The Reel World Film Festival in April opened with a gala performance of the made in Canada film A Winter Tale. It won the award for best Canadian feature at the festival which included films from a number of countries.<br /><br />It's the work of British-born, Trinidad raised Frances-Anne Solomon whose experience embraces award winning feature films and television productions for the BBC.<br /><br />Leonie Forbes, Jamaica's "first lady of film" won the festival's award of excellence for her telling performance as Miss G, the proprietor of a small restaurant in Toronto's Parkdale district, where the entire tale is set during bleak winter time.<br /><br />After a ten-year-old boy is shot by a stray bullet a social worker tries to form a black men's support group seeking a witness to the crime. But it's an uphill struggle against fear of retribution from neighborhood, drug dealing gangs is portrayed. A Winter Tale offers a searching perspective on the timely issues of gun violence, set against the backdrop of a Caribbean community's hopes and tribulations. The film, although fictional is directed and filmed with a documentary-like sense of realism. It reminds one how shallow are the "reality" TV shows when art can imitate life in such a telling fashion.<br /><br />At present, I can't tell you where this moving film might be shown theatrically, but please watch out for A Winter Tale.