People of all ages will come together for the 5th annual Anti-Racism Arts Festival in Nanaimo starting March 12. (submitted/CVIMS)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

coming together

Anti-racism festival finally being hosted in Nanaimo after pandemic delay

Mar 7, 2021 | 7:56 AM

NANAIMO — An anti-racism film festival and 48 hour film creation challenge is finally being hosted in Nanaimo.

The Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society is hosting the event online from March 12 to 20. The pandemic cancelled the fifth annual event, hosted in Nanaimo for the first time, right before the event was to be hosted in 2020.

Society executive director Jennifer Fowler told NanaimoNewsNOW being online this year means they can reach more people.

“We’ve managed to bring in workshops from different cities to make it more national, while also giving it a local feel from Nanaimo.”

Local workshops include Shirin Younessian of the Bee’s Knees Cafe teaching how to cook Persian cuisine as well as two workshops hosted by Snuneymuxw First Nation elders.

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The sacred drumming workshop with Snuneymuxw elder Donna Manson is the only in-person workshop this year, capped at eight participants but it can be watched online.

Fowler said having a variety of workshops is the key to making the festival successful.

“There’s a lot of ways the arts can help bring different people in around this dialogue. Sometimes if you say to someone ‘Hey come to a workshop about anti-racism’ if they’re not comfortable for one reason or another they might not attend.”

The festival ends with a red carpet screening of the films created during the 48-hour film challenge.

Teams from across Vancouver Island and abroad are given a quote at the beginning of the festival and have 48 hours to craft a short film about racism.

“Some of them are light in nature and others are hard-hitting,” Fowler said. “Many of the people who sign up for the festival are people with lived experience.”

Though being hosted by the Nanaimo-based Society this year, it’s marketed for all of Vancouver Island.

The festival is organized in partnership with the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation.

Films from the fourth annual event hosted in Vancouver in 2019 can be found online.

Anyone interested in joining a workshop can sign up online.

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