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Most longtime Vancouverites can recall where they were (and how they celebrated) when the Canadian men鈥檚 hockey team won the gold medal at the 麻豆传媒映画2010 Winter Olympics.
Maybe your memory involves kegs of beer, or honking horns, or high-fiving strangers on the street, hands clad in red mittens. Maybe you remember waving a flag; maybe you don鈥檛 remember much at all except that you had fun.
But not everyone had reason to celebrate on February 28, 2010, or were privileged enough to find anything fun about those 16 days of Olympic activity and patriotism. In 尝耻办鈥橪耻办鈥橧, filmmaker Wayne Wapeemukwa takes audiences back to February 28, 2010, to experience the day from within the lives of a handful of marginalized citizens living on Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside.
The jarring, sometimes surreal, and unapologetic narrative feature film 鈥� which won the award for Best Canadian First Feature at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival last month, and screens this week as part of the 2017 麻豆传媒映画International Film Festival 鈥� takes its name from the Coast Salish word for the area now widely known as the Downtown Eastside.
鈥淲hat we call the Downtown Eastside is for us only a couple of centuries old, but for the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, and Musqueam peoples, it鈥檚 been an international venue for thousands of years, and that鈥檚 what I鈥檓 attempting to isolate with the title,鈥� says Wapeemukwa in a recent phone interview.
Wapeemukwa remembers the 麻豆传媒映画2010 Winter Olympics as a time of听 鈥渃ompartmentalization within the city,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he games were supposed to solicit equality, inclusion, and the coming together of many different nations,鈥� but the patriotism and enthusiasm that Wapeemukwa saw on TV was in direct contrast to the militarism, emptiness, and struggles he witnessed on the streets. 鈥淭hat got me thinking about the way in which patriotism, specifically here in this country, may be solicited to provide a false sense of inclusion that鈥檚 founded on an even deeper reality of marginalization,鈥� says Wapeemukwa.
尝耻办鈥橪耻办鈥橧 (pronounced 鈥渓uck-lucky鈥�) builds on that deeper reality. Wapeemukwa collaborated with his cast 鈥� Angel Gates, Eric Buurman, Joe Dion Buffalo, Ken Harrower, and Ms. Rollergirl 鈥� to craft a feature that magnifies the marginalization and highlights the contradictions.
Here鈥檚 the official synopsis from TIFF: 鈥淎ngel Gates (playing herself) is a mother and part-time sex worker. Eric Buurman (playing himself) is a father juggling his son and landscaping job with his heroin addiction. Angela "Rollergirl" Dawson (also playing herself) is a larger-than-life street celebrity roller-skating around town and interacting with virtually all of Vancouver. Mark (Joe Dion Buffalo) has recurring visions of being taken away to another world. As with many in Mark's orbit, drugs continue to isolate him while doing the dirty job of pushing him further into a system that keeps him exactly there. And there's Ken (Ken Harrower), a disabled man just trying to make it on his own and get to the hockey finals.鈥�
It took this village of collaborators to bring 尝耻办鈥橪耻办鈥橧 to the screen. 鈥淥ne of the questions I get asked frequently is, 鈥榃hat gives me the right to tell this story?鈥� And the way I answer is, 鈥榃ell, nothing does, and that鈥檚 why I placed these people in the front seat,鈥欌�� says Wapeemukwa. The five non-professional actors offered scenarios and insights from their own lives, improvised much of the dialogue, and received story credits on the film.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not me telling the story; it鈥檚 the actual non-professional actors and non-actors from the Downtown Eastside who are telling their own story through me,鈥� says Wapeemukwa, adding that 鈥渢his mode of writing and collaboration lent itself to the hybrid form of the movie, which is a real story about real people, and we鈥檙e talking about real problems.鈥�
Despite winning big at TIFF, Wapeemukwa 鈥� whose short film credits include Srorrim, Balmoral Hotel, 尝耻办鈥橪耻办鈥橧: Mother, and Weeper: Father 鈥� describes his time at Canada鈥檚 biggest film fest as 鈥渁 gruesome and excruciating experience鈥� from day one, because 鈥淚 knew what was around the corner: There were going to be charges of exploitation. I knew that I was going to be criticized for appropriation, but I also knew in my heart that I did everything that I needed to do to provide this movie with the honesty, integrity, trust, and love upon which it is founded.鈥� He calls his award for Best Canadian First Feature a 鈥渟urprise, and I thought at first it was a joke.鈥�
Wapeemukwa has far different feelings about this week鈥檚 VIFF screenings, although they鈥檙e not altogether pleasant. 鈥淯nlike in Toronto, I know for a fact that at least 99% of my audience has actually at one point or the other interacted with the Downtown Eastside in good ways or bad ways, so all of these feelings of doubt and anxiety are amplified for me at this moment, but I think that鈥檚 a good thing because this movie does belong here in Vancouver.,鈥� says Wapeemukwa.
And he also accepts that not everyone is going to like 尝耻办鈥橪耻办鈥橧. 鈥淭his movie is going to split audiences, and it鈥檚 intended to do so as a matter of fact, because I do believe today more than ever that our diversity is what will lend us our strength in the future,鈥� says Wapeemukwa. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 trying to do is inspire real conversation about real problems that we should be having.鈥�
尝耻办鈥橪耻办鈥橧 screens October 3 and 8 at the Rio Theatre as part of the 2017 麻豆传媒映画International Film Festival. Tickets and schedule information at
