It’s that time of year again. The time where movie theaters start to fill up as Fall approaches.  And of course; the film festivals start up.  Toronto International Film Festival (better known as TIFF) is on now until the 18^th followed by the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF for short) which begins on September 29^th. 

Film is a powerful tool for so many reasons.  There’s times I don’t want to think and only want to laugh, however; the three highlighted here help to get a message across with a not so gentle reminder of what good and bad we humans are capable of.  This is the true power of film. Comedy and Tragedy, like life itself. Previews of what’s to come…

If you liked My Octopus Teacher…

Blueback

A story about an intimate mother–daughter relationship, forged by the women’s keen desire to protect the inhabitants of the pristine blue oceans on the Australian coast where they live.

With images of beautiful blue vistas demanding to be seen on the big screen, Robert Connolly (Balibo, TIFF ’09; Paper Planes, TIFF ’14) returns to the Festival with a story about a young woman’s connection to the ocean and an inherited mission of environmental advocacy.

A teenager named Abby and her mom maintains a bond with a groper fish (In Australia, “groper” is used instead of “grouper” ) affectionately named Blueback, who becomes a reminder of all the wonders the ocean has to offer and a path to healing a rift between Abby and her mother.

Sidenote from Girl who would be King: as a former scuba diver where at 19, my very first dive was in the Bahamas with a team from National Geographic no less,  I personally came into contact with Grouper fish among sea turtles and many other remarkable sea creatures.  I visited Cayman Islands too where turtle stew is considered the national dish. This trailer pulled on my heartstrings.  

Grouper and snapper are still the mainstays in the Bahamas, however, with the former being the “Rolls Royce of fish” according to Ben Simmons, owner and operator of Harbour Island’s Ocean View Club.

Bones of Crows

An epic account of the life of Cree matriarch Aline Spears that spans generations, Marie Clements’ Bones of Crows is a powerful indictment of the abuse of Indigenous peoples as well as a stirring story of resilience and resistance.

752 Is Not A Number

On January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 went down as it was leaving Iranian air space. All 176 people on board were killed, many of them Iranian Canadians. For weeks Iranian authorities vociferously denied responsibility, but foreign governments and agencies were certain the plane was shot down by Iranian military, a fact Iran’s government eventually admitted. There were no answers as to why the plane was fired on or even why it was allowed to take off, since hostilities had broken out in the region in preceding days.

This tragedy is the subject of the documentary. The focus is one man’s dogged fight for the truth. Hamed Esmaeilion, a dentist in Newmarket, Ontario, lost his wife and his young daughter in the incident. Determined not to let the Iranian government exploit their memories, Hamed took a harrowing journey to Iran to claim the remains, then embarked on a quest for justice for all the victims in this atrocity.

Happy Film Going (and some not so happy film going) but we all learn something and become more mindful in the process.

Have a great weekend (a long weekend in most provinces in Canada due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II).  RIP our longest reigning monarch.