The 24th Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival (PIF) opens this week in Toronto. This year’s lineup is rich in stories from the frontlines of environmental protests, reconciliation efforts and the human impact of climate change.
Every year, PIF offers up some thougth provoking films this year. Below I give you my pick of five films to see at this year’s festival.
s-yéwyáw: Awaken
Friday, October 13 at the Paradise Theatre, 7pm
Filmmaker Liz Marshall returns to PIF with this collaboration with Indigenous multimedia changemakers. Animated by a spirit of reconciliation and infused with Indigenous ceremony, Marshall’s latest film follows members of the Nlaka’pamux, shíshálh, and Secwépemc First Nations as they document the traditional cultural teachings and legacies of their Elders, including the impacts of genocide resulting from the Residential School system. Intimate, candid, and crafted with warm sensitivity, s-yéwyáw: Awaken extends a precious invitation to witness the process of intergenerational healing.
The Family Program: I Won’t Stand For It
Saturday, October 15 at the Paradise Theatre, 12pm
Miyawata is a 15-year old Indigenous activist from Winnipeg, Canada, who never hesitates speak up for what she believes in. To protest the injustices that her people have faced throughout the history of Canada, she refuses to stand for the National Anthem. She’s on a mission to help Indigenous voices be heard and included. And she’s the very first organizer of school strikes for the climate in her hometown. The climate movement in Winnipeg had big momentum… until COVID hit. Now that the end of the pandemic is in sight, can she get the movement going again?
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Saturday, October 14 at the Paradise Theatre, 6:30pm
Inspired by Andreas Malm’s controversial book proposing strategic vandalism as a just response to the climate crisis, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an urgent and gripping feat of cinematic agitprop. Director and co-writer Daniel Goldhaber takes Malm’s non-fiction treatise and reworks it into a deft thriller, centered on a crew of young activists who scheme to sabotage a conduit for Texan crude. Shrewdly employing the conventions of the heist genre, the film explores the compelling motivations of each plotter, interwoven with intense procedural sequences as they execute their daring, dangerous, and righteous mission.
Foragers
Friday, October 20 at the Paradise Theatre, 9:30pm
For Palestinians, Za’atar and the wild Aakoub thistle are essential plants to the cuisine. In Israel, conservation laws have prohibited foraging these plants in the wild, resulting in fines and the prosecution of many Palestinians. In a wry, humorous tone, Foragers depicts customs around these plants using a masterful combination of fiction, re-enactment, documentary and archival footage. Palestinian director Jumana Manna shows how these laws perpetuate the inequalities that divide Israelis and Palestinians, and how these unassuming desert plants have become symbolic to the Palestinian struggle, as joyous traditions collide with politics and ecology.
Silvicola
Saturday, October 21 at the Paradise Theatre, 8:30pm
An unusually intimate glimpse into the people, processes, and paradoxes of modern forestry practices, Silvicola is a sensorially immense contemplation on the psychic entanglement of humans, machines, and nature, set amongst the sprawling forests of the Canadian Pacific Northwest.
Planet in Focus runs from October 12-22, 2023 at the Paradise Theatre. For full festival lineup, tickets and schedule, please visit planetinfocus.org.
