Another successful season of Rebel Films in Toronto concluded on Friday, November 3. The screening of “Tsar to Lenin” doubled as an opportunity to celebrate and discuss the significance of the Russian Revolution, nearly 100 years after its triumph as the world’s first workers’ state.
This Rebel Films series, which began with “I Am Not Your Negro” on September 22, was the 23rd festival of mainly documentary films over a span of 12 years.
Up to sixty people attended each of the weekly Friday night screenings, each film followed by a guest speaker, or two, with plenty of time for questions and discussion from the audience. One feature of Rebel Films, which Socialist Action is pleased to facilitate (but which few other organizations on the left do) is to provide a platform for speakers coming from different political traditions and perspectives.
So, we were delighted to have Chief R. Stacey LaForme of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation address the issues behind “Angry Inuk”; to have Syed Hussan of the Migrant Workers’ Alliance for Change speak to “Migrant Dreams”; and to host John Riddell, editor of several books on the Communist International, and Steve Ellis, a veteran socialist, at the showing of “Every Cook Can Govern: The Life, Impact & Work of CLR James”.
Rebel Films is also a time and space where activists converge to announce upcoming events and appeal for support of important social justice campaigns.
The next series will begin in March 2018 at OISE U of Toronto.