You may ask, what’s in it for me?

The Little Mountain Film is not a vanity project. Rather, it is a learning tool. And there is no better mechanism for sharing knowledge than a great entertainment experience.

In addition to being a well-told dramatic story, the Little Mountain Film shows how effective community organization resulted in a major victory for the last tenants at Little Mountain and the community as a whole. We need to understand the rules of civic engagement if we are to envision and build communities across Canada, the places we want live in for generations to come.

You may wonder why I don’t ask the government to fund my film. I did in fact, receive funding in 2009 and in 2010 from the BC Arts Council, which helped support my work for the past 6 years, and although it took care of bare essentials it did not provide enough funding to take this multi-year project into a full length documentary. There are no longer any significant arts grants available for major documentary films, nor is there substantial support from Canada’s private broadcasters, and our public broadcaster – the CBC – has been cut into oblivion. Our government currently pumps hundreds of millions of dollars into Canadian reality television and entertainment, but not into independent documentary film.

We need to reflect Canada back to Canadians, and tell important stories at the ground level, in the communities in which we live. Your donation will make a meaningful difference. It will bring to life a learning tool that we can share in communities across Canada.

It takes a single step to start a journey. Many steps take us to the destination. That’s democracy in action.

David Vaisbord