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"A warm hug of a film" tells the story of Saturdays in Whitehorse

In "Saturday," Whitehorse filmmaker Jessica Hall follows her sister and mother through Whitehorse on their Saturday errands
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A still from the film Saturday.

Saturday, a short film by local filmmaker Jessica Hall, will screen at the opening night of the Available Light Film Festival on Feb. 7, 2025.

The documentary tells the story of Katherine, Jessica’s older sister, who lives with an intellectual disability. It’s a film that seams together old home video of Katherine as a child, Katherine and her mother enjoying a summer Saturday in modern-day Whitehorse, and the footage of a dollhouse the pair are forever renovating.

“It’s called Saturday because when my sister moved out of the family home, and when she moved out into her first apartment and lived on her own, my mom would spend every Saturday with her to teach her new skills, learn new recipes, they’d go shopping together and then it eventually sort of became their day,” said Hall in a Feb. 3 interview with the News.

Hall initially pitched the film to industry representatives at a session hosted by the Yukon Film

The National Film Board fully funded the project. Hall directed and wrote the film, with Teri Snelgrove acting as a producer.

She said her mother and sister were on board with the film at every stage of the process, starting with when she was pitching it to the National Film Board.

“They're used to me filming them, and they're so good on camera, like they're just funny, witty, interesting people,” said Hall.

The documentary also unravels the tale of how the Hall family came to Canada, from England via Hong Kong.

At the time, the family did not know that Katherine’s disability could have potentially complicated the immigration: while making the film, Hall learned of the “excessive demand” clause, which allows immigration agents to refuse immigration to people they believe will require too many resources.

“It's really subjective. It depends on who you have at the border, who you have in your process to look at you and determine if they think that you're going to have an excessive demand on social services,” said Hall.

“I believe that that is something that really needs to be revised, because it dehumanizes people and turns them to a dollar figure, and it's unfair, because you don't know, you don't know what people's potential are, right?”

Katherine has paid back into the system more than she has ever taken out, said Hall. She’s competed in sports nationally and internationally, and gone to the Special Olympics. She’s worked a full-time job for thirty years, said Hall. She called Katherine a role model.

“Part of this film was like, I was looking to celebrate that my parents saw the potential in Katherine, and they did what they could to help her navigate this world without any supports,” said Hall.

The film also shines a spotlight on Katherine and her mother’s shared hobby of building dollhouses: something that her mother had done since childhood, which was rekindled upon finding a dollhouse kit at the Whitehorse Salvation Army thrift store.

Whitehorse locations like the Wish Factory, Love2Thrift Whitehorse Community Thrift Store, Home Hardware and Well-Read Books among others make an appearance in the film as it follows mother and daughter through their Saturday rituals.

“That’s one thing that I really wanted people to get when they watch the film is that it's a warm hug of a film,” said Hall. “It's meant to entertain and put a smile on people's face. It's not a sad film about disability. It's a happy film about disability.”

Contact Talar Stockton at talar.stockton@yukon-news.com