Canadian Studies Announcements

In This Issue:

News from Berkeley

• Happy Canadian Thanksgiving and Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

• Canadian Studies attends Fleet Week reception in San Francisco

Upcoming Events

• Stop-Motion Storyteller: Film Screening & Talk Back featuring Amanda Strong & Bracken Hanuse Corlett

• Artist Talk: Amanda Strong and Bracken Hanuse Corlett

External Events

• Two Canadian films at the San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Canadian Studies wishes a very happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian friends! As we celebrate this day of gratitude, we want to express our heartfelt appreciation for your unwavering support for our program. Our friends form a vibrant community that bridges the US and Canada; this Thanksgiving, let us reflect on the shared values that unite our nations. Your engagement is crucial to fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation for Canada and its diverse peoples. Thank you for being a part of our community!

Image: Thanksgiving turkey designed by Freepik.

… and Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day!

Canadian Studies also wishes our readers a very happy Indigenous People’s Day. This holiday, which honors the first inhabitants of North America, started here in Berkeley in 1992. As a program that engages substantially with Indigenous issues, we feel it is important to acknowledge the living communities across the US and Canada that have persisted through centuries of colonization and marginalization. We encourage all our friends to take some time today to learn about the Indigenous cultures native to your home region.

Image: Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration in Berkeley. Photo by Quinn Dombrowski on Wikimedia Commons.

Canadian Studies leadership was honored to attend a private reception held Sunday aboard the HMCS Regina as part of San Francisco’s Fleet Week celebrations. The event, hosted jointly by the Canadian Consulate and the Royal Canadian Navy, marked the first time a Canadian ship had taken part in Fleet Week for over five years. The event aimed to build personal connections between attendees from both sides of the border.

During the reception, Commodore David Mazur, commander of Canada’s Pacific Fleet, and Rana Sarkar, Consul General of Canada in San Francisco, gave remarks stressing the importance of US-Canada security cooperation at a time when the liberal international order is increasingly under threat. Guests in attendance included members of the diplomatic corps and consuls for several nations, representatives of the Canadian-American business community, and members of the Canadian and US armed forces. Among the latter was Read Admiral Richard W. Meyer, a Berkeley graduate and current deputy commander of the United States Third Fleet. We issue our sincerest thanks to the Consulate for inviting Canadian Studies to participate.

Left image: Program co-director Hidetaka Hirota poses with Canadian Studies staff and board members, and staff from the Canadian Consulate.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Stop-Motion Storyteller: Film Screening & Talk Back featuring Amanda Strong & Bracken Hanuse Corlett

Wed., Oct. 30 | 7:00 pm | BAMPFA | Buy tickets

Over the past decade, Michif (Métis) artist Amanda Strong has created an exceptional collection of animated films depicting Indigenous realities, stories, and dreams to build a compelling cinematic counterpoint challenging colonial histories of Indigenous peoples. Using stop-motion techniques to animate meticulously crafted three-dimensional puppets and objects, Strong creates magical worlds—uncanny mirrors to our own—in which her stories unfold. This program, presented in collaboration with the Arts Research Center and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, represents an extensive retrospective of her work and includes her collaborations with Wuikinuxv and Klahoose artist Bracken Hanuse Corlett, her partner in life and art. Eight films are included in the screening.

This event is free for UC Berkeley students, staff, and faculty with a Cal 1 Card. Other guests may purchase tickets via the link above.

Artist Talk: Amanda Strong and Bracken Hanuse Corlett

Fri., Nov. 1 | 4:00 pm | BAMPFA | Buy tickets

Award-winning animators and multimedia Indigenous artists Amanda Strong (Michif) and Bracken Hanuse Corlett (Wuikinuxv and Klahoose) share insights on the creation of their films, including their current project—nine years in the making and now on the cusp of its world premiere—and their frequent collaborations. This artists’ talk is copresented by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the Arts Research Center, which is sponsoring Strong as its Artist-in-Residence and Corlett as a Visiting Artist.

This event is free for UC Berkeley students, staff, and faculty with a Cal 1 Card. Other guests may purchase tickets via the link above.

If you require an accommodation to fully participate in one of the above events, please let us know at least 7 days in advance.

EXTERNAL EVENTS

Two Canadian Films at the San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival

Oct. 18 & 19 | San Francisco, CA | Learn more

3rd i’s 22nd annual SF International South Asian Film Festival presents groundbreaking cinema celebrating inspiring stories from South Asia and its diaspora. Two Canadian films will be shown as part of the festival:

The Queen of My Dreams (Oct. 18) is the feature-length directorial debut by Canadian filmmaker Fawzia Mirza. It explores the complicated bond between a Queer Pakistani grad student and her conservative Muslim mother through a Bollywood-inspired journey from Karachi to rural Canada. At its TIFF premiere, it was voted one of Canada’s Top 10 films of 2023.

Dear Jassi (Oct. 19) tells the ill-fated love story of a young woman from a wealthy Indian-Canadian family who defies her family when she falls for a working-class man while visiting relatives in the Punjab. The film weaves a tragic true story into a gripping Shakespearean tale of injustice with a haunting, chilling finale.

Berkeley students, faculty, and staff can receive 50% off ticket costs by using the code “50_off” on all online film purchases.

Canadian Studies Program

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