On the RIDM 2008 Pre-selection Committee

Yesterday I had lunch with the incredibly experienced and calm André Paquet (at right), who has been programming Montreal’s Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal (RIDM) for the last three years. In Canada, RIDM is second only to Hot Docs in size, but in my books (and André’s) it has resisted the hyper-market business zeal that other large fests like TIFF and Hot Docs tend toward (who do for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is pressure from funding agencies) in favour of a more nuanced cultural…read more

Svetla and yours truly try to explain what it is we do at Cinema Politica

Concordia prof, activist, filmmaker and friend Liz Miller recently finished her documentary on the privatization of Highland Park’s water services in Detroit, Michigan, called The Water Front. We screened the film this past February 4th at the Concordia Cinema Politica. As the 600 or so audience members filed into the H-110 Auditorium, Liz and her assistant interviewed Svetla and myself on grassroots organizing of cinema screenings. The resulting short video actually makes it seem like we know what we’re talking about, so yes, we’re proud.

What is radical pedagogy?

Posted by ezra in Academix, Pedagogy

I don’t usually post other articles or essays in their entirety, but this one is a solid introductory effort seeking to answer the above question, and it’s very concise. I’ve been interested in radical pedagogy off and on, throughout my scholarly meanderings and find this particular text useful. I’ve lifted it from the ICAAP Radical Pedagogy site. Pictured above is one of the “founding figures” of radical pedagogy, Paulo Freire. What is Radical Pedagogy Timothy McGettigan The concept, “radical pedagogy,” has many different meanings. For some, a discussion of radical…read more

April 4th, snow

For all of you reading this in parts of Canada that aren’t experiencing snow – take a look at the view from my apartment this morning and remember how good you have it!! It’s snowing for god’s sake it’s snowing!!!! I want spring, please someone deliver spring to Montreal! To keep me sane while I’m blogging away and writing papers, I’ve been tapping the following online podcasts for entertainment, inspiration, and bits of imagined sunshine… + Democracy Now! (one hour daily podcast with Amy Goodman) + Film School (weekly 20…read more

Opting out of phone spam just got easier

I was as thrilled as anyone else when the Canadian government announced their proposed bill to dampen phone spam (unsolicited phone calling) to Canadians a couple of years back. I was then very disappointed, but not all that surprised to learn that there was a loophole allowing many companies to be “exempt” from the opt-out list, effectively taking much of the wind out of the legislative sails. Then along came Michael Geist. Media activist and newspaper columnist Geist has created a new website where Canadians can, in three simple steps,…read more

A Simple Curve

I recently had the pleasure of watching a Canadian fiction feature that has come out on DVD in the last year. Thank the film gods that there are independent video stores like Montreal’s Boite Noir, or I may have never discovered the little gem called A Simple Curve. The fim’s plot is suggested in the title – a tidy little arc about a father and son living in British Columbia’s absolutely stunning Slocan valley. The son, played by Kris Lemche, is growing increasingly testy with both his business relationship with…read more

In the dead of the night on a Greyhound bus, there’s always Deadwood

Greyhound bus, 9:30 PM, somewhere between Ottawa and Montreal. Long bus trips are trying at the best of times, so making a two and a half hour sojourn twice a week between Montreal and Ottawa seemed a natural site for some intervention in the form of distraction. Every Wednesday evening after a long day of classes and TA discussion groups my colleague Michael and myself hurry our exhausted bodies and brains to the Greyhound bus station in Ottawa to barely make the 9PM run to Montreal. Once in our seats,…read more

A documentary decade

It’s reading break, and between Svetla’s birthday, a roudy trip to Quebec City for Carnival, and some recent private screenings with friends and drinks, I am trying to clear the cobwebs before the reading begins. The film we recently previewed over a few beer was Terror’s Advocate, worth checking out, but not a great doc to wade into without a truckload of a priori knowledge. The film covers so much historical ground that I was often lost and need of rest stops with a bit more clarification. Still, a very…read more

My book review on Zoë Druick’s “Projecting Canada”

Nouvelle <<vues>> sur le cinéma québécois has published my review of Projecting Canada: Government Policy and Documentary Film at the National Film Board, published by McGill-Queens University Press, in 2007. The review appears to have one grammatical error, and I’m not sure if that’s my fault or has happened later in the process, but it’s up and waiting to be read. The one problem with the journal’s site is that it is in php, and is a bit frustrating to navigate while also not allowing direct links to parts of…read more

If a jacket burns and there is no Facebook group, does anyone see it?

The following post was originally (as in five minutes ago) posted on one of my graduate class’s blog, called Entertainment Studies. It’s about Facebook and burning jackets. I get it already – Facebook is great because it connects us to old friends that we might not otherwise have been connected with, it’s more subtle and informal than email or telephones, it’s a way to promote events (the film series I curate, Cinema Politica, has several Facebook groups). Many of these great qualities I have decided to miss out on, and…read more