Premiere: Thursday, September 21, 2023
ANNA KALJAS: THE UNTOLD STORY
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It could be to 2 friends or 250 clients; in your living room; at movie theatre or a gala fundraiser.
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“Anna Kaljas: The Untold Story” explores the remarkable life of a passionate social justice advocate who came to Canada as a refugee from Estonia after World War II and ended up as a member of the Order of Canada.
Anna Kaljas believed that one person could make a difference – something she proved time and again. Anna’s example endures as the measure of how we must care for each other.
Throughout her life (1912- 2010), Anna Kaljas opened her heart and often her home to those whom society had left behind. She was a courageous leader, compassionate caregiver, a teacher and mentor.
She cared for the addicted, troubled youth, the mentally ill, unhoused people – anyone who struggled to make their way was welcomed at her home.
Shortly after she arrived in Canada in 1951, Anna Kaljas created a shelter for people in need. She financed her first house in downtown Kitchener with earnings from her job as a nurse’s aide at the local hospital. Eventually she owned four more neighbouring houses. Her radical outreach upset bureaucrats, but won the hearts of the community.
The film is a sweeping view of Anna’s life from childhood to contemporary times. It chronicles her early years in Estonia, her arduous escape from the Soviet occupation of her homeland and her new life in Canada.
It is not only a retrospective of Anna Kaljas’ life and its impact on “her people”, family and friends, but it also re-frames her example as a beacon of hope in today’s housing crisis.
About Making the Film
As an artist, I document the lives of ordinary people as a way of illustrating and building the greater community narrative that unfolds as we live our lives day-to-day. I intentionally seek out stories in the place where I live, telling them in the hope they’ll be heard above the drone of our media-cluttered life.
First as a journalist and then as a filmmaker with an emphasis on the social service sector, I have long observed and admired the work of social justice advocate Anna Kaljas – the subject of this film.
During the research and filming, I developed a strong relationship with many people whose lives she impacted.
Not only her family and friends, but also those she cared for at her shelter. People such as Eric Brown, now a resident of Peterborough. Eric spent 28 years living at the shelter Anna Kaljas created. The shelter closed in 2021, and his niece Sue Sauve (Eric’s longtime advocate and support person) then moved him to Peterborough where she lives and works.
I interviewed many longtime friends and colleagues of Anna. I spent time at the shelter documenting the Kaljas family’s work and their challenges maintaining the shelter in the context of the current housing and drug crisis.
Through the process, I came to realize that Anna’s legacy has reach well beyond her death in 2010. Interviews with other social justice advocates and journalists inspired by Anna underlined the ways she set the tone for how we must care for each other.
Dwight Storring
Documentary Filmmaker
Dwight Storring began making films in 2010 after more than 25 years in the newspaper business – as a photojournalist, photo editor, website editor and business development manager at the Waterloo Region Record.
Filmmaking was a return to his first love … telling the stories of ordinary people. Much of his early work centred on the social services sector with commissions from such Waterloo Region non-profits as the House of Friendship, Women’s Crisis Services and the Region of Waterloo Health Department.
In 2018, he produced and directed “Finding John Lingwood”, a feature-length documentary chronicling the career of one of a handful of mid-century modern architects who shaped the look of Waterloo Region. In 2020, Storring created Dog’s Best Friend, a series of documentary shorts produced for Bell Media.
Storring was Artist in Residence at the City of Kitchener (2014); Journalist in Residence, University of Waterloo (2005); and Resident Artist at Theatre and Company (2001).
Visually Speaking 