Featuring Rosemary Brown & Ruth Horricks-Sujir
Time capsules offer the irresistible allure of history transformed into something more real, more
tangible, much like a story being told right from the teller’s lips. In Leila Sujir’s moving
documentary portrait, Rosemary Brown and Ruth Horricks-Sujir share their own stories with their 7 year-old grandson, Jackson. For Jackson weaves the personal accounts of these two women with archival footage from the time – subtly intervening into what usually stands for “official” history.
From Rosemary’s home on the west coast of B.C., to the striking Prairie vistas near Ruth’s home
in Alberta, many similarities emerge in the stories of these courageous women from very different
backgrounds. Both left their home countries as young women to forge new lives overseas –
Rosemary left Jamaica to study in Canada, and Ruth travelled from rural Canada to India where
she married Raghu Sujir and started a family.
Rosemary Brown had an extensive record of public service and political activism. She was the first
Black woman elected to public office in Canada (1972), a Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human
Rights Commission and recipient of the Order of Canada and the Order of Distinction, Jamaica.
For Jackson: A Time Capsule from His Two Grandmothers re-works stereotypes around aging and
time, as the time capsule re-positions us in these women's lives. Although looking back on history, this time capsule for Jackson always maintains a sense of surprise. For Jackson becomes a journey for the viewer, moving through ordinary and extraordinary moments, exploring the many ways in which these women faced the world with courage – at once ahead of their own times, and now, a part of ours.