April 2024
justNEWS
Greetings from CJFF Chairperson Bassem Hafez
Hello friends of the Calgary Justice Film Festival!
Now approaching its 18th year, CJFF has been blessed over the years with amazing support from the community. Our organization keeps growing and expanding with new ideas, collaborations, and artistic products. We are proud to have a festival successful in garnering increased support while also attracting new partnerships, adding to the justice-centered organizations participating in our Peace Fair, and establishing ourselves as a connector within the artistic community.
And all this despite the rough Covid-times. In 2022, the festival opened at the Central Public Library with the award-winning NFB film, To Kill a Tiger. Last year, we held our opening festival night at the Globe Cinema, which appealed to a larger and wider audience with the screening of the very film, so pertinent to our time, Love in the Time of Fentanyl.
The quality and relevance of the films screened at CJFF events continues to increase, due in large part to our solid programming committee. The inclusion of Q & A discussions with film-makers and experts following select screenings adds value for our justice-loving audiences.
We are also working hard to reinstate the justReel, a seasonal event that helps prepare us for the subsequent annual festival. As well, we expect to participate with Justice Film Night to be held in this year's Okotoks Film Festival. Furthermore, we are currently cooking up plans for a September justReel evening in partnership with Springboard Performance at the ContainR in Kensington.
We hope you enjoy this, our new product, the CJFF quarterly newsletter, which we’re calling justNEWS. It surely will keep you updated and connected with the new ideas and events stemming from the Calgary Justice Film Festival. Stay tuned and invite your friends to sign-on so they, too, can receive justNEWS.
Lastly, during this National Volunteer week of April 14-20, 2024, and on behalf of the board of directors, I extend our very warm appreciation for the many volunteers who make all CJFF events possible. Their many behind-the-scene efforts make everything done for our organization possible. A million times: THANK You! Thank You! Thank You!!
Sincerely,
Bassem Hafez, M.A.
Chairperson, Calgary Justice Film Festival
Our Teams
Board of Directors
CJFF is pleased to announce a full complement of nine people on its board of directors. As a team, they bring numerous years of life experience and career skills spanning geology, the arts, academia, healthcare, law, graphic design, business, film, and finance. To ensure that the work of CJFF and its mission is accomplished, each board member has taken on different responsibilities. To learn about these committed individuals and what they bring to CJFF, visit our website here.
Members of our Board of Directors
Bassem Hafez: Chair
Jenny Conway Fisher: Secretary
John Spronk: Treasurer
Tako Koning: Sponsorship
Rowan Fisher: Programming
Mohit Arora: Communications
Keira Prette: Social Media
Kendra Schmidt: Grants & Special Projects
Jenny Radsma: Communications Coordinator
Here’s what some of your board directors are doing/watching/reading:
Among his many talents, Bassem Hafez recently demonstrated his skill as a playwright. In September 2023, he successfully staged, Interrogation, at Engineered Air Theatre. The story depicts the love between humans as well as the love between people as well as the love for home, what people have now or may have left behind. Bassem’s play, presented by the Arab Canadian Theatre, was the first in Canada to be performed in the Egyptian dialect with simultaneous English subtitling. Bassem is now working on a new play.
Mohit Arora recommends watching Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zone to the CJFF community. This 4-part Netflix documentary highlights five unique communities where people live extraordinarily long and vibrant lives.
A movie about a British soccer team, made up of homeless men, The Beautiful Game, now on Netflix, caught Jenny Radsma’s attention. The fictitious squad, led by their coach, compete in the very real annual tournament, the Home World Cup. Begun in 1999, this world cup hosts both men’s and women’s teams and will be held in September 2024 in Seoul, South Korea.
Keira Prette was stunned by the informative mini-series, Painkiller (Netflix), a drama about the causes and consequences of the opioid epidemic in North America as experienced by victims and those who exposed the truth.
