The needle and the spine
The story of my beginning to 2011.
Picking through the rubble of memory
Part one of an epic interview with the amazing comics journalist Joe Sacco, author of “Palestine.”
Tar on the Tusks
Canada’s preeminent culture magazine has let Big Oil lie about the tar sands on its pages.
Tar on the Tusks: The Walrus Magazine and Big Oil Sponsorship
“Divest from the Royal Bank of Canada, close your accounts, tell RBC to stop funding the tar sands project.” This was the advice filmmaker Shannon Walsh gave an audience in Toronto after a screening in 2009 of her documentary on the Alberta tar sands project, H2OIL. Someone in the audience, noticeably moved by the film’s critical exploration of Alberta’s cash-cow and the planet’s eco-nightmare, had asked Walsh the dreaded question, “OK but what is something we can do right now?” Where many filmmakers would read out the laundry list of…read more
We are all responsible for Omar Khadr
My review of the new documentary, “You Don’t Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo”
Hot Docs and Coca-Cola
Hot Docs has signed a deal with the devil, facilitating greenwashing for one of the worst corporations in the world.
Report from Hot Docs: Bhutto, Budrus, and a questionable contract with Coke
Hot Docs has careened down the path of screening outstanding documentaries, facilitating frenetic networking and busting out boozy social gatherings for a 17th time this year. One of the largest documentary film festivals in the world, it is an understatement to say that the festival is intoxicatingly exhausting. Five days in to the ten day extravaganza, I do have some notes to share on the parties, the people, the films and the ethics of the festival itself. First the parties: The opening night fundraising extravaganza at the ROM was a…read more
Promo Video for Challenge for Change Book
The video above was made by Sarah Spring as a promotional tool for the book I co-edited and co-authored, Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada.
Catching a breath as winter ends
Portraits, puddles, and piles of rest (for at least a few days).