Video on two strong women for artist’s nephew, Jackson
The late Rosemary Brown, one of Jackson's grandmothers was a well known politicians.
A Concordia professor’s film is in the running for a Gemini nomination for best biography documentary program. The Gemini Awards celebrate outstanding Canadian English-language television programming.
For Jackson: A Time Capsule from His Two Grandmothers is an hour-long documentary directed and co-produced by Studio Arts professor Leila Sujir.
The very personal video profiles the late politician and activist Rosemary Brown and Ruth Horricks-Sujir, a teacher and Leila Sujir’s own mother. Brown and Horricks-Sujir are the grandmothers of seven-year old Jackson, and the videographer is his aunt.
Sujir incorporates interviews, newsreels, still photos, family videos and archival film to recount the touching life histories of Brown and Horricks-Sujir. The two women are quite different at first glance.
Brown was the first woman of colour elected to public office in Canada in 1975 and was a popular candidate at the 1976 NDP leadership convention. She’s also a recipient of the Order of Canada. Horricks-Sujir is a world traveller and retired high school teacher from Alberta.
“There are certainly differences,” Sujir said. “They also have enormous strengths. One used hers in public, the other in private. ”
Both women left their home countries at a young age. Brown left Jamaica for Canada to pursue her studies and became a formidable politician. Horricks-Sujir left for India at the time of its independence and married Raghu Sujir. Their return was met with disapproval and outright racism.
“The women had stories to tell. By the time I had questions for my grandmothers, they weren’t there anymore,” Sujir said.
She sees herself more as a video artist than a documentary filmmaker. Sujir teaches in the Interdisciplinary Studies - Video program. A number of graduate students in the program worked on the documentary. However, her next two projects will be video and new media installations.
The documentary is a spin-off of a video-art installation in which Sujir used images of the two grandmothers and Jackson as a baby. A television broadcaster expressed an interest in airing a documentary on the same theme. For Jackson: A Time Capsule from His Two Grandmothers premiered last spring on Vision TV and aired again this summer on the W Network.
“Jackson is Canadian with Indian and Jamaican heritage, and this film gives him (and now his little brother) cultural perspective. Even when both women are no longer there, my nephews can hear their grandmothers’ voices talk of the struggles they fought and how they stood for what believed.”
Interest in the film was heightened by Brown’s death last year on the same day the film was completed. Sujir said Brown had seen the final version and was pleased.
Seven-year-old Jackson is enamored with his aunt’s project.“He’s very aware of how special and unique this is. I love the idea that this is a gift for him,” she said.
Her gift would be to win a Gemini Award. The nominations will be announced in November and the awards ceremony will be broadcast in December.
Front page and table of contents
Next story: 