The filmmakers Hayley Gray and Elad Tzadok discuss their new documentary Unarchived, having its world premiere as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival this week, with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.  

Unarchived is a new documentary having its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival this week. It’s chronicles this shift in consciousness when it comes to appreciating history from multiple points of view. The dominant white colonial power structure is around us, and even more so in institutions like archives. Community archives as it were, across British Columbia, have been filling the need, or uncovering the blind spots of the institutionalised archives. We see a number of them throughout the province, like the BC Gay and Lesbian Archives, now housed at the City of Vancouver’s Archives, which began when Ron Dutton, collected material he’d encounter that would have otherwise been lost. We see the importance of collecting ephemera not just of communities and groups, but families as well. Joan Mayo, who we see in the film, did a lot of work saving film and photos of people from the community of Paldi, British Columbia, a mill town near Duncan, that saw an exodus of families once the local school closed as the mill closed. It’s a fascinating place that between the 1920s and the late 1960s had families of various groups, Sikh, Japanese, Chinese, white, all live in relative racial harmony. It might have been all lost to history if people didn’t save photos and simply write the names of the people therein on the back. We also see in Unarchived the work of reconciliation and decolonisation, and I’ll ask the filmmakers, who join me in person, what their experience was like capturing these recent moments in our history. There are two screenings, tomorrow, Friday evening, 30 September 2022 at SFU Woodwards at 6.15pm, and Sunday, 02 October 2022 at the International Village cinemas at noon. It’s also available on VIFF Connect. Visit www.viff.org for tickets and information. Joining me now are Hayley Gray and Elad Tzadok, they directed Unarchived. She is a graduate of Dalhousie University, and Vancouver Film School. Her previous work has been shown at various film festivals around the world, as well as Telus Optik, the Knowledge Network, the CBC, and Air Canada. He was born and raised in Israel, and moved to Vancouver, where he graduated from the Film Production Program at UBC. He co-founded Scopitone Films, and he’s produced, directed and edited music videos, commercials, narrative films, and documentaries. Unarchived is a National Film Board of Canada production. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Hayley Gray, and Elan Tzadok. Mr. Tzadok, good morning; and Ms. Gray, good morning.  

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