By Andrea Martell
The ghosts of writers around the world whose freedom of expression has been smothered by their governments haunted this year’s second annual Ottawa International Writers Festival.
Three chairs stood in the reading room of the National Arts Centre, each carrying the name of a writer or journalist who are believed to be imprisoned by their government for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Sean Wilson, the festival’s co-ordinator, says the chairs drew attention to the thousands of writers around the world who could not attend because they are not allowed to leave their country. According to Amnesty International, many have been imprisoned for writing about controversial subjects.
The festival is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
“The festival wants to promote the idea that through our stories we can all understand each other and find our common ground,” Wilson says.
The writers tackled issues of human rights and freedom of expression in their work.
Mary Jo Leddy gave an emotional reading from A Border Called Hope, a book about refugees in Canada.
Rabbi Elyse Goldstein talked about the need to re-read the Torah from a female point-of-view in Revisions. And Sharon Helen Venne read about Canada’s aboriginal peoples and their dealings with the United Nations.
Of the 64 attending writers, some of the most prominent were Nino Ricci (Where She Has Gone), Tomson Highway (Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing) and Anita Rau Badami (Tamarind Mem).
In keeping with the theme of freedom of expression, the festival also hosted the Canadian premiere of a controversial independent film called The Sadness of Sex.
Based on writer/actor/performance artist Barry Yourgrau’s collection of short stories of the same name, the screenplay was co-written by the film’s director Rupert Wainright and stars Yourgrau.
Wilson says that the festival chose it because it’s considered to be too provocative and too controversial by critics. The film was pulled from its New York debut, but too late to stop the reviews from going to press.
One of the more provocative scenes is cut fast, a barrage of sexual images no more than a second or two per frame. The different scenes of a couple having sex in different positions is mixed in with images of Picasso-like women with distorted features.
Over these images, Yourgrau narrates how each time they have sex the woman’s body parts get moved around — such as her breasts facing backwards or her lips on her knee — and they continue to have sex so he can try to put her body back together.
“We wanted it to be honestly sexy and erotic, but not hardcore,” Yourgrau told the audience after the show.
The full house of 130 people, some of them standing by the wall since there were no more chairs, laughed and chuckled throughout the movie.
Others sat in silence drinking in the scenes and every word of the movie, unable to respond.
“For someone who likes the written word, it’s a treat,” Todd Duckworth, a fan of Yourgrau’s writing said afterwards.
Wilson said this year’s festival, which ran from Sept. 10-19, drew an average of 125 people per event.
He said by the time it’s finished approximately 4,000 people will have attended — about 1,000 more than last year.
“I was astonished by the number of writers who live in Ottawa,” said Shannon Peet, a Centretown resident. “They just seemed to bring such rich histories and lives with them here, that I’ll come to another writers event for sure.”
Wilson says next year the festival plans to bring in more of the world’s best writers and to continue to expand its audience.