Against empathy?
This short animation from The Atlantic highlights some of Professor Paul Bloom’s thoughts on why empathy—at least a kind of status quo mainstream empathy—isn’t really a good thing at all.…
Doc Side
Against empathy?
This short animation from The Atlantic highlights some of Professor Paul Bloom’s thoughts on why empathy—at least a kind of status quo mainstream empathy—isn’t really a good thing at all.…
Fighting Fascism by way of Understanding the Fascists
One of the common criticisms of advocacy films like Bully that I’ve heard and share is that the filmmakers narrowly focus on victims without ever exploring those who perpetrate. These…
Fighting Fascism by way of Understanding the Fascists
One of the common criticisms of advocacy films like Bully that I’ve heard and share is that the filmmakers narrowly focus on victims without ever exploring those who perpetrate. These…
Streaming Truth to Power: CPVOD Launches!
The last 48 hours have been quite the whirlwind of activity at Cinema Politica HQ here in Montreal. We’ve been planning a launch date for our newest expansion of the…
Streaming Truth to Power: CPVOD Launches!
The last 48 hours have been quite the whirlwind of activity at Cinema Politica HQ here in Montreal. We’ve been planning a launch date for our newest expansion of the…
Curating the North: Documentary Screening Ethics and Inuit Representation in (Festival) Cinema
This article was originally published at ArtThreat.net on December 17, 2015. Documentary festivals are certainly not immune to scandal and controversy, and this year’s RIDM, which took place in Montreal…
Hot Docs 22: CanCon and BrandCon
North America’s largest and most sweeping doc-deluge, the Canadian International Hot Docs Festival, is once again in full swing, and the moment wouldn’t be complete, for me at least, without…
Still Talking about Challenge for Change
Challenge for Change/Société nouvelle was a program launched by the National Film Board of Canada in the late sixties that facilitated the production of around 200 social documentaries known for…
My Programmers Rant – 2014
I’ve watched over 50 documentaries in the last two weeks (and many more over 14 years of programming), and here’s what I’m thinking: The first point is so important that…
Launching the Cinema Politica Book
From left to right, at the Cinema Politica book launch: Svetla Turnin, John Greyson, Thomas Waugh and Ezra Winton. High up on the eleventh floor of Concordia’s EV (Engineering and…
CP book launch and John Greyson talk
This is the poster for the John Greyson talk and CP book launch in Montreal in a few days. Can’t wait!
Strategies and Tactics – April Speaking Event
I’ll be speaking at this roundtable on April 9th in Montreal. Looking forward to it!
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…
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…
The fish farm conspiracy – BC salmon are diseased from farms but the Canadian Govt covers it up
This is a great independent doc by a friend from British Columbia. It is absolutely shocking to see the lengths the provincial and federal governments are going to in order…
Black Sea pirates at Hot Docs
Svetla and I are giddy with anticipation with the thought of attending the world premiere of a new doc by our Bulgarian friends Vanya and Svetlo, THE LAST OF THE…
Representing addiction in documentary cinema
In just under a month on May 11th, I’ll be speaking in Vancouver at a conference about the intersection of documentary, addiction, madness and social health. I’ll be speaking about…
The animals on our screen – A review of The Ghosts in Our Machine
Over the last decade of programming political documentary for Cinema Politica I can say with confidence that there are two subjects that have always been decidedly divisive and caused the…
Free International Women’s Day Films at NFB.ca
The beaten (by the Canadian Conservative budget cuts) but not down National Film Board of Canada is offering a treasure trove of titles for free streaming today, in celebration and…