A collection of films focusing on different global issues will be screened in Red Deer this week.
Nine documentaries will be shown at the 12th annual Red Deer Justice Film Festival at the Red Deer College Welikoklad Event Centre in the downtown through Saturday.
“We’ve got a really great lineup for diverse films this year, and we’ve got some really great speakers to come educate more on the films we’ll watch,” said Lane Tomalty, president of the festival committee.
“There’s a (Benjamin Franklin) quote that we use: ‘Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.’ That’s really what we’re trying to do with the community.”
According to the festival’s website, the goal of the non-profit event is to promote awareness of global issues and activate the community through films exploring a range of diverse topics, groups and perspectives.
While Tomalty and her team has only been in charge of the festival for four years, they have seen growth each year.
“Every year we’re seeing new faces, which is really exciting. There are some total diehards that come to every film every year and watch all of it. In recent years, we’ve seen an increase of a younger age demographic,” she said.
This festival runs in association with the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival in Calgary.
There are no admission fees for the non-profit event, but donations are accepted.
The festival began Thursday, with screenings of Weed the People, which explores the struggled of families who treat their cancer-stricken children with marijuana, and The Sacred Place: Where Life Begins, which is about an ecosystem in Alaska’s Arctic Refuge that has been protected by the Gwich’in Nation for more than 25,000 years.
Friday will features screenings of The Secret Marathon and Burkinabe Bounty, at 7 p.m. and 9:40 p.m., respectively. There will be a speaker following the first film screening.
Five films will be shown Saturday: Standing on the Line at 11 a.m., Six Primrose at 1 p.m., Shattered Dreams: Sex Trafficking in America at 2:30 p.m., The Need to Grow at 7 p.m. and Sex, Drugs & Bicycles at 9:15 p.m. There will be speakers following the screenings of Shattered Dreams and The Need to Grow.
A brief synopsis of each film can be found at www.reddeerjusticefilmfest.ca/2020.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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