April 17 .. Do you know what Canada is Celebrating?

April 17, 2024

April 17th marks the National Canadian Film Day (CanFilmDay), a massive, coast-to-coast-to-coast salute to Canadian cinema! It was launched in 2014, and has brought together hundreds of thousands of Canadians, to celebrate our stories and the incredible achievements of our filmmakers.

We at the Calgary Arab Arts & Culture Society have been celebrating Arabic cinema in our past 11 copies of the Arab Film Nights Festival, since 2013. By 2016, we realized that as Canadian Arab progressive artists and art administrators, we have a responsibility to de-ghettoize the Arab Canadian community. So, we started adding an opening night to our festival, and we call it "Canadian Eye on the Arab World". On this opening night, we offer Canadian films tackling Arab themes, either inside or outside Canada. Hence, we started to have this constructive artistic exchange and dialogue.

We have been lucky to partner with the National Film Board of Canada to support our festival with Canadian films as well as contacts to brilliant Canadian filmmakers who spoke at our festival related functions. As well, the National Film Board was the producer of two films by our Edmonton based filmmaker, Nisreen Baqer. They were "Things Arab Men Say", 2017, and its sequel, "Arab Women Say WHAT?!, in 2023.

It is worth noting that our Director, Nisreen Baker, is championing our first dream attempt to produce a Canadian documentary film, New Roots, and is currently nominated among the finalists for the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants for 2024.

Since Canada started to acknowledge the month of April to be the Arab Heritage Month, the Calgary Arab Arts & Culture Society is inviting you to celebrate its event, the Arab Heritage Night, on April 20 at the Patrecia A. Whelan Performance Hall at the Central Public Library. Join us for a taste of Arab Arts & Culture and know more about and interesting story in Canada.

Happy National Canadian Film Day (#CanFilmDay)!

Written April 2024