Cinema Politica is wrapping up its winter semester on April 8th with Til the Cows Come Home, a documentary on the protests against the closing of the prison farm in Kingston, Ontario, in the summer of 2010. Citizens actually blocked access to keep the farm’s cows from being taken away. Why? Tending chickens and cattle not only helped prison inmates feed themselves and other inmates, it also did a lot to rehabilitate them. However, to quote this trailer, the government saw farming as “not harsh enough.” Read more about the film here, and about Cinema Politica’s Winter 2015 season in the Link, here.
“If it doesn’t improve, you will suffer the consequences,” says Guatemala’s first female attorney general, Claudia Paz y Paz, to her country’s corrupt government. This woman, whose name means “Peace and Peace” is the subject of Burden of Peace, the documentary that helps close out the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in Toronto, running till April 2nd at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The film follows her hard won victories over criminals, including one convicted of genocide. On the lighter side, this festival also includes a film about cows — 18 unauthorized cows kept by Palestinians in The Wanted 18. Read more about it in this Digital Journal article by Sarah Gopaul.
And finally, Trick or Treaty is back in the spotlight. Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary on the notorious Treaty 9 is the final screening at Indie Films Fernie in BC, taking place on April 6th, 7:00 at the Vogue. Read about here in the Free Press.