ReFrame Film Festival Hires New Creative Director Eryn Lidster

ReFrame Film Festival has announced Monday that Eryn Lidster will be taking on the role of Creative Director, responsible for implementing the creative and artistic vision of the festival.

photo courtesy of reframe film festival.

Lidster has a strong background in programming and project management, with an emphasis on film, media art and theatre. Recently, Lidster was the project manager of the 2022 Erring at King George Festival with Public Energy, and has supported the production of over 40 performance works in Nogojiwanong/Peterborough since 2016.

Lidster holds an Honours BA in Cultural Studies with a specialization in Image, Sound and Performance from Trent University. They have also served as a guest lecturer in Documentary Film, and a media technician at Trent’s Cultural Studies and Media Studies Departments.

“I am eager to bring my love and deep curiosity for film and media art to the organization, and to come together with the community around a shared passion for the vital work of environmental and social justice,” Lidster says.

In 2018 and 2019 they were awarded the Gregory R. Firth Memorial Prize for their film work, which has been screened internationally. Lidster is a founding member of Canadian Images in Conversation screening collective, currently serves as Chair of the Board at Artspace artist-run centre, and is a passionate supporter of local arts organizations, artists and arts workers.

“We are very pleased that Eryn is joining our team,” says ReFrame Board Chair Jim Hendry. “Their commitment to film, the power of art to make change, and their deep connections with Peterborough’s artistic community will ensure that ReFrame’s vision continues to be reflected in the festival’s film offerings and our community work.”

Lidster was hired following an extensive search process for a successor to outgoing Creative Director Amy Siegel, and joins Festival Director Kait Dueck in the co-leadership of ReFrame. Siegel served as Creative Director from 2018, skillfully seeing the festival through pandemic uncertainty, and five of ReFrame’s most diverse, inclusive, and celebrated programs to date.

“I am deeply grateful to the dedicated ReFrame staff, board and volunteers, past and present. I will endeavour to uphold the high standards you have set. I look forward to everything we will accomplish together,” Lidster says.

They will take on the role as of Tuesday, April 18.

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Local Director Ready For The Premiere Of New Docuseries 'We're All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel)’

Director Victoria Lean, who was born in Peterborough and spent much of her childhood in Apsley, is gearing up for the world premiere of ‘We’re All Gonne Die (Even Jay Baruchel)’, a docuseries about the end of the world, on Friday.

Photo by Jess Hayes.

Lean, who’s family has lived in Apsley for over a century, grew up in Ottawa but came back to Apsley nearly every summer and throughout the year - so often she considers it home.

Growing up, her parents ran a field station for the National Water Research Institute on Jack Lake, which she says may have played a role in her interest in environmentalism.

“I grew up around a lot of scientists that were studying really complicated and important things affecting the planet,” she said. “I wanted to be a documentary film-maker because I felt that there was a really critical gap in what the general public knows about these issues and what experts were studying.”

Her new docuseries, We’re All Gonne Die (Even Jay Baruchel), takes a look at potential ‘world-ending’ catastrophes, and what effect they may have on the world.

Hosted by Canadian actor, director, and author Jay Baruchel, this series presents six episodes, with six different scenarios like alien invasion, volcanic cataclysm, a climate apocalypse and nuclear disaster.

While not every episode has a ‘solution’ Lean says there is something to learn from each of them.

“In creating this series we were mulling with the idea that every time you go to therapy you imagine the worst case scenario and that sometimes helps ease any fears you have.”

She says the idea is if the worst case scenario is imagined, maybe humans can move into a space where they’re able to do something rather than be paralyzed by fear.

Lean jokes that whenever her dad talks about the state of the planet, he brings up their family farm and how that may save them.

“There’s a narrative in my family that if things get really tough we can always go back to the farm,” she said. “I love Apsley, and I see myself going back there regardless of an apocalypse, but I am grateful that my family has some land if the worst case scenario ever happened.”

We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) premieres at Hot Docs on Friday, and will be released on Crave on Saturday.

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New Peterborough Screening Collective Canadian Images in Conversation Collective to Host Online Screening

The Canadian Images in Conversation Collective (CCIC), a new screening collective in Peterborough is hosting it’s next online screening of “Mining (and Manipulating) the Home Movie” from Oct. 16 - 23.

Still image taken from Louise Borque’s film Imprint. Courtesy of the Canadian Filmmakers’ Distribution Centre.

