THUNDER BAY - The choices we make can follow us for a lifetime, especially negative choices. However, life still goes on, and how we deal with the choices we make is not always an individual question, but a societal one.
Autumn Springs, a new film produced in Northern Ontario by New Vision Unlimited in association with Imaginarium Studio, deals with the issue of sexual violence through a variety of perspectives.
Erin Horvath, executive director with New Vision Unlimited and the creative force behind the project, said Autumn Springs grew out of a collaborative project with youth exploring issues of sexual assault in teenage dating relationships.
“I had a moment where it was quite emotional, thinking about how we need to do more as a society to begin addressing these issues and a way to bring up the conversation that is needed in order to make the difficult changes that need to happen,” Horvath said. “But that can’t happen until we understand each other, until there is some empathy.”
Autumn Springs, a fictional drama with a distinctly Northern Ontario feel, was written collaboratively over three years and based on community engagement and research. It follows Trevor and his daughter, Lauren, on a trip back to Autumn Springs where he visited as a teenager. As Trevor confronts issues from his past, Lauren is forced to face challenges that could greatly affect her future.
“It’s a drama, it’s all fiction, but based on stories and references from people who have been sexually assaulted as well as people who work in the field of social work,” said director, Jessica Graham. “It’s an interesting film in that it shows the issues of consent and sexual violence from a variety of perspectives, one being from a male perspective.”
According to Horvath, telling a story involving as sensitive issue like sexual violence from a male perspective was extremely challenging.
“I was lucky to find some key men who have done their own self work and are able to reflect and look at their choices, both positive and maybe not so positive choices more objectively and speak to why they made the choices they did,” Horvath said.
None of the characters in the film are portrayed as entirely good or entirely villainous, Horvath said. They all fall somewhere in between.
“We are not creating a scenario where we say someone should somehow be off the hook in the choices they make, but really trying to hold accountable and to tell as completely as we can, the story behind all those choices,” she said.
Horvath recognizes it may be challenging for some audiences seeing and understanding this issue as presented from different perspectives.
“My hope, and I think it goes back to being a mom of two boys, is that there has to be some attempts made to try and understand and communicate these difficult issues in a constructive manner, otherwise we can’t move forward as a society,” she said.
Autumn Springs was filmed in Sioux Lookout and Lac Seul First Nation in the summer of 2015. It was funded by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Government, the Tikinagan Child and Family Services, New Vision Unlimited, and more than 25 private, community, and corporate sponsors.
The film will be screened in Sioux Lookout on Thursday Mar. 30 at the Queen Elizabeth High School at 7 p.m. and in Thunder Bay on Friday Mar. 31 at the Trinity United Church Hall at 7 p.m.
Both Horvath and Graham hope the film will start a conversation, one they feel needs to happen, because it’s the only way to move forward.
“I hope people will think about how they would have liked to see, if there were twenty more minutes left, and you could write the rest of the film, what would you like to see happen,” Horvath said. “I hope people think about these things. I think it is through those complex conversations that we begin to understand each other.”
