Role Models Shoot Nearing Completion

Thunderstone Pictures has been busy over the last month shooting a documentary for Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s Aboriginal Health Human Resources Initiative on role models for youth. Shooting is scheduled to wrap this evening.

Our team recently returned from Sioux Lookout, ON where we filmed at the brand new Mino-Ya-Win hospital, among other places.  Wow, what a facility!  This place is a real eye-opener to what can be accomplished with a clear vision.  Truly culturally-competent health care that revolves around a purpose-built facility in Northern Ontario can now become a reality for so many. This includes an impressive 100-unit hostel to put up families and out-patients who have travelled from remote communities.

Despite the obstacle of 3 feet of fresh snow our crew managed some great results.  Thanks to our youth host Cassandra Spence who did a great job conducting the interviews and learning the ropes of production.

Thunderstone Pictures Crew on location in Sioux Lookout  (from L to R) Saku Pinta, Dave Clement, Michelle Derosier and Cassandra Spence

Cassandra Spence is the youth host of this film on role models in health care.

The Healing Lens

Documentary (2009), 46min., HD

SYNOPSIS

Sometimes art imitates life, and when it does, it can be very therapeutic. Such is the case when the lives of four Anishinabek (Ojibway) youth are forever changed as they land the lead roles in a film drama designed to combat suicide, depression and racism (Seeking Bimaadiziiwin). Delving into their roles, the youth discover striking parallels between the fictional characters and their own lives. Through participating in the film making experience they develop tools that help remedy their own struggles with abuse, alcohol, poverty and racism.

The Healing Lens is a documentary of inspiration that brings humanism and personal reference to the unfolding story of this generation of Native youth. The film exemplifies the far-reaching effects of Canada’s racist policies and a history of oppression on today’s young people. In real life, each of these four remarkable young people are overcoming the past and are engaged in unique ways of healing themselves – ways we can all learn from. The Healing Lens is an uplifting tale of survival.

Produced by:
Michelle Derosier and Dave Clement

Directed by:
Michelle Derosier

AWARDS / Festivals

WINNER, Best Public Service Film 35th Annual American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco
WINNER, 2010 People’s Choice Award, Bay Street Film Festival, Thunder Bay, Ontario
Nominated, Best Film, 2010 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards
Nominated, Best Director, 2010 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards
Nominated, Best Cinematography, 2010 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards
Nominated, Best Editor, 2010 Northern Ontario Music and Film Awards
Official Selection, 2010 DOXA International Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver
Official Selection, 2010 Reel World Film Festival, Toronto
Official Selection, 2010 American Indian Film Festival, San Francisco
Official Selection, 2009 Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival, Winnipeg
Official Selection, 2009 Bay Street Film Festival, Thunder Bay
Official Selection, 2009 Biindigaate Film Festival, Thunder Bay

Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

To My Son In Spain: Finnish Canadians in the Spanish Civil War

Documentary (2009), 42 min., DVCam

In 1936-37, 1700 Canadians volunteered to fight with the Spanish people against a fascist coup d’etat led by elements of the Spanish Army. Backed by Musselini and Hitler, the fascists were bent on overthrowing Spain’s democratically elected socialist government and replacing it with military and church rule. It could be argued this conflict marked the true beginning of what would become World War II.

The Canadian volunteers were mostly workers, some unemployed, some socialists, all anti-fascists. Many saw the Spanish people’s fight as an extension of their own struggles against the forces of capitalism that had left millions in 1930′s Canada bankrupt, starved, and easily exploitable by their bosses. A large portion of them were Finnish immigrants from places like Thunder Bay and Sudbury, Ontario.

“Non-intervention” was in effect and it was illegal for them to go to Spain. They went anyway, posing as tourists to the World’s Fair in France and dressed accordingly, made the perilous trek over the Pyranies Mountains into Spain. For most it was straight on into battle in places like Brunete and the Jarama valley. Hundreds of them never came back, laid to rest in blood-soaked Spanish earth.

This documentary features the story of Jules Paivio, one of the last living Canadian volunteers of the infamous Mackenzie-Papineau Battallion of the “International Brigades”. When Jules left from his home near Port Arthur (Thunder Bay), Ontario, his father, a famous Finnish poet, wrote a lasting lament: “To My Son In Spain”.

Produced by
Dave Clement
Saku Pinta

Written and Researched by
Saku Pinta

Directed and Edited by
Dave Clement

Narrated by
Michelle Derosier

Associate Producers
Kelly Saxberg

Animated Sequences
Sonya Lacroix
Dave Clement

Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.