"The Spirit Wrestlers"2002 Theatre & TV Schedule
Another summary: Nelson
-- 7:30 pm
Wednesday May 22 Grand Forks
--
7:30 pm Thursday May 23 Castlegar
-- 7:30
pm Friday May 24 & 2 pm Saturday May
25 Vancouver
-- 7:30
pm Tuesday June 18 Television
Premier -- 9 pm Wednesday July 31 For further information contact: Jim Hamm (604)
874-1110 < jim.hamm@telus.net
> Comments The film is gathering negative feedback from Doukhobors. Here's a letter sent to the Grand Forks Gazette: To the Editor: Your front page article (May 21st issue) about Jim Hamm's film (inappropriately named "Spirit Wrestlers") gives the impression that this is a well-researched, accurate and balanced presentation of the Doukhobor experience. As a knowledgeable, lifetime Doukhobor, I can tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. The overwhelming emphasis of the film is on lurid and sensationalistic images, totally out of proportion to the actual historical reality. The film is also full of factual errors, ridiculous conjectures and unconscionable distortion, which totally obliterates any hope for understanding the true meaning of the term "Spirit Wrestlers". Although it focuses mainly on the Sons of Freedom story, it does not do full justice to that experience either. The overall effect is to continue the longstanding smear campaign, which many had hoped was a thing of the past. This also goes totally against the recent trend towards reform and reconciliation. Ironically, Hamm's efforts will only succeed in uniting all Doukhobors, and other Canadians who know the facts, in a unanimous condemnation of his film. And those who, in good faith, were unwittingly drawn into participation, are already distancing themselves from the actual result. If this excuse for journalism is allowed to be aired on such prestigious venues as the History Channel, it will only serve to lower the integrity of those venues. All concerned individuals should make their voices heard in this respect .
Dear Larry [Ewashen], As a researcher, writer and a publisher, I find it this film to be very offensive for a Film publication company to put out a film as such After seeing the Spirit Wrestlers film last night at the Capital Theatre in Nelson, I was left deeply disappointed and disgusted! This film could be put into the same category as the Naked Flame* or Simma Holts book Terror in the Name of God.** It does nothing for the Doukhobors, but puts a black mark on them and their leaders. It is a one sided, biased and not balanced at all film. I can't figure out how Jim Hamm could fall into such a situation by not doing a thorough research in all the aspects for this so called documentary film. What is Jim Hamm trying to do white wash and absolve the government of any crime? By presenting some of the former police officers who were known to lie through their teeth on the stands and by glorifying Simma Holt who is well known to fabricate her information and acquire it under falsehood? Frankly speaking, I and many others think that the Jim Hamm Productions have done a very poor and shoddy job and research for their so called documentary film The Spirit Wrestlers...
* See 2
online reviews: Canuxploitation.com
(5 images), and The
Rebel Kind blog (2 images, 2 minute video
trailer) Koozma J. Tarasoff July 11, 2002 Dear Editor: The Spirit Wrestler Film by Jim Hamm is Not about the Wider Doukhobor Society The 94-minute documentary The Spirit Wrestlers by Jim Hamm, described by him as "a century of Doukhobor life in Canada", unfortunately does not reach the goal of the Vancouver filmmaker. It is not about the wider Doukhobor society. This is a film about the Sons of Freedom group and has value for them. For the first time in film history, Hamm has attempted to show in depth the causes of burnings, bombings, and nudity done by an extremist group within the Sons of Freedom. Using rare archival footage (including police records) of select historic events and building the story by way of very interesting interviews with professors, retired RCMP officers, Sons of Freedom, and Doukhobors, Hamm's film skillfully evokes emotions. Very powerful is the story of the "genocidal" act of Bennett's BC Government in forcefully taking away the children in an attempt to assimilate them through public school education. Camerawork and sound were professionally done, also. Except for a few minor errors (wrong photo of Peter P. Verigin; date of the new nudity law was 1931, not 1930; 773,400 acres was granted to the Doukhobors in 1899, not 350,000; and several others), the filmmaker and his team have generally done their homework on their main focus of the zealots. The film opens with a full blast of arson and nudity and it№s shocking to see the title The Spirit Wrestlers superimposed on those images. There is no connection between the wider Doukhobor society and that of arson and nudity. The peaceful Doukhobors have for years lobbied against the acts of terrorism. This mistake is discriminatory and not fair! In the content of the 94-minute film, 72 minutes were devoted to the Sons of Freedom and only 19 minutes to the Doukhobors. There were 28 clips on burnings and bombings, 31 on nudity, and 39 showed the power of the police. It is incorrect to use the sub-titled captions "former Sons of Freedom Doukhobor" for the speakers (15 cases were used). Instead, "brought up in a Sons of Freedom family" (which was also used) would be more accurate. The real title of Jim Hamm's film ought to be Sons of Freedom because it would cover the intended content. This is not a film about our Doukhobor ancestors and the contemporary Doukhobors who have preserved and cultivated for generations the profound rich Doukhobor Spirit with its Culture, Traditions, and Russian language. Definitely this is not a film about us! It is sad because once again a great idea was exploited by sensationalism. Without the change of the title, Jim Hamm will ultimately fall into the same trap that Simma Holt fell in her book Terror in the Name of God The Story of the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors. Holt's book was about the zealots or Sons of Freedom, but not about the Doukhobors. She described the terrorist acts of the extremists as if they were part of the philosophy and behavior of the wider Doukhobor society. That is inaccurate and unjust! In comparison, a rough similarity of error would be if someone today is making a film about the Moslem people and the content of this film would be 80% on terrorism. Moslems would be outraged. In my forthcoming book Spirit Wrestlers: Doukhobor Pioneers' Strategies for Living, to be released in the fall, one of the 100 biographies is on the celebrated Saskatchewan Doukhobor lawyer Peter G. Makaroff who rightly stated many years back that Њthe moment a person participates in an act of violence, he or she automatically removes him-or-herself from the Doukhobor movement. Jim Hamm needs urgently to correct the title of the film before its television premiere on History Channel at 9 p.m. on July 31st. Perhaps, too, Jim could contemplate doing a sequel: The Real Story of the Spirit Wrestlers.
|
2002
May - July -- "A feature
length (94 minutes) documentary by Jim Hamm which
looks at the story of
the Doukhobors in the 20th century. After fleeing
persecution in Russia
in 1899, the pacifist, communal Doukhobors struggled
to keep their way
of life alive in Canada. Eventually, conflicts with
state agencies led
the RCMP to take away Doukhobor children and place
them in former
Japanese internment camps, where they would be raised
as "patriotic"
Canadians. In response, certain Doukhobor extremist
groups carried out
some of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in
Canadian history. The
Spirit Wrestlers draws on archival footage, as well as
interviews with
Doukhobors and former RCMP officers, to present a
balanced view of this
dramatic chapter of Canadian history."