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Wild at Heart: The Films of Nettie Wild
JANUARY 15-17
Book Launch + Retrospective!
IN PERSON: NETTIE WILD ► The acclaimed Vancouver filmmaker Nettie Wild, one of Canada’s leading documentarians, is the subject of Wild at Heart: The Films of Nettie Wild (Anvil Press, 2009), the second title in Pacific Cinémathèque’s new Monograph Series celebrating the innovations and achievements of Western Canadian media artists.
From armed rebellions in the Philippines and Mexico to native blockades in northern British Columbia to the troubled streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Wild’s films have plunged straight into the heart of politically volatile events to expose the issues at their core. Although her films provide a platform for activists to tell their stories, they are also thoughtful, insightful, investigative works that avoid simplistic partisanship or one-sided perspectives. Indeed, the hallmark and strength of Wild’s work is its integrity: the generosity — but also the warts-and-all honesty — she accords all viewpoints in a conflict, and her fair-minded refusal to shy away from troubling complexities, ambiguities and paradoxes. Wild’s best known film is perhaps A Place Called Chiapas (1998), which won Canada’s Genie Award for Best Feature Length Documentary and was widely screened across North America. She won a second Genie for Fix: The Story of an Addicted City (2002).
In conjunction with the launch of the Wild at Heart: The Films of Nettie Wild, Wild’s exemplary work will be the subject of a career retrospective at Pacific Cinémathèque. Running January 15-17, the retrospective includes Wild’s four documentary features – A Rustling of Leaves: Inside the Philippine Revolution (1988), Blockade (1993), A Place Called Chiapas (1998), and Fix: The Story of an Addicted City (2002), as well as Wild’s most recent film, the medium-length documentary Bevel Up (2007).
Ms. Wild will be in attendance for all screenings.
