I almost didn’t make it to my first screening at the annual Toronto International Film Festival. I arrived home early from work today (top-secret work mission accomplished, by the way!) and tried to nap before heading back out again, but I’m not very good at naps. I’m good at crashing, passing out, falling fast asleep, dozing off, snoozing, all of that, but naps require the use of at least three very loud alarms and even so, loud noises are not always effective at bringing me back to a state of consciousness. I barely made it to the cinema in Yorkville and I was only half-awake on the way there, but once the film got underway I was riveted.

I hadn’t planned to see Iron Ladies of Liberia, actually. Back in June I bought a Festival package through Visa called Explorer or something like that: 3 movies selected for the buyer at a much cheaper rate ($75 including taxes and fees) instead of the full price of $37.50 each. They guarantee all three films are either on weeknight evenings or weekends. I had to sell my other two tickets because the films were shown last weekend while I was in Philly, so this was the only one I could attend. Too bad. But hey, there’s always next year.

I didn’t mind not being able to choose the films because the fact that they made it into the Festival in the first place means they pass TIFF muster. That’s good enough for me. I also like the surprise. I read nothing about the film beforehand, but Liberia? I could certainly learn more about the country — the only factoid I can tell you is the name of the dictator they ousted for corruption (Charles Taylor).

The film info and synopsis from the TIFF site:

Iron Ladies of Liberia offers an up-close look at the hard work of nation building. How do you reconstruct a country after fourteen brutal years of war? This film has one good answer: let women lead.

To Western eyes, there are scenes in this film that prick the middle-class conscience: widespread pollution and lack of sanitation, grinding poverty, structural dilapidation. You see what the Iron Ladies of Liberia have inherited, what little they have to work with, and the larger question — where do they even start??? What takes priority? Liberia, in its years of corruption, had accumulated a debt that was impossible to pay back, and was in trouble with the IMF and World Bank, a situation that discourages any foreign investment to get the economy moving again. It’s a catch-22 situation, and the kind which you’ve probably heard Bono of U2 talking about for years: “debt forgiveness”. Here’s an article for an opposing opinion.

The producer, Henry Ansbacher, attended the screening, introducing the film and answering questions about it afterwards. Apparently CBC is going to feature it in October, and the Knowledge Network as well. I hope this movie gets picked up for distribution, because it’s a real eye-opener. It’s also very inspiring to see an articulate 68-year woman put heart and soul into digging her country out of a serious hole: a 90% unemployment rate, crumbling infrastructure, the constant threat of civil unrest. She is one strong lady, I tell you, but the film also shows her vulnerable side, the side that acknowledges the very real possibility she may fail to turn the country around.