A documentary film festival is coming to Cranberry and its organizers have chosen to use it as an opportunity to pay tribute to one of Powell River’s most well-known social and environmental activists.
The 2014 Rossander World Community Film Festival will run from October 9 to 11 and include 28 documentaries about global culture, social justice and the environment.
The festival is named after Martin Rossander who died in 2012 at the age of 95. He was an ardent activist, known for his compassion, resourcefulness, generosity and self-sufficiency.
Festival key organizer David Molyneaux was one of Rossander’s many long-time friends.
“He was quite a figure around town for a number of years,” said Molyneaux, who first met Rossander in 1991. “He was an eccentric man but very strident in his opinions and always out there pushing for whatever needed to be done to create good change. He was a great guy.”
Last year Molyneaux signed Powell River up as one of the travelling film festival cross-Canada screenings. This year Courtenay-based World Community Development Education Society’s festival will visit 11 cities across the country.
Festival organizers are given the freedom to tailor the festival to each community, naming it and choosing which films will be screened. Molyneaux said the organizing committee voted unanimously to have the festival honour Rossander.
The festival will open with Powell River filmmaker Claudia Medina’s Vision in Action: The Life of Martin Rossander. Medina originally made the film to be shown at Rossander’s celebration of life held almost one year ago.
Molyneaux said that of the films to be shown quite a few award winners, including the 2013 Academy award-winner for Short Documentary called Inocente. The film follows the life of a homeless undocumented immigrant teen in the United States who dreams of becoming an artist.
Films will be screened at two locations over the three days and two nights, at the Cranberry Seniors’ Centre and Cranberry Community Hall. Molyneaux said the committee’s first choice was the Patricia Theatre, but water damage at the theatre forced them to look for other locations.
He added though that having the festival screen at the Cranberry hall was suiting, despite only being able to seat about 80 people, because it used to belong to Rossander who used it to give the Unitarians a place to meet.
Festival passes are on sale at Breakwater Books and Coffee (4726 Marine Avenue), $18 for adults and $14 for youth under 18 and adults over 60.
The festival will also be awarding a BC film student with a $500-scholarship for a film made within the last three years. The money for the award comes from Rossander’s estate.
The Young Adult Community Kitchen volunteers will be providing baked treats for purchase throughout the day on Friday and Saturday at the seniors’ centre and wraps for lunch from noon to 2 pm.
Readers interested in finding out more about the films being shown can visit the festival’s website.
