Grandmas are the greatest.
This coming week the Sunshine Coast Film Society presents an American film titled Grandma, starring Lily Tomlin. First, it screens at the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt on Saturday, April 9 at 2 p.m. and then again at a special event in Gibsons at the Heritage Playhouse on Monday, April 11.
It’s special because it includes the local vocals of a few Raging Grannies, the feisty and activist women of mature years whose songs both provoke and inspire.
It also includes another special event, an appearance by the bard of the Raging Grannies, Barbara Seifred. One newspaper called her the Raging Grannies’ answer to Irving Berlin, the prolific songwriter. She has been a Granny since 1989, starting in Montreal with one of the first five Raging Granny groups to begin (the first was in Victoria in 1987). She has written more than 4,400 songs with socially conscious words (all neatly stored in 46 books in her desk). They are usually sung to existing familiar tunes and the Grannies turn up at many organized protest rallies to sound off tunefully about everything that is bad for us, from nuclear waste disposal to free trade agreements. At age 85, Seifred continues to sing with her Vancouver East group, and she will be on the Coast to join with the local group on April 11 at the film show.
Seifred believes that speaking out is our responsibility. “We have to do it,” she said. “We have to work on protesting things that need to be fixed.”
Though the Grannies sometimes look like buffoons dressed in supposedly typical granny garb, shawls and flowered hats, they deliver a strong message. Seifred has many memories and stories to tell of events they attended. She recalls the Oka crisis in Quebec, the stand-off between Mohawks versus police and military, and she looked back in her songbook to find that she had written song number four for the occasion. But when the time came to stand with the Aboriginal people, the group found they couldn’t sing it.
“It was too heartbreaking,” she said. They recited it instead and closed with a mournful tone that included the words, “O Canada. Our home on Native land.”
Another memorable moment involved meeting another activist: Jane Fonda. Seifred pushed her way to the front of a crowd to sing to Fonda an original composition about their mutual goal of making change.
The film to be screened on April 9 and 11 is Grandma, an American comedy from director Paul Weitz, that involves a pregnant teenager needing $600 by sundown who seeks help from her eccentric grandmother (Lily Tomlin). Grandma has just broken up with her girlfriend and is estranged from her daughter. The two set off across Los Angeles, hitting on old friends and lovers in their quest for the cash.
The Heritage Playhouse screening is a special event starting at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7) on Monday, April 11. Special event tickets are $9 for members, add $4 for non-members. See www.scfs.ca for membership info.
