Editor’s Note:
EZ Rock host Shaun Aquiline is a talented guy. He’s also sensitive and doesn’t mind wearing his heart on his sleeve. Those are good things to be when you’re making a film. As you’ll find out below, Shaun wrote the script for a short, 20-minute film that is gritty and emotionally tough. It’s really a pretty good. I encourage everyone to take 20 minutes to watch Working Class Heroes.
In 2005 I noticed that my 56-year-old father was starting to take on a side job working with sheet metal. This was something he had gone to BCIT for in his far off past, so it was odd to see him at it 30 years later. He already had a good union job as a Teamster with a warehouse that sends and receives manufacturing goods from all over Canada. The very items we use here in Revelstoke to build our houses and create our homes.
I asked him why and he told me that it was for “extra golf money.” It made sense at the time, but I could see it was wearing him out. I further learned that a big conglomerate wanted to buy out the business he worked for, thus relieving the workers that had dedicated over 30 years of their lives, too. I realized he was concerned. Why keep him on board with his pay, pension and benefits when they could hire a younger person without all the perks?
Growing up with my Working Class Dad, I truly appreciated what he did. It wasn’t glamorous, or filled with riches and fame. It was a task, a job, but it gave me the wonderful life I had. My father worked hard in the warehouse and supported my dreams. So did the others that worked there. I started to ask: “What would happenWhat would these workers do? Who would hire someone 56 and older?” I started to truly see the concern and a harsh reality that they faced.
I interviewed all the workers, found out their concerns and also got the inside scoop on how the company buyout was going down. A serious element of shade was behind the buyout and in the end; one man stood to make a lot of money, while the workers — were left in the dust. One of those heroes was my father.
This became my Cinderella story. Telling my father’s story — he thought there was nothing to this storyline, but he now admits he was wrong. Dad’s swan song was the same as many others that he worked with, and also the same as many working class employees across Canada. This story became a One-man-show that was performed at UBC, then a full length script, and finally adapted for a 20-minute short.
After eight years of trial and error, heartache and frustration, fundraising and finding the right cast; Working Class Heroes was filmed in the winter of 2013/14 and completed in 2016. The film was accepted to the National Screen Institute of Canada, and had an opening day release on Monday, November 28.
This story is for my father, and all the workers across Canada who have been touched by this very real situation. Although this movie is filled with heart and soul it is a scary story. Sometimes the biggest scare in life is the element of losing everything you have, everything you worked for, and losing yourself in the process. We say, what we do does not define who we are. For some, that is true, for others, that is all they know.
Working Class Heroes is for the workers. For those that know this story all too well. The real workers of Canada, The real Working Class Heroes… something to be.
Working Class Heroes is for the workers, for those that know this story all too well, the real workers of Canada, the real Working Class Heroes… something to be.
Please activate the Vimeo player below to watch the film:
Working Class Heroes is written by Shaun Aquiline and directed by UBC Professor Tom Scholte
Shaun Aquiline is the morning radio host at Revelstoke’s Easy Rock 106.3 FM
