- September 24 2025, 7 - 10 pm
The Vancouver Island University Harm Reduction Alliance is inviting you to join us on Wednesday September 24 for an evening of art & film celebrating Harm Reduction as an Act of Love.
We are grateful to be collaborating with the VIU Theatre Department and the Malaspina Theatre at Vancouver Island University (VIU) to offer a free film screening of Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy and art exhibit with local artist & advocate Lenae Silva on Wednesday September 24, 2025. Doors open for 7 pm and film screening to start at 7:30 pm. Free admission & open to all.
Our guest artist Lenae Silva is an Indigenous artist, opiate user, activist, mover and shaker. She lives on Vancouver Island with her partner and two cats. Lenae works hard to provide outreach and advocacy to people with diverse lived and living experience of mental health challenges, poverty and substance use. She also seeks to enact policy change and education among service providers. Lenae is co-founder of Open Heart Collaborative.
Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy (National Film Board of Canada): Follow filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers as she creates an intimate portrait of her community and the impacts of the substance use and overdose epidemic. Witness the change brought by community members with substance-use disorder, first responders and medical professionals as they strive for harm reduction in the Kainai First Nation.
If you don't get a chance to join us for the film screening, the Malaspina Theatre will be hosting the art exhibit from September 24th to October 10th in the lobby.
We hope to see you there!