ezra winton

20 Questions for Film Curators

Posted by in Art, Cinema, Culture and Politics, Festivals

This past winter I taught a graduate seminar course at Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (Concordia University) entitled “Curatorial Practices and the Politics of Programming.” It was a fantastic and meaningful experience and I was fortunate enough to have 13 engaged students, all of whom suffered along with me as I attempted to make sense of my overly-ambitious and newly minted syllabus. After a few weeks of the course and after several discussions around programming ethics, responsibilities, practices, and outcomes, we decided to compile a list of questions that someone curating or programming film might…read more

Painting, Resisting, Giggling: An Interview with George Littlechild

Posted by in Art, Culture and Politics, Interviews

I first stumbled upon George Littlechild’s art at the Comox Valley Art Gallery in my hometown of Courtenay, British Columbia. After reeling from the emotional turmoil and historical reopening, rapprochement and reordering rendered in his bold and colourful brush strokes and integration of collage through archives, I was delighted further to learn that Littlechild resided right there, in my little town. After several years run by a city council dominated by career politicians and land developers, Courtenay has come to resemble the big box subsidiary that many other communities in…read more

Trading songs for socks

Posted by in Art, Capital and Culture

Remember when crowd funding 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 be raised, big and strong ready to tackle the world. Amazing things like literacy projects, art therapy, and independent documentaries were among the steadily highlighted cultural offerings on sites like Indiegogo.com. These days I look at my weekly emails (like the one to the left) from Indiegogo and I see nothing but entrepreneurs trying to raise money to sell…read more

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Love and death on the side of the road

Posted by in Art, Art Threat, Interviews

Kate Puxley is a visual artist whose work has drawn attention to the Harper government’s damaging policies toward art and culture as well as our relationship with animals and the natural environment. Arresting, breathtaking, and inimitable, her drawings, paintings, installations, and most recently her taxidermy sculptures, are provocations and interventions in the social, political and environmental landscapes. Art Threat got a chance to talk with her about some of her recent works and what it means to transform the dead into art. Ezra Winton: Your roadkill series is exceptional —…read more

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Absolutely brilliant

Posted by in Art

Fabulous animation mixed with hilarious words from kids sorting out the world’s problems makes for one brilliant video. Enjoy.

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Framing Harper

Posted by in Art, Art Threat, Mediactivism

Well I came up with a doozy of an idea recently. The plan: launch a national contest for artists to submit portraits of Stephen Harper that show his “committment” to the arts. This is in the wake of massive cuts to the arts by Harper and his Conservatives and most recently his axing of the National Portrait Gallery. So Rob and Michael and myself are making it happen over at Art Threat. We’ve announced the contest and put together a jury that includes Sheila Copps, the former Minsiters of Heritage!…read more

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Tyrell on Roadsworth’s stump

Posted by in Art, Personal Travails

I was with my little brother Tyrell las week in downtown Montreal, and low-and-behold, in front of the huge shopping mall on St Catharines Street, we saw street stencil art that was clearly done by the infamous Roadsworth. This semester we are showing a film about Roadsworth at Cinema Politica, produced by my friend Sergeo Kirby. The new street art was part of a city project, which surprised me to hear, considering how political it was. There were stencils of fish and text that said “Overfishing, Overshopping” and the ones…read more

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