Despite the normally serious subject matter of Ottawa’s Free Thinking Film Festival, organizers are lightening up this year’s event by ending with a story of interfaith co-operation through the love of coffee in Uganda.
The Free Thinking Film Festival is a non-profit event produced by the Free Thinking Film Society. Usually, the festival brings films to Ottawa that have been banned or refused by other theatres such as the Bytowne Cinema or the Mayfair Theatre.
“My biggest joke is that we have the most depressing film festival of any film festival in the world,” says festival director Fred Litwin. “We’re actually going to end this year’s festival on an uplifting note.”
This year, the festival will feature a film called Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean. The film, which is directed by Curt Fissel, tells the story of the Delicious Peace Coffee Co-operative in eastern Uganda.
The co-operative, started by J.J. Keki, is run by a community of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish coffee farmers working and living together.
Keki met with farmers who were struggling to make ends meet working individually and asked them to form a co-operative farming Uganda’s biggest export, coffee. Despite their religious differences, the farmers came together. Since the co-operative was started in 2003, it has grown to more than 2,000 farmers.
Keki is partnered with the charity to bring support to his community in Uganda. According to a press release, the Canadian Friends of Pearl Children are “dedicated to improving the quality of life of orphans, disadvantaged children, and impoverished families throughout Uganda.”
The film will be screened on Nov. 3, during the last night of the festival. Keki will be coming from Uganda to attend the event.
During the event at the Free Thinking Film Festival, Keki, who is also a Grammy-nominated musician, will be playing music and speaking about his work in Uganda.
“It’s an exciting story to talk about. It’s how capitalism is working to improve people’s lives, and I love those uplifting stories,” says Tamara Fulmes, vice-president of the Free Thinking Film Society.