A Must See Documentary! Review for Afro News
I am honoured to feature once again the talented director and filmmaker Charles Officer calling in from Toronto with his new, must see documentary, The Little Prince which is now available across Canada.
Of all his films, my favorite was Unarmed Verses, the story which explores youth and race-related issues in the city of Toronto in the aftermath of the shooting of Trayvon Martin in the United States through the experiences of Francine, a 12-year-old girl and poetess, living with her father and grandmother in a northeast Toronto neighbourhood facing demolition and reconstruction. Charles still keeps in touch with this courageous young woman, now 16 who is in secondary school doing well and has a poetry blog .
The Little Prince.
It was exciting to hear about his recent documentary featuring the ” modern-day Little Prince – a cheerful, seven-year-old blind Pakistani-Canadian boy who encounters The Little Prince, via braille and audio-book, for the very first time, and grapples with the meanings of the story he has just read.
Little Prince, is now available all across Canada!
Existentialism is a big word. But for 76 years, for a readership barely old enough to read, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince has conveyed the importance of asking who we are, what connects us to others, and how we should live.
It is a puzzling story, devoid of a conventional happy ending. And yet, as we see in Charles Officer’s acclaimed documentary Invisible Essence: The Little Prince, this story of a stranded aviator who encounters an elegant alien child in the Sahara, has become the most read book after the Bible – selling an average of two million copies a year in 300 languages.
Invisible Essence: The Little Prince explores the global legacy of The Little Prince 75 years after its publication. Weaving the author Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s extraordinary biography with fascinating discussions from key sections of the book, exploring ways life and art can reflect in curious ways. And in telling the author’s own story of a child who suffered the loss of a father and beloved brother, and who found “himself” as an aviator for the French air-mail company Aeropostale, flying alone over no man’s lands.
Working imaginatively with the famous line “what is essential is invisible to the eye”, the film introduces a modern-day Little Prince – a cheerful, seven-year-old blind Pakistani-Canadian boy who encounters The Little Prince, via braille and audio-book, for the very first time, and grapples with the meanings of the story he has just read.
Invisible Essence: The Little Prince tackles its subject from different angles, with footage from various film versions (live-action and stop-action animated), academic insights from scholars and archivists who’ve devoted their lives to Saint-Exupéry and his message, and – most poignantly – as it applies today, such as Mark Osborne (director of the animated film “The Little Prince”), Adam Gopnik (Staff Writer at The New Yorker), Rupi Kaur (Poet, New York Times Bestselling Author), Stacy Schiff (Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographer of St-Exupéry), and Olivier and François d’Agay (the great nephew and nephew of Antoine de Saint- Exupéry). Although a fable, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s transcendent story suggests an ethical philosophy about life in its own way, a code of respect for humanity.
“The journey of making this film was really to explore what it is about this book that resonates with so many people, that has transcended gender and culture and religion and language,” says director Charles Officer (Unarmed Verses, Nurse. Fighter. Boy).
“I believe in these times it wouldn’t hurt for us to revisit this book. It is about our connections and our relationships that matter the most.”
About Blue Ice Docs
Founded in 2014 in partnership between Robin Smith, president of KinoSmith, and Blue Ice Group co-owners, Steven Silver and Neil Tabatznik, Blue Ice Docs uses the expertise and skills of both organizations to acquire, fund and develop a wide variety of non-fiction projects from around the world. Upcoming releases include GURRUMUL, THE SILENCE OF OTHERS, OVER THE LIMIT, ALL THE WILD HORSES, THE OSLO DIARIES and THE HEAT: A KITCHEN (R)EVOLUTION.
Sources: Ingrid Hamilton GAT.
