Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent in 'Away From Her'. Courtesy Mongrel Media.
Reel Canada, in partnership with TIFF and the Toronto District School Board, will host 700 adult ESL LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) students at a Reel Canada Film Festival October 25 at TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Created in 2005 by a group of passionate filmmakers and educators, Reel Canada produces traveling film festivals for, and in collaboration with, Canadian high school students. For the first time since its founding, Reel Canada will be serving an adult audience with a day-long festival of Canadian screenings and appearances by industry professionals. The event kicks off ESL Week, which is celebrated by 27 communities across Ontario.
Dedicated to fostering a greater awareness of Canadian films and a greater pride in Canadian culture, Reel Canada delivers the stories of homegrown films and filmmakers.
“We’re delighted to be broadening our reach to include the adult ESL community. Canadian movies are a terrific way of welcoming newcomers to our country and giving them a different kind of insight into their new home,” says Sharon Corder, Artistic Director of Reel Canada.
For the adult ESL student, learning a foreign language and learning a foreign culture go hand in hand. The Reel Canada Film Festival will offer three feature films in the morning chosen by the students: Sarah Polley’s Oscar-nominated Away From Her, Michael McGowan’s award-winning One Week, and Charles Martin Smith’s epic, The Snow Walker. The afternoon’s focus is on short films including classic NFB animations and a screening of the Genie-Award winning Arrowhead, with director Peter Lynch in attendance.
Only five years old, Reel Canada has facilitated nearly 300 screenings of Canadian feature, documentary, short and animated films to over 40,000 students in Ontario and British Columbia.
