I am excited to be hosting, alongside the Saskatchewan Filmpool, our seventh Poetry and Film Night. (Eighth if you count a special workshop and presentation we did with Scott Collegiate students a few years ago where the students wrote their own poems and exhibited them in the Filmpool alongside photos they took. There was supposed to be a public reception for them, but a blizzard that winter cancelled those plans).
What I love about Poetry and Film is it is a chance to watch independent, Regina-made film from some of the city’s top filmmakers and listen to poetry from some of the province’s most exciting poets. The work is always entertaining, challenging and thought provoking. It exposes film fans to poetry and the literary crowd to independent film. It is always rewarding when I see a film buff leave with a poetry book in hand (the first one they might have bought on their own accord) or a wordsmith depart with a DVD.
This Poetry and Film Night (Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.), I hope you join us at the Filmpool to watch Steve Suderman’s Overland, a film that launched his success as a documentary filmmaker. Also on tap, are two up-and-coming Saskatchewan poets—Cassidy McFadzean and Courtney Bates—from the University of Regina’s Master of Creative Writing program. It is sure to be a great night.
–Kelly-Anne Riess
About the artists:
Steve Suderman grew up on a farm in western Canada. He studied Mathematics and Computer Science and taught high school before pursuing filmmaking in 2002. In 2008 he completed his first feature-length documentary Over Land, which premiered at Les Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal (RIDM), and went on to screen both nationally and nternationally. Dr. Christina Stojanova from the University of Regina calls Over Land “A private philosophical contemplation on what it takes to remain human when the very foundations of your existence are shattered, and a powerful public statement against the dehumanization of twenty-first century capitalism” (Splice Magazine). In 2011 Steve premiered his second feature-length documentary, To Make A Farm, at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where it was named one of the top ten most popular Canadian films of the festival. Exploring the lives of young people who have decided to become farmers, VIFF calls To Make A Farm “exceptionally hopeful.” The film made its US premiere at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and continues to screen across Canada and the United States. It will air on TVO and Knowledge Network this year.
Cassidy McFadzean is a Regina poet and writer currently finishing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Regina. Her poems have been published in CV2, The Fiddlehead, The Fieldstone Review, and The Society. Her first chapbook, Farwell, is forthcoming from JackPine Press this fall.
Courtney Bates is a MA candidate at the University of Regina working under the direction of Dr. Kathleen Wall, the author of Blue Duets. Courtney’s creative thesis consists of fairy tale poems and stories, focusing on moments of transformation. She has been published in FourW, Vine Leaves, SPACE, and the Fieldstone Review. She blogs about fairy tales at poetcourtney.blogspot.ca and she reviews comic books in her spare time with her fiancé at thecomicbookcouple.blogspot.ca.
About the film:
Over Land is an intimate and personal portrait of a family facing a crisis in agriculture. Between 1996 and 2006, despite warnings of an impending food shortage, prices for farm goods dropped to their lowest point in Canadian history, driving many farmers off the land. With a family history of farming spanning generations, the Sudermans now face a challenge that threatens to pull the family apart.