Featuring works by the filmmakers Christina Battle, Eva Kolcze, Philip Hoffman, John Kneller, Amanda Dawn Christie, Sara Angelucci, Freda Guttman, Louise Borque and Lindsay McIntyre, Mining (and Manipulating) the Home Movie critiques the value of the home movie as a source of historical evidence and a window into our collective past.

Containing personal and found home movies, as well as other types of source material, the films in this program reflect on the complexities of home movies and the realities they depict through the ways they incorporate and manipulate their source material. Emphasizing themes of memory and decay, the films raise questions about how our collective history should be remembered

A panel discussion with the filmmakers whose works are in the program will accompany the screening, taking place on Saturday October 16 at 7PM. It will be recorded and will be available to watch throughout the week.

Canadian Images in Conversation is a new collective that is inspired by the legacy of the Canadian Images Film Festival, which took place in Peterborough between 1978-1984. With support from the ReFrame Film Festival, Trent University, and the Ontario Arts Council, CIIC aims to showcase Canadian films and filmmakers through regular screenings and artist talks. Although its programming will be diverse, it will emphasize work by underrepresented, marginalized, racialized, Indigenous, gendered and queer artists and filmmakers.

This screening is free to all members of the public and available worldwide. Sign up for a free account with Eventive in order to access the films and the panel discussion. For more information, visit CCIC’s Facebook page or email them at canadianimagesinconversation@gmail.com.

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95th Anniversary of Tragic Balsam Lake Accident Recognized With Film Screening

Today marks the 95th anniversary of a tragic accident on Balsam Lake. Brotherhood, a film depicting the event will be nationally broadcasted on Super Channel Entertainment Network at 7:15 p.m.

Newspaper clippings from 1926. Photo courtesy of Brotherhood1926.com.

In 1926 the Brotherhood of St. Andrew leadership camp located on Balsam Lake encountered a freak summer storm. Eleven boys died when their canoe was overturned by a large wave and they could not make it back to shore.

“It’s a transformative story about boys becoming men over the course of an evening,” said Director Richard Bell.

Crews began filming in 2017 and the first screening was on July 20, 2019 at Balsam Lake.

When the pandemic hit Canada screenings of the film were slowed due to theatres closing. When they re-opened briefly in the summer months the film was screened 127 times.

Image from the film Brotherhood - 2020 winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Achievement in Visual Effects. Photo Courtesy of brotherhood1926.com

Director Richard Bell says the COVID-19 pandemic has caused him to look at this film in a completely different way.

This film takes place ten years after the Spanish Flu pandemic and touches on themes like brotherhood, loss, grief, guilt, and trauma.

Director Richard Bell wears a shirt with the names of the boys lost in 1926. Photo Courtesy of Brotherhood1926.com.

“I didn’t know when I released the film that another pandemic was coming,” he said.

Bell recalls a line in the movie in which a character in crisis says ‘We can’t go back. We can only go through.’

“This last year has been so divisive,” he said. “I’ve seen neighbour turn against neighbor and people divide. What I want to say is the same as this character - we can’t go back we can only go through.”

The broadcast is poignantly timed to begin at 7:15 p.m as the boys would have been gathering on the dock to prepare for their adventure across the lake in 1926.

Super Channel titles are also available to access via Amazon Prime. Brotherhood is available to rent on Apple TV (iTunes), You Tube, Google Play and can be accessed on-demand through Shaw, Bell and Telus.

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A Powerful Short Film Has Been Made About The Peterborough Mosque

Peterborough-based filmmaker Matthew Hayes has made a powerful short film, "The Masjid", about the aftermath of the Peterborough Mosque arson hate crime that occured November 14th, 2015.

The community support—both financial and emotional—was amazing, and the story went viral around the world about how the city came together to show solidarity with the mosque. To show how inclusive we really are.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—who visited the mosque earlier this year—lamented the attack, but praised the community’s and country's reaction to it: $110,000 was crowdfunded for the mosque in less than two days.

This film conveys the story of what happened in subsequent months, and how the mosque in turn gave back to the community.

Watch it below...

November 14, 2015: arson at the only mosque in Peterborough. The hate crime, on the heels of the Paris terrorist attacks, became a national tragedy, putting the Masjid Al-Salaam in the spotlight. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lamented the attack, but praised the community’s and nation’s reaction to it: $110,000 was crowdfunded for the mosque in less than two days. But this film also tells the story of what happened after the media lost interest: most of the money was donated back to the community. This is a story of everyday racism, and the shared values needed to overcome it.

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