Calling for a better world through film

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This article was published 07/11/2017 (2945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Imagine someone coming into your house, turning off the lights, and hiding your food, forcing you to leave.

The plight of whales and dolphins, which seem to be fleeing increasingly noisy oceans and seas only to end up on beaches, is only one of the issues presented at this year’s Global Justice Film Festival at the University of Winnipeg on Oct. 27 and 28.

From highlighting farmers in Ethiopia to soccer-playing grandmothers in South Africa and a service dog training program in a New York prison, the films at the 15th annual Global Justice Film Festival showed many of the issues that people and the animals around them are facing.

For most people, the troubles of the world’s ocean animals are somewhat remote, but Sonic Sea helped to put that into perspective through its stories of how noise from an increasing number of ships is drowning out the calls of whales and dolphins. The lunchtime film Alive and Kicking: The Soccer Grannies of South Africa was a lighthearted look at how the Vhakegula Vhakegula (“Grannies Grannies”) soccer group in Limpopo is breaking down social barriers between people.

Keeping people informed about and engaged in the issues that affect their world is an important goal of the Global Justice Film Festival. Participant Katharine Bergbusch aid, “I always get emotionally involved with the films, and I usually find a personal connection.”

That personal connection is part of what encourages students and members of the community to return to the Global Justice Film Festival year after year. While some of the films dealt with international issues, others dealt with topics that are very close to Canadians, the including the Temporary Foreign Worker Program which has caused controversy in this country.

Several organizations are part of bringing the Global Justice Film Festival to Winnipeg each year, including the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation and the University of Winnipeg’s Global College. The purpose of the film festival is to inform people about important issues and to help start conversations about making the world a better place.

Audience members might not always find ways of applying what they learn at events such as the Global Justice Film Festival, but each documentary gives them another opportunity to act. As Gloria Gilbert Stoga of the Prison Dogs program said, “I believe in second chances.” The festival might be just the right way to start.

Susan Huebert is a community correspondent for West Broadway.