Your Stage : You have been approved by Dianne Greenlay

YOU HAVE BEEN APPROVED ... This just proves that you don't have to be big, or mighty, or have celebrity connections in the world of film, to have good/interesting things happen for you: A few weeks ago I received an email from Tribeca Films in which there was an invite to submit applications to host the premiere screening of a new short film directed by JR and starring Robert De Niro. My community is very small, but I thought, What the heck! I applied online and was accepted. I never dreamed that they would bother with such a small and unknown community for one of their chosen audiences, but there we were! We had been awarded a screening! (The other successful host cities were the likes of New York City, St. Paul, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver, Chicago, and Miami) We hosted the screening Monday , Nov. 9th. The film is titled ELLIS (http://www.ellis-themovie.com/) and it is was powerful and thought-provoking. It was a fun yet very emotional evening. The film's marketing person asked for feedback. Here is what I wrote: "We had our Ellis showing on Monday evening and it was a great success! Our community has around 1600 people not including the rural municipalities, and we were having our first fierce blizzard of the winter season that night, yet just over 80 hearty souls braved the elements to come to the screening. (That makes 5% of our total population - I bet New York or Dallas or Miami didn't get 5% of THEIR population out to the ELLIS event! ;-D) We began at 7:30 and I gave a brief verbal presentation on the history and background of Ellis Island as an immigration intake point, including how immigrants fared during the inspections, etc, and then I gave background on the film and JR's work. You could have heard a pin drop in that room during the screening. People were mesmerized. And they stayed for a further hour and a half after the screening, discussing the film and sharing their own family's immigration stories. Our ESL teacher had brought her class of Phillipino students, and there were also several immigrants who had come from Britain a few decades ago, which would have been in the 60's and 70's, not long after Ellis had been closed as an immigration station. It seems immigrating was still a frightening and lonely procedure. One woman shared that her great grandparents immigrated from Europe as a young couple with their parents and disembarked at Ellis- her great grandmother's family was turned away at Ellis, but her great grandfather's got through. Her great grandmother's family then went up to Halifax, (through Pier 21?), where they did get through, and the young couple reunited on land. Here are samples of comments left in the ELLIS Screening Guest Book: "A part of our history we were not aware of. Great evening!" - G. and S. Speirs "My ancestors were the O'Herons (Ellis 1902)" - R. Whittaker "Very bleak period. Well done." - S. Burgar "Emotional!" - K. Brown "Timely!" - I. Cazakoff "My grandfather and his mother came through - only stayed a few days." - L. Buck "Quite an impact and very thought provoking!" J.Vause "Outstanding. My family landed on Ellis, so good to see a bit of what they went through. Can't wait to see a full-length movie if it happens!" - C. Illerbrun "Students enjoyed the story. We will be discussing it further." - J. Fischer, ESL teacher. "It was an honour to view the film here at Shaunavon. Thanks for giving all of us a view of the sad situation faced by immigrants. We hope to learn lessons from by-gone days." - M. Girodat "My grandparents came to Ellis Island in 1902 - my father was born a month after they arrived in the States." J. Ruetz "Excellent curation of photography and storytelling. It really makes you evaluate the humanity in immigration. Thought-provoking." - D.Fritzke "Incredible use of artist expression - I loved the transitions and flow of the short film. The music (incredible musician) added the right emotion to impact the audience. Powerful, melancholy and whimsical." - S. Belau "Film leaves me wanting more history/info. Thank you for the Shaunavon premiere!" - L. Berger Our high school will be showing ELLIS tomorrow during their history classes." Just goes to prove, if you don't ask, you don't get. And sometimes when you DO ask, you DO get. -Dianne Greenlay