Right off the top I would like to say that my new goal in life is to create a machine with which I can travel back in time to attend Earl Haig. The students, faculty, and overall school vibe is a delicious mix of kindness, intelligence, and a heavy dose of creativity.
Take for example this art installation, with circular cut-out “peeps” into tiny dioramas relating to the films being viewed that day – too cool (and too on topic, as one of the films was Peep Culture, based on the book The Peep Diaries by Hal Niedzviecki)!
To continue the creative amazingness, Earl Haig has a Student Film Festival called Zoom, which looks to be as professional and entertaining as TIFF, or even, dare I say … REEL CANADA.
The first feature of the day was Gunnless, which ended with raucous applause! Immediately following the film was a Q&A with noted film, book and popular culture critic, Geoff Pevere. During the Q&A, students had a chance to hear his reactions to the film, which were coloured by experiences growing up in a time when the vast majority of television content was the Mighty Western. Geoff talked about Canada's culture and history, and how the way a nation is shaped affects the way we tell stories about our past - we didn't have a 'wild west', and we therefore don't have a strong tradition of Westerns, unlike the United States. However, that doesn't mean we can't poke gentle fun at the genre, as Paul Gross does in Gunless.
Next on the screening schedule, as we mentioned above, was Peep Culture, based on the book The Peep Diaries. The film follows one man’s quest to understand our current society’s desire to be constantly broadcast around the globe via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, and every other social media site out there. The film asks the question: is it vanity, exhibitionism, or something else that gives us the burning desire to attempt fame by posting videos of ourselves worldwide, sometimes in our most embarrassing moments.
The third film screened at Earl Haig was Reel Injun, a poignant look at how the film industry has misrepresented and in turn, solidified an inaccurate image of, Native Americans. CBC Radio film critic and TIFF programmer Jessee Wente spoke with students in a very candid discussion about the face of racism throughout the last 100 years and what it is like to have large gaps in his knowledge of his own Ojibway roots. Jesse challenged the students to think about the films they watch critically, even getting in a dig at Canadian-born Hollywood mega-director James Cameron's recent hit Avatar, for the way it depicts an indigenous culture's relationship to its colonizers.
The day couldn’t have gone better, and I can’t wait until we go back again! The building itself is beautiful, but the spirit inside is what really gave Earl Haig its charm. Until we meet again Earl Haig, until we meet again (in my time machine).
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