A new class, a new city
This just in! NSCAD University has informed me that they will indeed offer my class, “Cinemas of Globalization” this summer. I’m thrilled to be heading to Halifax for May and…
Ezra Winton
Strategies and Tactics – April Speaking Event
I’ll be speaking at this roundtable on April 9th in Montreal. Looking forward to it!
Halifax and Beyond
Earlier this month I had the pleasure and privilege of participating in NSCAD’s Cineflux Symposium, an academic gathering that explores the “old new” forms, modes, practices and theories of cinema.…
POV Magazine
When Marc Glassman, the editor of POV magazine, asked me to join the publication as the newest contributing editor last year I was honoured. As Canada’s only source of writing…
Completing a PhD is like Sailing. If you don’t know how to do either.
On December 18th, 2013, I sat in a stodgy IT classroom in Carleton University (Ottawa), surrounded by five extremely intelligent people (one via Skype) who were there to challenge, provoke,…
Gender Mender: XXY is a cinematic exploration of intersexuality
From a purely organizational standpoint, there are plenty of reasons for the gender binary. The system delineates male and female characteristics as separate and static, ostensibly facilitating a natural and…
Remembering documentary film legend Peter Wintonick
You want to bring them back. Would they, if they could, return, after such a heavy crossing? You try, until the wish, almost disattached, gnawing, growling, finally bursts loose to…
Old and new political satire
These two short political satires (above) are from different eras (1986 and 2013, respectively) and tackling totally different issues (colonization/racism and sexuality/homophobia, respectively), but watching the newer of the two,…
Friday Film Pick: Things are Different Now
Ryan Conrad recently pulled his film from the Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival because the festival, despite a robust budget and years of protest from filmmakers, audiences and…
The costs of consumption
The next time someone asks me why I’m an anti-capitalist, I’m just going to tell them to watch GREEN: DEATH OF THE FORESTS by Patrick Rouxel. A stunning visual essay…
Friday Film Pick: Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade
This week’s FFP is a new one-hour documentary by Garrett Graham (in collaboration with the Tar Sands Blockade) about the direct action efforts of activists in Texas, who try to…
Butch Dykes: A Herstory told in zines
At the recent Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, where another (better) world of incredibly inspiring, provocative and boundary-pushing art and media is on display each year, I stumbled upon Eloisa Aquino and…
In honour of Morgentaler
Democracy on Trial: The Morgentaler Affair by Paul Cowan, National Film Board of Canada This week’s Friday Film Pick is the NFB doc about Dr. Norman Morgentaler, the Canadian physician…
My birthday wish: Support alternative media
Today is my birthday, and my birthday wish—aside from health and happiness for my friends and especially my family—is for widespread and even sustained! support for alternative and independent media,…
We will stop Monsanto: Docs on an agribully
Today in over 250 countries worldwide, thousands of people marched against agricorpo giant Monsanto. The St Louis based chemical company is known for genetically modifying crops and trapping farmers into…
Controversial Coke advert causes stir in Australia
Without a doubt, Coca-Cola is one of the worst companies on the planet. From its murderous human rights violations stamping out unions in Latin America (especially at Colombian bottling plants)…
Tree-sitting among giants
This week’s Friday Film Pick is the Vimeo staff pick and festival favourite short film Among Giants. Image-rich and information-light, it’s a lovely meditation on activists putting the environment before…
Crack smoking Toronto Mayor animation
If this isn’t the strangest and most awesome video you’ll watch today, then you are watching some pretty strange and awesome stuff. Tawainese animators have taken on the story of…
An honest Coca-Cola advert
Without a doubt, Coca-Cola is one of the worst companies on the planet. From its murderous human rights violations stamping out unions in Latin America (especially at Colombian bottling plants)…
Swaping songs for socks: has Indiegogo become colonized by capital?
Remember when crowdfunding was a baby? It was an innocent but fierce little phenomenon that you would feed, along with a whole community, and lo and behold, a project would…