by Peter Johansen
A film premiere this week has special meaning for Graham Shonfield. He’s the guy who made the movie.
Graham’s a second-year student in the Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management (B.PAPM.) program. But his film, Life on the Reserve, is about a world very different from Carleton. It’s about Gull Bay First Nation Reserve, 175 kilometres north of Thunder Bay. Residents are the stars of the film, talking about the problems of the Anishinaabe community, but also their hopes.
Last summer, Graham volunteered there, working in the band office, and also in the school, helping with workshops and sports. He learned to fish, found out about hunting deer and moose, and participated in a pow-wow.
It was a 29-year-old mother of three who inspired the film, however. “She was the most amazing, smart, opinionated woman,” he says, “and I thought she’s the type of person who would change the community.” She overcame her tough background to become the reserve’s economic development officer and build a better life for her kids. “I was inspired by her journey,” Graham says.
Admitting he knew little about reserve life, Graham says he wanted to show friends what it’s like. “I didn’t expect people to be so smart, caring, funny – or the reserve itself to be so beautiful.” He showed a rough cut of the film to the Gull Bay residents this fall. Several said he’d captured the reserve well.
It was in Grade 10 at a Toronto high school for the arts when he was talking back to his parents and teachers – “my typical juvenile delinquent stage,” he jokes – that he developed his social awareness, His dad decided he should see a different side of life, so sent Graham to Kenya to help build schools.
“It was an awakening experience,” he recalls, “my first time thinking about people other than myself.” He spent the next year fundraising so he could go to Ecuador on a similar volunteer project. In Grade 12 he set up a club that raised money to build a well in Sierra Leone.
When it came time to decide on his next move, he says, the B.PAPM. sounded like the right degree. “I was political and opinionated, and felt I could use my opinions for policy action and change.”
It’s not that Graham is always serious. He’s a Lady Gaga fan, plays Ultimate Frisbee, has curled for seven years, is “obsessed” with films, and is even into amateur modeling as a contestant in Carleton’s Next Top Model.
But he says his Gull Bay experience has led to a “crazy dream” about life after Carleton. He wants to start a non-profit organization to take other youth on cultural exchanges to reserves across Canada. “There’s no organization that does this,” he says, noting that students willing to pay to volunteer abroad should be able to find equally rich experiences at home.
Life on the Reserve will be screened at the Mayfair Theatre on Wednesday, March 9, at 6:15 p.m. Graham has already been invited to screen it at Ryerson University and in Vancouver. “If there’s a good response this week,” he adds, “it might even inspire me to do a film tour this summer.”