While the spring of 2022 was nothing short of fast and furious, a very busy summer has followed. This has included the start of our first series, with awards and accolades along the way.
The full production of Almost Unsolved, a 26 episode series broadcasted on Super Channel and True Crime Network, was set in motion this July. From Vancouver to Los Angles, Iowa to Montana, our production team has travelled across the US Midwest and down the West Coast, sitting down with fascinating people who have solved cold case homicides.
The series follows cases that have collected dust over decades but were not left unsolved due to the culmination of unremitting work done by investigators, forensic scientists, community members and beyond. The stories are told by those who have worked relentlessly to uncover harrowing truths of the past, inching closer to justice and closure for the victims, their families, and communities.
While this series may seem like a departure from R31’s previous body of work, the project is in many ways an extension of our earlier documentary, Suspended and the Art of Forgiveness, where hope was never relinquished in the wake of tragedy. Veering away from gratuitous dramatization and graphic recreations, Almost Unsolved offers reflections about systemic biases, frailties of the judicial systems, public safety, and collective resilience.
The Satanic Panic and the Religious Battle for the Imagination profiles the Reverend Derek White (aka The Geekpreacher) as he unpacks the hostile religious attitudes toward the game Dungeons & Dragons during the 80’s. The film completed in March and recently began airing on Super Channel in Canada. It also has begun it’s festival run and, after privately screening at the Gary Con on Lake Geneva, the film’s big debut was at Gen Con. This event was initiated back in the 60’s by Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons. Satanic Panic won Best Gamer Film in front of a record audience and was followed by a Q&A with the Reverend White that ran over time.
In the wake of Gen Con, the film has been given another award – the Award of Excellence, at the Accolade Global Film Competition. This festival is no stranger to Refuge 31, as it has been honoured numerous times with other projects, including The Science Fiction Makers and The Last Objectors. These are exponential wins for Satanic Panic and everyone that participated in it’s making. The Satanic Panic is going to be screening at the Galactic Imaginarium Film Festival in Romania in September, where it has been placed as a finalist. The film was quite timely; perhaps the season three Stranger Things on Netflix, which covers exactly this theme, had something to do with this. It may also be that during the pandemic, Dungeons and Dragons saw record growth. Either way, we’re proud of our film.
Lastly, R31 has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions since Volendam: A Refugee Story premiered at the Reel to real Film Festival in Winnipeg, February 2020. It won best feature documentary while setting a festival attendance record. Then, we lost our in-person audience only a month later, having COVID-19 hit. Nonetheless, Volendam kept winning awards and screen overseas, welcoming in-person audiences in Paraguay and Germany, and is now broadcasting in Germany.
More recently, Volendam won a Remi – Special Jury Award at Houston Worldfest 2022. R31 is honoured to retell the story of the Russian Mennonite refugees who fled west with the retreating German Army during World War Two. While narratives of displacement and war continue to escalate in Ukraine, hearts are heavy, and a new surge of people are interested in learning about refugee stories. We are grateful to those who participated in this production and willingly shared their story.
That’s a summary of the multitude of exciting things happening now at R31. Stay tuned from more to come!
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