Posted by ezra in Broadsides

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

Mar.23

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

Posted by ezra in Personal Travails

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

Mar.09

A documentary decade

Posted by ezra in Doc Side, Writing

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

Feb.17

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

Posted by ezra in Doc Side

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

Feb.07

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

Posted by ezra in Academix, Personal Travails

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

Jan.18

2008 begins with a discernable workload thud

Posted by ezra in Academix, Writing

I’m back. Ira Wagman, my new professor for “Entertainment Studies,” has advised us all to try to write for at least one hour per day. I’m going to take him up on it, and when I’m not blogging for Art Threat or writing papers and presentations and articles, I’ll use the writing time to post here. I spent the weekend sorting out Cinema Politica stuff – the network has gone crazy, too many locals for me to handle and now people in Manchester and Berlin want to join. This is…read more

Jan.14

December Snow

Posted by ezra in Doc Side

It’s a beautiful evening in Montreal, a light dusting of snow is muting our street and probably the city. I’ve been snowed in here for the last two weeks writing two papers to finish up my term. The first one, on cinematic representations of female suicide bombers, is done and sent to the prof. The second one, on the history of cultural industry theory, is about to envelope me. Sound exciting? At least it’s snowing… Also, Wal-Town The Film was just broadcast twice on Canada’s third largest broadcast network, TVO…read more

Dec.12

The Colonizing of the Developing World Continues: Have another Cigarette

Posted by ezra in Broadsides

The IPS reports today that one of the worst threats to people living in poverty around the world – mainly in the “developing world” – is not HIV or famine, but preventable, non-communicable diseases. People dying from tobacco-induced cancer in the majority world reminds me of the kind of corporate colonialism that we’re seeing in the cultural industries. For example, as Playboy perceived an exhaustable market in “the West” it set its sights on the pure and vulnerable global south, readying the global company’s operations for India, where peddling soft-porn…read more

Nov.27

RIDM Festival Wraps Up

Posted by ezra in Doc Side

This year’s tenth anniversary of the Montreal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM) has come and gone and I am quite pleased to have been asked to be involved as a jury member. I sat on the Caméra au Poing (Camera at the Ready) Jury with Francoise David and Sylvie Lardinois (pictured with me at the left in a St Denis café at one of our three meetings). It was a great experience to sit and discuss 20 films with two other enthusiasts of film and politics. Francoise is the co-founder…read more

Nov.22

Concordia Convocation on Rememberance Day

Posted by ezra in Personal Travails

On this day to remember the million and one reasons not to engage in violence in order to solve conflict, Concordia University also held the Winter 2007 Convocation Ceremonies for about 400 of us. It was pretty cool to see some of my cohort (pictured at left with me: Michael Lithgow now at Carleton, and Rebecca Reeve now climbing the corporate ladder with an eye for communication in San Francisco) and some of my profs. The ceremony, awkwardly but also somehow fittingly, held on Remembrance Day, was short and sweet….read more

Nov.11