A book club pick, Jenny Radsma is reading, The Sleeping Car Porter, by Calgarian author, Suzette Mayr. The novel, set in the 1920s, tells the story of Baxter, a Black Canadian and closeted gay immigrant from the Caribbean. He works long, grueling hours as a railway porter on cross-country trips so he can save money towards his dream of becoming a dentist. A 2022 Giller prize-winner, the book was recently short-listed for the Dublin Literary Award.
Programming Committee
As can be seen from the list below, this committee is comprised of a large number of volunteers who have a strong interest in film, particularly films highlighting important justice issues. To help determine the suitability of films for screening at the annual festival, members use a list of criteria by which to assess each film they preview, which, of course, means hours of time. Committee members meet monthly to discuss the films, their themes and rankings, and then decide which ones to put forward for the festival.
The significance of what these committee members do cannot be overstated; the film festival would not happen without these dedicated people. If you meet any of them, please offer a Huge Thank You for the work they do!
Members of our Programming Committee
Rawd Almasoud, Committee Coordinator
Aniela Kowalczuk Jim Tkalych Sanjampreet Singh
Henrietta Koning Jace Byford Rudy DeGroot
Herm Stolte Sara Stupar Jay Zapata
Jerry Haasdyk Abby Mytz Allam Eldib
Laurie Guglich Ezgi Turker Rachel Applebee
Martin Engeler Callie Freeman
Melissa Luhtanen David Youn
CJFF Community Report 2023
To learn about our 2023 activities read our Community Report.
CJFF Annual General Meeting
Date: June 11, 2024
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: River Park Church, 3818 14a St SW, Calgary, AB T2T 3Y2
BITS AND PIECES
2024 Fall Film Festival and Peace Fair
Mark the dates in your calendar and stay tuned for more information about location and the films to be screened as well the non-profit organizations represented at the Peace Fair.
2023 Film Festival
For its 2023 festival opener, CJFF opened at the Globe Cinema with a screening of the PBS/Independent Lens film, Love in the Time of Fentanyl. This film, directed, edited, and produced by Colin Askey, depicts “[a] group of misfits, artists, and drug users operat[ing] a renegade safe injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Love in the Time of Fentanyl is an intimate portrait of a community fighting to save lives and keep hope alive in a neighborhood ravaged by the overdose crisis.”
Following the film, Danielle English, a harm reduction advocate, provided the audience with a tutorial for assessing someone with a suspected overdose as well as how to administer Narcan. In the event that you encounter such a situation, you need to keep a Narcan kit on-hand, which anyone can obtain from their local pharmacy free of charge (https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/info/page15586.aspx).
For more information about assisting someone who may have overdosed, visit: Overdose Harm Reduction and Prevention
The festival screened 12 additional films over the weekend and 18 agencies had a presence at the annual Peace Fair.
2022 Film Festival
The 2022 Calgary Justice Film Festival opened with the Alberta premiere of TO KILL A TIGER. This film details the harrowing experience of a 13-year girl who was sexually assaulted in her village in India. Going against the norms and traditions of the villagers, the girl’s father obtains legal help to pursue a conviction of the three men who perpetrated the violent act endured by his child.
Among its awards and accolades, including best Canadian film at TIFF, this National Film Board production, written, directed, and promoted by Nisha Pahuja, rose from among many eligible films nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar at the 2024 Academy Awards ceremony.
If you’d like to watch To Kill a Tiger the film is currently available on Netflix and is also streaming free in Canada here: Watch to Kill a Tiger
Mark Your Calendar
May 4, 2024 at 6:00 pm: Okotoks Film Festival Launch Party
June 5-9, 2024: Okotoks Film Festival
June 11, 2024: CJFF Annual General Meeting
SUPPORT CJFF
Interested in volunteering with CJFF? Please contact board@justicefilmfestival.ca
Interested in supporting CJFF financially? Please contact admin@justicefilmfestival.ca
Good films. Do Good.