Director Rino Noto brings to life with poignancy and dignity the disturbing, shameful and little known treatment of Italo Canadians that started in 1940 and continued over the course of the next 3 years in Canada. Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, decided that certain Italo Canadians were a threat to the safety of Canada. War created a period of great instability and insanity that affected every country. Decisions were made that in retrospect were horrific and inhumane.  RCMP simply showed up at the door and arrested fathers, mothers, and brothers with Italo Canadian heritage and sent them for internment in the Petawawa Concentration Camp. The impact of this internment, without recourse or explanation and without any opportunity for defense impacted families and communities and reverberated through generations. It is hard to believe that while family members were voluntarily going to war and sacrificing their lives, fathers, brothers and mothers at home were being sent to concentration camp with the justification that they posed a “threat to the safety of Canada” – paradoxical indeed. What shines through in this story is that Italo Canadians kept their heads high, and showed tremendous courage, resilience and ultimately forgiveness.

Noto uses archival footage, snippets from letters and interviews with family, relatives, and friends of those incarcerated in the Petawawa Concentration Camp (Ontario) to great effect.  Simply and piercingly he lets the stories be told while a hauntingly beautiful and memorable original sound track carries the story forward. Noto’s clever use of illustrations and animation effectively round out this story that would otherwise be missing crucial details.

“Loss is a powerful undercurrent in life that affects us all.  Piazza Petawawa: The Paradox focuses on a segregated group of people’s loss of life, freedom, dignity, property, and time during a very contentious period in our history.”                                                                     Rino Noto, Director 

Rino Noto is a photographer as well as a filmmaker. His incredible eye for detail is evident as he manages to expertly capture in a short 32 minutes the essence of this little known yet highly significant piece of Canadian history – heart wrenching and yet uplifting.

http://rinonotofoto.wordpress.com/

Moira Romano