Animated NFB Short The Basketball Game Now A Graphic Novel

Brian:  How did you decide to turn the film into a book?

Hart:  From the very beginning I’ve loved graphic novels and comic books, so the part of the story when you see me at camp reading this Super Mensch comic – that was me. From nine up to now, I’m still reading comics and graphic novels. The idea of doing it as a book was always sort of there. And there was a treatment of the imagery in the film so that it had an old-used-book texture on top of all the frames, because I felt it was like some story that got left behind in a cabin, and all these years later it’s being discovered.

The NFB collaborates with Firefly Books to turn some of their animated films into books. I proposed doing my film as a graphic novel incorporating the original art from the film, but getting to fill out the story, because in graphic novel format I could add more context – a map, a glossary. It’s got some thought-provoking questions at the end, and I was hoping, just as the film has been, the book could be a resource to teachers in schools and to parents.

Brian: I notice the questions at the end were done by two other people {Benje Bondar and Anna-Mae Wiesenthal}.

Hart: Yes, two teachers. [The discussion questions] were based off the questions they had talked about in class after showing the film. Benje, I actually know from going to camp BB.

Brian: I was looking at the Glossary and thinking, Wow, define Holocaust Denial in 30 words or less in a way that’s helpful to a 12-year-old.

Hart: Yeah, it’s a challenge. And twelve years old is the age that Holocaust education does start so that’s why we have 12 and up as a guide.

Brian: In the ten years between the film and the book, did you rethink things?

Hart: I think the world changed on me. When I was making the film, I was looking back on something I remembered, and I was learning things about what Keegstra had taught in his class, things I’d never heard of before. And I feel now ten years later, I’m seeing some of those things in the news or talked about online and in social media and I’m realizing just like in 1983 when the community had this response to it, that it’s something now that parents and kids and teachers need to talk about, because it’d be nice if they’d heard of it before they might see some of these ideas.

Brian: When you say, “I’m seeing some of those things,” what things?

Hart: Conspiracy theories, which was at the heart of what Keegstra was teaching. I think they’re repeated online now in a way Keegstra couldn’t have imagined. I’m hoping the story of what happened back then can be a positive way to talk about some of these antisemitic ideas.

Brian: I remember the Keegstra affair well, but I never heard this story of the kids coming to Camp BB before now.

Hart: Well, no. In the Red Deer Advocate article at the back [of the book], the Principal of Eckville High is saying we agreed to keep this out of the press. So it was intentional. The CBC was there making a documentary, and the New York Times. But this part of the story was not talked about.