More than 30 documentaries covering a variety of social justice topics will be screened at the 27th World Community Film Festival Feb. 2 and 3.
The opening night feature, Meet Beau Dick, Maker of Monsters, is a portrait of the Alert Bay carver whose masks have been celebrated across the global art scene as vibrant expressions of West Coast Indigenous culture, and as a sophisticated crossover into the contemporary art world.
Dick is also an activist. In 2013, he organized a journey from Quatsino to Victoria, where he and others enacted a copper-cutting ceremony to illustrate the cleaving of a relationship between First Nations and the former B.C. government. The following year, he spearheaded a similar journey from UBC to Ottawa.
Filmmakers will be in attendance for a Q&A session.
The festival closes Saturday night with Dolores, profiling Dolores Huerta, a 20th century leader in the fight for racial and labour justice. Along with Cesar Chavez, she co-founded the first American farm workers’ union in 1962. Huerta is still going strong at age 87.
Four venues at the Sid Williams Theatre and Native Sons Hall will run simultaneously on the Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday afternoon offers Family Films from 1:15 to 2:45 p.m.
See film descriptions and trailers at worldcommunity.ca
For tickets, call the Sid at (250-338-2430) or order at sidwilliamstheatre.com.