By Nadine Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: October 3, 2012
Towne Cinema may only be a short jaunt from Abbotsford campus, but this semester students will have a chance to see some films right here on campus.
UFV’s Student Union Society (SUS), along with several other UFV student groups, has partnered with Cinema Politica, a non-profit network that describes themselves as a group aimed at bringing “free screenings of alternative, independent, and radical political film and video.”
The group kicked off at UFV this month with a showing of The Age of Stupid at U-House. It was a night of entertainment and intellectual stimulation. There was free popcorn, door prizes and—to end the evening—a rigorous discussion about the film’s content.
Daniel van der Kroon, SUS vice-president academic, is excited about the partnership and the film line-up for the year.
“These are fun films, they’re highly entertaining, while raising some important topics, and they’re entirely free,” he stated in the SUS press release. “While they’ll be open to the general public, I think UFV students are going to get a lot of value out of this film series.”
Cinema Politica started as a group at Concordia University in Montreal. Local chapters have spread across Canada and internationally. The films celebrate independent and underrepresented activist-type documentaries, selected with the intention of initiating discussion and thought.
Kevin Francis, the founder of the local chapter of Cinema Politica, said that the films are political but there’s no pressure put on the audience.
“I know a lot of people get afraid of the name Cinema Politica, because they think we’re going to be saying vote NDP or vote Liberal, which is not the case,” Francis explained. “The reason it is called Cinema Politica is because a documentary is a political work, it’s a movie with a message.”
Conversation after the film screenings is encouraged and facilitated by Francis.
“The whole point of this is to get people to talk, because it’s a long-lost art and today people are just spoon-fed everything, and they don’t discuss, they don’t have a chance to actually have their say,” Francis said. “We’re trying to have people come here and just express their opinion. Come and have your say, have a debate if you want!”
According to Francis, the films shown by this grassroots movement are largely excluded from mainstream media, only occupying about five per cent of the screening space in the country.
There’s a lot that Francis hopes to do with Cinema Politica at UFV.
“I was shocked to hear—some of the students were telling me—that UFV is fairly conservative,” Francis said with a short laugh. “I was really shocked to hear that, especially when you’re in a university setting.”
“I just want to bring a bit of debate, a bit of conversation,” Francis continues. “I want people to open their eyes. What they do with the information that’s shown in these movies is up to them. “
The next film, Addicted to Plastic, will be presented at AfterMath on October 25, followed by A Crude Awakening on November 22. For more information, visit the Cinema Politica website or contact Kevin Francis.
