Image Before Us series highlights the human spirit and immigration policy at The Cinematheque, May 4
BC film Turbulence explores the fallout of Iran-Iraqi war, while Continuous Journey takes a well-crafted look back at the Komagata Maru incident
In Turbulence, a daughter numbs the trauma of her upbringing during war with drugs.
The CInematheque presents Turbulence and Good Stuff at 6:30 pm and Continuous Journey at 8:45 pm on May 4
THOUGHT-PROVOKING BC films are in the spotlight Wednesday as the Image Before Us digs into the history of movie-making in this process.
At 6:30 pm, curator Harry Killas highlights the theme of the human spirit with Kurdish-Canadian director Soran Mardookhi’s affecting Turbulence, about two immigrants from Iraqi Kurdistan struggle to adapt to life in Canada. The story centres around Sherzad (Kamal Yamolky), a former electrical engineer in Kurdistan, and his estranged daughter Jina (Camillia Mahal), still traumatized by her experiences during the Iran-Iraq War, and numbing herself with drugs. Mardookhi will be in attendance, with an introduction by Colin Browne, Vancouver filmmaker, film historian, poet, and professor emeritus at SFU.
It’s preceded by Matt Nie’s eight-minute Good Stuff, a documentary about local kite-flying legend Ray Bethell, a fixture at Vancouver’s Vanier Park who died in 2018.
Stick around later the same evening, when the theme turns to immigration policy, with York University professor and filmmaker Ali Kazimi’s meticulously crafted documentary Continuous Journey. Full of rich archival footage, it focuses on the tragic Komagata Maru incident, when Canada blocked a steamship carrying 376 migrants from British India from landing in Vancouver. They were stuck half a mile from BC shores without provisions for more than two months.
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