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An amazing documentary on Jean Vanier and l'Arche


          On October 26 the National Gallery hosted a very special event—the Ottawa premiere of director Randall Wright’s moving and insightful documentary Summer in the Forest, a UK/France/Palestine co-production that profiles renowned Canadian-born Catholic humanist Jean Vanier (http://www.jean-vanier.org/en) and the work of his “l’Arche” communities for people with disabilities, a movement of acceptance and loving joyful hope that has spread around the world. (More information on the film and availability at: http://www.summerintheforest.com/.)
Introductory remarks by Senator Jim Munson, a longtime advocate for people with disabilities, were followed by a video message from Vanier himself, who turned 90 last month.  For decades he has lived simply in the original l’Arche community at Trosly-Breuil adjoining a forested area in northwestern France. As he expressed his message: “We live in a world where people want to hide behind walls when we need to build bridges of shared vulnerability.”  Summer in the Forest isn’t a nature or adventure story as the title might suggest, but in a sense it speaks to an adventure of the heart, open to the beauty of nature and trusting in the human spirit.
            Highlights of the film were screened interspersed at intervals with an extended conversation on stage between Randall Wright and noted journalist and author Ian Brown who has a disabled son about which he wrote a 2011 bestselling book The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Extraordinary Son.  Brown revealed that a geneticist once told him his son was a “genetic mistake of evolution”.  But he wondered if those that society and science have considered as lesser human beings are not in fact “crucial to the ethical evolution” of our humanity.  They are persons with no power or concern for it, no pretentiousness or cunning competitiveness. What makes them appear childlike also gives them a freeing simplicity that seeks not advantage over others but friendship and love through genuine human relationships. They impart an important lesson.  In making time for others we lose the fear of the other that can poison society. In taking time “we become who we are called to be.”
            Summer in the Forest profiles Vanier’s life and legacy. He had an elite background and Catholic education. (His father Major-General Georges Vanier was Canada’s 19th Governor General.) He entered a naval college at 13 and had a post-war naval command. In Paris he earned a doctorate in philosophy.  But the spiritual call he experienced also led him to an awareness of the plight of those with developmental disabilities and the founding of the first “l’Arche” residence in 1964.  From humble beginnings that has expanded into a global network of some 150 communities in 37 countries.  A striking sequence of Summer in the Forest takes place in Bethlehem in the Palestinian West Bank.  Into a region notorious for violent divisions l’Arche brings a symbol of shared empathy and common fragility. 
            In this Trumpian moment of toxic power politics and polarization it can be hard to find signs of hope. But through the example of l’Arche Vanier insists: “The weak and the foolish have been chosen to confound the wise and the powerful.”  It is still possible to “dream of a world where everyone belongs.”
            There are presently 31 l’Arche communities in Canada, three of which are in the national capital region.  Summer in the Forest was preceded by Rostyk Makushak’s short film “Paranormal” about one of them named “La Source”. There was also a reception featuring wine tastings from a nearby Ottawa Valley vineyard (https://kinvineyards.com/) that emphasizes sustainability. 
Vanier has dedicated his life to laboring in the vineyard for a greater humanity.  He has an infectious laugh and lightness of being.  He radiates warmth. He calls us to our better nature. It was, in all respects, an extraordinary, inspiring and illuminating evening.

  Ian Brown in conversation with Randall Wright, National Gallery, Ottawa, 26 October 2018



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