Artist Rita Briansky has had her paintings displayed in many museums and galleries. Growing up in a small lumber town in Northern Ontario and then in Montreal, Rita was always a loner and non-conformist. Now at 92, she is still searching, innovating, creating. As a teacher, she inspires seniors, helping them live more productive lives.

Rent or Buy
A new Life on the Land, and
Montreal Jewish Memories
on VIMEO.

RENT: $0.99 for 1 month
BUY: $7.99

Click here to view trailers of Montreal Jewish Memories (Parts I to IV).

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Previous festivals and public screenings:

Toronto Jewish Film Festival, 2018
The Wonder and the Amazement - Rita Briansky on her Life in Art

Montreal, Temple Emanu-El-Beth Shalom, 2015
A New Life on the Land, Jewish Farmers in Canada

Vancouver, BC, Canada, Jewish Genealogical Society, 2015
A New Life on the Land, Jewish Farmers in Canada

Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States: Levin JCC Film Series, 2014
A New Life on the Land, Jewish Farmers in Canada

Ottawa, Canada, Soloway JCC, 2014
A New Life on the Land, Jewish Farmers in Canada

Bucharest, Romania: Bucharest Jewish Film Festival, 2014
A New Life on the Land, Jewish Farmers in Canada

Montreal Jewish Public Library and the Genealogical Society, 2014
A New Life on the Land, Jewish Farmers in Canada

2014 Toronto Jewish Film Festival (Programme)
A New Life on the Land, Jewish Farmers in Canada

Mountain Lake PBS Plattsburgh
Montreal Jewish Memories, Part I, II, III and IV

Montreal Jewish Public Library
Montreal Jewish Memories, Part I, II, III and IV

Toronto Jewish Film Festival 2004
Montreal Jewish Memories, Part III - Stories of the War Years

Ashkelon, Israel,
International Jewish Film Festival
Montreal Jewish Memories, Part IV - Post-War Stories 1945-1952

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Awards:

Montreal Jewish Memories was awarded the 2008 Michael Moskovitz Prize for Film/Video on a Jewish Theme at The Jewish Public Library on November 11, 2008.

Montreal Jewish Memories, (Parts I and II) was awarded Honourable Mention at The First Annual Jewish Video Competition at the Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley, California on May 26, 1994

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Haying, Trochu Settlement, Alberta, 1917

A New Life on the Land, Jewish Farmers in Canada
As told on camera by early settlers, their children and grandchildren, this is a story of Jews who came to farm Canadian soil, to savour the odour of prairie flowers and cope with blizzards, locusts....and debt. It's about escape from poverty and oppression in Eastern Europe, of first winters living in underground shelters, of clearing the land and bringing in first crops, of the woman's contribution, of schools and synagogues, of community get-togethers and singing. From the West to Quebec and Ontario, from two hot runaway oxen in 1900 to a prize-winning dairy herd today, from grain to organic vegetables, an ongoing story of Jewish farming in Canada.

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Montreal Jewish Memories is a series of four films which recreates the life of Montreal's Jewish community - from the early immigrant years, through the Depression and World War II, to the Post-War period. Laughter, tears and - above all - vitality.