Out in the Cold Film Panel Steals Show

On Saturday October 25, I attended a screening of the film Out in the Cold at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum here in Regina. The movie was about 30 minutes long and it was about three Aboriginal men left on the outskirts of a city to freeze in winter by police. The film featured awesome actors Erroll Kinistino, Gordon Tootoosis and Regina's Mathew Strongeagle. Both Strongeagle and Kinistino made it out for the screening as well as the film's producer Sarah Abbott.


While the film itself was strong and entertaining, it was the discussion after the film that stole the show. Shauneen Pete, vice-president of student affairs at FNUniv, Nick Jones assistant professor in justice studies at the U of R and Regina police chief Troy Hagen gave their thoughts on the film, racism and policing and then fielded questions from the audience.

The first woman who approached the microphone identified herself as a Metis woman and actually started crying when she talked about the racism she felt from both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities--the idea that she was "too brown" for the non-Aboriginal community and "not brown enough" for the Aboriginal community.

Although she seemed to forget what her actual question was in the end, the emotion she expressed was very touching and demonstrated just how deep the blade of racism cuts people on an individual level--no matter who it's coming from. She said the movie was "like a prayer" and that she found it "very inspiring."

I too found the whole event--both the panel discussion and the film--very inspiring. Everyone on the panel could agree that more events where we encourage real and meaningful dialogue about race relations in our community is a good idea.

Too often we get bogged down in being politically correct or worrying about whether or not we have a right to say something when what's really important is to just start talking about these issues. Period.