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The Mind of a Child
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The Mind of a Child (1997)
This year, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is very proud to present the Canada Award to the inspiring, award-winning documentary The Mind of a Child, produced and directed by Gary Marcuse, Face To Face Media, Vancouver.
Supported by the Multiculturalism Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Award honours excellence in mainstream television programming which best reflects the cultural diversity of Canada. It aims to promote greater opportunities within the broadcasting industry, on both sides of the camera, for professionals from a diversity of backgrounds. The recipient of this prestigious award is chosen by a special jury of industry professionals.
The Canada Award jury, chaired by 1995 Canada Award recipient, producer Nancy
Trites-Botkin, received 18 submissions for consideration this year. After much
deliberation, the jury unanimously decided that The Mind of a Child far surpassed
the criteria for this special award. The jury stated "The Mind of a Child" was
a powerful documentary filled with insight, global reflection and most of all
hope. It beautifully integrated the problems faced by the children of the many
cultures of Canada and provided not only the historical context and understanding,
but also concrete solutions to those problems."
Filmed in British Columbia, Israel and Washington DC, this one-hour television documentary tells the dramatic story about First Nations educator and associate producer Lorna Williams' campaign to help aboriginal children in Vancouver. Lorna Williams was hired in 1984, by the Vancouver school district to be the inaugural First Nations education specialist. It was Williams' job to discover why the average aboriginal student had dropped out of school by Grade 5 and why students were committing suicide in alarming numbers.
Williams' search for help led her to Israeli child psychologist, Reuven Feuerstein,
who began his work 50 years ago, assisting the child refugees of the holocaust.
She returned from her journey armed with an extraordinary and powerful teaching
system. Williams' hard work and determination was instrumental in the formation
of the Variety Learning Centre which supervises the tutoring of First Nations
children. The Mind of a Child has received national attention and international
recognition and has aired on CBC Newsworld (Rough Cuts), WTN, TVNC, Knowledge
Network and CFCF.
The unanimous decision of the jury was not one that was easily made- one other
program warranted much attention and discussion. The jury wanted to also acknowledge
"My Name is Kahentiiosta", written and directed by Alanis Obomsawin, with an
honourable mention. "My Name is Kahentiiosta" is a story told from the perspective
of the
first nations people and of their ongo¬ing struggles to keep their lands. Through
the use of potent, symbolic imagery this documentary tells the whole story- the
story behind the scenes of the nightly news.
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