Film Makers

We asked every team member the same three questions, in hopes to shed some light about our team:

Dave Maidman ~ executive producer

My father was in the Canadian navy during World War II and I grew up during the Cold War with the attendant threat of nuclear war but I think it was during the Vietnam War that I really became of war because if I had been born a few mile to the south I might have been drafted and had to fight. Unlike his father, my father never wanted his sons to have to experience war.
Growing up in post war Canada it was a relatively peaceful time even though the town I grew up got its start as a Defense Industries installation making artillery shells in World War II and we had an air raid siren to warn us of incoming nuclear missiles (as though that would help). But I believe that the basic nature of humans is peaceful, otherwise we would have gone extinct a long time ago.
I wanted to make this film when I realized that no one else was making a film to document this major, historic event in Vancouver. As a father and grandfather I have a direct interest in the future survival of our species. War is not conducive to survival, peace is. I want to ensure that my grandchildren have as beautiful planet to grow up on as I had.

Five years old. 1986. My living room. Listening to my mother and father argue about how "we" could be hit by a Soviet Nuclear Attack any day. Since that day, my childhood imagination was burdened by B52 bombers and mushroom cloud horizons.
Twenty four years old. 2006. Peace Lantern Festival. Floating on a canoe at Lost Lagoon, hearing a soft Japanese flute, and watching hundreds of glowing orbs bob up and down towards me, screaming for peace... then the canoe almost tipped.
Film has been the medium for 80 years. In the last five years however, a paradigm shift has taken place in the genre of 'the documentary'. Filmmakers are now implementing realistic, pragmatic solutions in their story lines, leaving the audience with more than mere description and political spin. With "Think Peace", I am trying to do this.

Both of my grandfathers carried on them, throughout their lives, "souvenirs from war." One had pieces of shrapnel still imbedded into his skull; the other had no fingernails or toenails. Neither ever spoke about their experiences.
My mother learning English to the lyrics of John Lennon's "Imagine."
Indifference makes us all accountable to the victims and witnesses of war. This film is about people who have chosen not to be indifferent and are trying to affect change.

I remember being very young, no more than 5, and watching a television program about nuclear war. I remember becoming very upset and frightened that my life and the world as I knew it could come to a very swift end if nuclear bombs were to be dropped on the planet. I felt great despair because of a feeling of loss of control and disconnection to outside forces that could control circumstances of a massive outcome.
On a family outing, the summer before my parents divorced, we met a man who was traveling by canoe across Canada. My parents invited him to stay the night in our home, and I fell asleep to the three of them talking and laughing about the gentlemen's travels and adventures across the world. It had been, and would remain, one of the only nights I can remember where I parents spoke and listened to each other, putting aside their grievances for another time. It seemed that in the presence of a third party who engaged their imaginations away from their day-to-day reality, they had come to some kind of agreement to get along.
I am making this film to bring awareness to the public that citizens across the world are trying to take control of their day-to-day lives and shift their realities. More people need to feel connected to this movement of people who are trying to bring about social justice and peace in our time.

My mom tells me when I was a baby, her, my dad, and I would all huddle under the dining room table and wait out the shaking of the house from the bombs falling outside on neighbours' houses. My mom says I never cried, but I would just silently wait with huge eyes. That was what I born into in Iran in 1984. That should never have to happen.
I'm most reminded in daily life that peace is possible when strangers who could perfectly well ignore each other, while walking past each other on the street, while sitting at the next table, suddenly start to talk and try to connect. Too many people are afraid to approach people they don't know and make that connection. We all need to reach out and touch more.
At first, I just wanted the experience of working on a film. But more and more, I have so much faith in this film, and all the amazing people who have come together to create it, I feel it's much more important than I ever expected. If only a single person who watches this film becomes more aware and more motivated to work towards change... that's enough.

When my mother told me of her life during the solviet occupation of germany. her brother starved to death after she stole a potato from him.
I've always known peace.
I'm an opportunist.

First experience of War? - Honestly, I can't remember.
First experience of Peace? - In my life, 9 out of ten times I feel peace although the real world isn't peace at all.
Why are you making this film? - Because I love making documentaries and this is a huge opportunity for me to know something I've never really paid attention to.

The first war that caught my attention and opened my eyes to the devastating truth was the Gulf war in 1991. I was eleven years old and shocked to see footage of a mother and daughter being shot to death in Kuwait when they were running to cover out of a battlefield. I remember thinking to myself "how could someone kill those who pose as no threat?" ,and being absolutely disgusted.
My first experience of peace technically came before my earliest memory. Growing up with the united church, my parents played a big role with the community as we were always going to and hosting potlucks, barbeque's, and many other social events with a great atmosphere. Some of the kids I met there over 25 years ago are still my best friends. Or was it Superman IV, the Quest for Peace?
That's an easy one - the big money! Relax, I'm joking. I'll answer this with another question; Would you like to be hugged with nuclear arms?

I remember lying in bed under the covers as an 8/9 yr old in the eighties terrified of THE BOMB. Its threat was everywhere at the time, we used to scare each other at school, work out where the nearest strike would be and how long the effects would take to reach us. That threat's still there of course but I don't really connect it with war anymore, just another component in the clouds of fear we are expected to live under.
As for Peace, it took me a long time to find any, and most of the time I'm still searching, but on the occassions I do, it doesn't feel so hard to imagine it as a possibility for our planet.
This film can help... That's why I'm here...

I remember watching the 444-day Iran hostage crisis when I was a child, back in 1980. That wasn't war per se, but it felt like it at the time.
In 2002 I attended the World Civil Society Forum in Geneva; one month later I was walking the streets of London in an anti-war demonstration aimed at halting plans for the invasion of Iraq.
The Think Peace Documentary will be a great vehicle for presenting an alternate, more effective road to peace, one that does not necessarily emerge from traditional Peace Forum structures.