BRITISH COLUMBIA — Katherine Dodds The Communist Joke Book Vancouver Screen Siren Leah Mallen met UK director Ben Lewis (of BBC Art Safari fame), at an art conference in Ottawa. Lewis had pitched a feature doc idea at IDFA,
Keep ReadingI didn’t get a chance to go to a large number of Hot Docs this year, but the ones I did get to see were looked at with the critical eye of
Keep ReadingThe 18th annual Images Festival boasted a fresh artistic programmer—Jeremy Rigsby, courtesy of Windsor’s renowned Media City—and a stronger emphasis on internationalism. Along with that commitment to international content, this year’s festival
Keep ReadingMany of us belong to that category of citizens poetically described as the “walking worried.” (Adelphia Communications: $2.5 billion bankruptcy.) We are those who realize that things have gone awry, but are
Keep ReadingToronto’s film community was galvanized this spring by the lively presence of Errol Morris at Hot Docs, where he received that festival’s Outstanding Achievement Award. It’s just one of many honours that
Keep ReadingNeed an inspirational shot in the arm? Ever wonder how to bend technology to your will? Or how to explore complex questions of identity, politics, death? Then spend some time with a
Keep ReadingHenry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro’s Murderball, a bracingly unsentimental look at the culture of quadriplegic rugby, is not only mainstream documentary filmmaking of a high order, but also undoubtedly the best
Keep ReadingThis is a story about love—love between a man and a woman from vastly different worlds, love of family and love of multi-cultural Toronto. A good storyteller has the ability to gently
Keep ReadingAs the lights went up in the small Berkeley auditorium, there was a stunned moment of silence, then several hands rose in the air: “Will this be on PBS?” It was a
Keep Reading“In a real tragedy, it is not the hero who perishes; it is the chorus.” — Joseph Brodsky On May 29, 1985, in the final of the annual tournament to decide Europe’s best football
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