular outcomes are intertwined in the filmmaking process, eligible films are to be created under a teacher’s supervision.

“One of the big practices in the English curriculum is looking at language as power and agency, and so I was thinking, ‘Wow, that’s a really good fit.’ Film is one of the most powerful mediums out there. It definitely has the potential to change and broaden peoples’ horizons,” said Jay Jimenez, an English language arts educator at West Kildonan Collegiate.

The festival’s partnership with the CMHR means all participating K-12 classrooms will receive a free tour at the federal museum.

Lise Pinkos, director of programs at the museum, said her hope is students will find inspiration in the exhibits.

“(The festival) is really great because it gives students not only an opportunity to explore and learn more about a particular human right issue, but it also allows us adults to see what matters to them,” added Pinkos.

Participating teachers in Seven Oaks will be able to attend free workshops about filmmaking in the classroom with equipment purchased through a grant of around $21, 000 from the Teachers’ Idea Fund.

The films are slated to be shown in-person at the Seven Oaks Performing Arts Centre and during the division’s Arts in the Park event in 2022. They will also be available for viewing via Channel 7 Oaks, the division’s community internet TV station, and connected to the CMHR website.

Jasmine has yet to decide what to focus her film on, but the 16-year-old said issues including climate change, racism and homophobia are top of mind.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie