"Beat Nation" at Grunt Gallery, Vancouver Calling young (aged 16-19) Canadian political artists. Here’s a chance to get your work noticed, publicized and into the National Gallery of Canada (NGC). The NGC has announced its second annual So You Want to Be an Artist contest. It’s a cheezey title, but
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Art Threat: Little pink blenders for you and me – Friday Film Pick: Pink Ribbons Inc
This week’s Friday Film Pick is a fantastic new NFB documentary opening in theatres across Canada (rest of the world: you’ll have to probably wait a little). Pink Ribbons Inc goes behind the scenes of the breast cancer campaign (the pink ribbon campaign) and reveals the absolutely grotesque levels of
Continue readingArt Threat: Groucho Marx: What this country needs
This is an excerpt from Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales: Selected Writings of Groucho Marx, edited by Robert S. Bader. During the 1940s Groucho would often write about topics related to World War II while remaining, for the most part, non-political. At home, however, most discussions
Continue readingArt Threat: Gasland director arrested in Washington – Politicians have acclaimed filmmaker hauled away from hearing
Josh Fox is an American video artist who rose to critical acclaim for his 2010 documentary feature breakthrough, Gasland. The creatively funky, seriously personal, and lively-paced film chronicles Fox’s investigation into hydraulic fracking (where deposits of natural gas are extracted from the earth leaving poison and destruction behind) resonated with
Continue readingArt Threat: Call for artists in support of ‘Occupy’ movement – Online, international platform for performances, installations, actions in real time
Project Lowlives is seeking artists for a global online live presentation of artistic work in support the Occupy movement. Lowlives: Occupy! will take place on March 3, 2012. From the website: The Occupy protests, and the myriad of perspectives and experiences related to this unique moment, will be amplified, explored,
Continue readingArt Threat: Amazing online cinema archive for educators – 2500 films & study guides in NFB’s “Campus” project
"Oxford Tire Pile #8" by Edward Burtynsky The National Film Board of Canada — producer of such great films as Manufacturing Consent, Ryan, Jesus of Montreal, The Decline of the American Empire, The Big Snit, Lonely Boy, Manufactured Landscapes, Madame Tutli-Putli, Rocks at Whiskey Trench, Walltown – has announced an
Continue readingArt Threat: Historical truth is in the outtakes – Friday Film Pick: A Film Unfinished
A Film Unfinished (2010, Germany-Israel) had so much festival hype that when I couldn’t get my hands on a screener, I feverishly pre-ordered the film from Amazon – a practice I seldom initiate. When the handsomely designed DVD package arrived I watched it instantly, and as soon as the film
Continue readingArt Threat: And the Oscar goes to…another white guy – Academy Awards #84 give middle finger to women, again
The above video demonstrates how, waaaaaay back in 2009, most movies didn’t pass the Bechdel Test for women in movies, a simple three-part process to determine whether women are afforded positive representation in any given film or not. Not only does the latest batch of Oscar nominations miserably fail the
Continue readingArt Threat: Two films show effects of uranium mining – Friday Film Pick: Don’t Mine Me & Uranium
Continuing with our new initiative of highlighting at least one Indiegogo project each month, one of this week’s Friday Film Pick is Don’t Mine Me – a doc looking at the history of uranium mining on a Navajo Indian Reservation in the US. Since you can only watch the trailer
Continue readingArt Threat: Five free films for the next two days – Doc Alliance offers Israeli docs for Jan 16 & 17
For a limited time—today and tomorrow (Jan 16 and 17) only—Doc Alliance has reduced streaming prices to zero (yes that means free) for five Avi Mograbi documentaries. Mograbi is an Israeli filmmaker best known for his deeply personal and thoughtful mediation on the hypocrisy and mendacity involving Israel’s recounting of
Continue readingArt Threat: Let’s keep this planet & change Hollywood – Friday Film Pick: Earthkeepers
Suffering through the late night throes of programming for Cinema Politica I stumbled upon what seemed to be a promising documentary called Greenlit, a film about sustainability and the film industry, made by LA insiders. It had a light-hearted start that seemed to me conspicuously set up to suck in
Continue readingArt Threat: Palestinian Sesame Street victim of politics – Shara’a Simsim loses its funding from USAID
Palestine’s Sesame Street – in Arabic known as Shara’a Simsim – will not go into production this season. The US Congress is to blame. In October, when Palestine was admitted membership in UNESCO, the US withheld some $200 million in retaliation. Hospitals, communications, education, government programs in Palestine have all
Continue readingArt Threat: The Noise of Cairo explores art in revolution
The Noise of Cairo is an upcoming documentary about the Cairo art scene after the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Produced by scenesfrom, this “cinematic kaleidoscope” interviews a dozen artists and explores the role played by creatives during the revolution. Via African Digital Art.
Continue readingArt Threat: 23 political art stories from 2011
Washed Up by Alejandro Durán The New Year is officially upon us, but we want to take one last opportunity to look in the rear view mirror. Here are 23 of our favourite stories and projects that took place in the world of political art in 2011. Do you have
Continue readingArt Threat: Not a cool time to be Canadian – Friday Film Pick: Everything’s Cool
On Monday the Canadian government officially announced the very unpopular decision to withdraw from Kyoto, furthering Canada’s status as eco-pariah on the international stage while reinforcing the massive chasm that exists between Canada’s citizens and its Conservative government. Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won a majority in last year’s election despite the
Continue readingArt Threat: Help fund new doc about a rebel poet – Friday Film Pick: Alice Walker – Beauty in Truth
This week’s Friday Film Pick kicks off a new initiative at Art Threat where we will select at least one IndieGoGo project per month to highlight important fundraising efforts. IndieGoGo is an independent fundraising platform for all kinds of projects, including political films and political art initiatives. Since political art
Continue readingArt Threat: Help fund Project Homophobia film – Friday Film Pick: The Boy Next Door
Gregor Schmidinger’s 2008 short film The Boy Next Door has received its share of positive attention, and to date, has had over 52,000 viewings on Vimeo. The film, while mildly suffering a few stilted moments between adult and child actors, is a well-executed narrative fragment about a male prostitute, his
Continue readingArt Threat: Seeking alternatives to Quebec hydropoly – A review of Seeking the Current
As important as environmental documentaries are, it’s difficult not to tire of watching the ‘go green or risk oblivion’ narrative play out again and again. So when I read the synopsis of Seeking the Current, I was a bit apprehensive. But Nicolas Boisclair and Alexis de Gheldere’s documentary is far
Continue readingArt Threat: Propaganda and consumption – Friday Film Pick: Outfoxed & Wal-Town
Best Buy shoppers camp out before Black Friday, proving that certain kinds of occupations are indeed acceptable. This week’s Friday Film Pick is a double bill, commemorating two important moments. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism is a pick that commemorates the recent poll published by Fairleigh Dickinson University showing
Continue readingArt Threat: Oscar short list for best doc comes up short – List of fifteen films is missing some solid contenders
The 2012 Academy short lists were announced recently and the list for Best Documentary—a collection of apolitical, liberal, biographical, historical and some punchy fare—is missing its usual heavy lifters and heavy hitters. Once again the prolific Werner Herzog has been shunned by the Academy despite winning awards and accolades for
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