Canadian Labour International Film Festival

The Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLiFF) was founded by labour and social activist Bonaventure Francis (Frank) Saptel in 2007. CLiFF is a publicly attended film festival intended to be national in scope. The first iteration of CLiFF was held in 2009 across Canada in nine provinces and all three territories. More than forty locations participated in the inaugural year.

According to its founder, CLiFF was intended to be a "truly national film festival", with locations screening work- and worker-related films across Canada.

Although the first year of CLiFF was held on the weekend of 27, 28 November 2009, the festival organisers soon realised more flexibility was needed. In early 2010, Frank Saptel and the Board of Directors designated November as Labour Film Month in Canada.

In 2009, CLiFF in Toronto was held at the venerable Bloor Cinema. In 2010, cost concerns made the organisers move the venue to Innis Town Hall, home of the Cinema Studies program at Innis College. Innis Town Hall, which includes a fully equipped cinema, hosts numerous film festivals, free film screenings, and a variety of other cultural events at the University of Toronto.

Board of Directors

CLiFF Awards

WHSC/CLiFF Health and Safety Award

The Workers Health and Safety Centre (WHSC) established a cash award to go to the film best raising awareness around health and safety issues. The first prize was awarded in 2009 by Dave Killham, Executive Director of the WHSC.

Best-in-Festival Award

In 2009, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) Canada also donated money to go towards a cash prize for the movie judged to the Best-in-Festival. Audiences in Toronto voted on films (on a basis of 1 to 10, with the film getting the highest average judged to be the winner) and selected Tanaka-san Will Not Do Calisthenics.

In 2010, audiences across Canada, at the various CLiFF location voted on the films they screened. Although not everyone saw all the films, the winner will also be the one getting the highest average.

Student Film Award

2011 will see the establishment of a Student Film Award. The organisers will solicit films from all universities, community colleges, and high schools. There will be a cash award. Neither selection criteria nor a judging process have not been established.

Partnerships with other organisations

The Equal Pay Coalition

On 22 November, 2010, the Canadian Labour International Film Festival partnered with the Equal Pay Coalition, Maple Pictures Corp., CUPE-Ontario, The Machinists Union, the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and Steelworkers Local 1998 for a special pre-screening of Made in Dagenham (trailer is at www.madeindagenhammovie.com) an uplifting film based on the true accounts of a group of extraordinary women who, in 1968, in Dagenham, United Kingdom, found their voice through humour, common sense and courage to fight for equal pay and to put an end to [...] discrimination. The film screened at the Isabel Bader Theatre 93 Charles Street West in Toronto. '''

===== Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and the Ontario Network of Injured Workers' ===== On 25 November, 2010 at the Joint Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and Ontario Network of Injured Workers "Health & Safety and WCB Conference" at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel in Toronto, the Canadian Labour International Film Festival handed out its CliFF/WHSC Health and Safety Award. The conference was a gathering place for Health & Safety as well as Injured Workers' activists from throughout Ontario. The event saw the Award go to Aisha Gazdar of Pakistan for her filmSilent Voices: Home-based Women Workers in Pakistan. The audience was also treated to the debut of the filmTheir Only Power Was Moral'', a history of injured workers in Ontario. It was made by the Injured Workers History Project and coordinated by Robert Storey, professor of labour history from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The special event also saw the screening of Work (in ProgresS) by Chavisa, where the life of an injured worker is seen through her challenges, both personal and the bureaucratic.

External links

• http://www.labourfilms.ca
• http://www.lesfilmsdutravail.ca
• With the click of a thumb (article on the vision of CLiFF)
• Workers Health and Safety Centre
• International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) Canada