Projects
These are the larger, more involved projects that often last many years. They involve a blend of research, creativity and public-facing activity. They range from the creation of non-profit organizations to feature films to books to playlists to (aspirationally) graphic novels and podcasts. Some are more of a solo effort while most are collective in nature. All involve some level of collaboration and all have been fertile sources of nourishment. [image above: Graphic, courtesy of the talented Yenlik O’Neill, from the Settler Frames project showing the archetype of “the liminal settler” with Elvis Presley playing “Pacer Burton” and Rudolfo Acosta in redface as “Buffalo Horn” in Flaming Star (Don Siegel, USA, 1960, 92′)]
Settler Frames: Exploring Identity Construction in Film and Media (2018 – present)
During the spring months of 2018 I served as one of Concordia University’s first Curator-In-Residence for their amazing Visual Collections Repository. My work there began my creative / research project “Settler Frames,” which examines the settler cinemas of Canada, the US and the UK in order to develop a theory that explains the framing typology used to construct on-screen settler identity. I viewed over 100 films at VCR using key words to search their rich film repository, and from these viewings, developed my theory of the four on screen settler archetypes.
Part 1, which was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, combines auto-ethnography (growing up on Vancouver Island, British Columbia) with film and media theories and readings of key cinematic and media works that influenced my identity formation. You can find it (and download it) here.
Cinema Politica (2003 – present)
Cinema Politica was co-founded as a media arts non-profit in 2003 by me and Svetla Turnin. Prior to COVID it was the world’s largest on the ground grassroots documentary screening network, with around 100 screening locations across Canada and throughout the world. I serve as the Director of Programming, working with a team of programmers to select dozens of independent political films that screen across our network each year. CP’s main activities revolve around community exhibition, “dedicated distribution” and other curatorial projects.
Documentary Futurism (2017 – 2019)
Working both in the academic and arts spheres, this research and production project imagines a future “Canada” through the combination of documentary and futurism. Conceived as a initiative of Cinema Politica, which commissioned 15 short film projects that together “will help usher a new film genre called documentary futurism.” The Next 150: Documentary Futurism was funded through a Next Chapter grant with the Canada Council for the Arts, and was included the production and circulation of the incredibly diverse and fierce shorts.
Art Threat (2007 – 2015)
I co-founded Art Threat, a political art and culture blog, with the inimitable Rob Maguire back when a lot of the art activism revolved around Bush in the US and Harper in Canada. Rob ran the show as Editor, I was Contributing Editor and writer of many interviews, missives and film reviews. While Art Threat had its moment in the sun as the number one political art blog for a spell, the site was eventually sunsetted.
Wal-Town (2004 – 2007)
I made a movie! Well, not quite. Wal-Town, which is a documentary feature film, was a project conjured to serve two purposes: (1) for me to get home to Vancouver Island from Montreal in the summer of 2004, and (2) to explore the impact of Walmart stores on communities across Canada, including my hometown of Courtenay. With my good friend Sergeo Kirby, we pitched the idea for a documentary and the NFB said yes and gave us a budget (watch it here).
Sergeo and his small film crew followed me and a group of student-activist friends from Concordia University as we set out for the road trip across Canada stopping at Wal-Marts along the way. The result was a multi-year project that yielded a 2006 documentary film, a now-defunct website, several political actions and speaking events, and research that contributed to the Norwegian Government’s divestment from Wal-Mart. Also, a slew of amazing photographs, taken by the mulit-talented Jason Gondziola (who took the above photo), resulted from this odyssey.