Deconstructing Supper on Knowledge Network

Winner of a Chris Award at the Columbus International Film & Video Festival and second place at the EarthVision Environmental Film Festival, Deconstructing Supper kicks off Knowledge Network's spring series on Food Issues. It will air first on Wednesday March 10th at 8pm and then again on Wednesday May 5th at 8pm and Monday July 19th at noon.

The controversy behind genetically modified foods (GMOs) is at the center of the film's impassioned exploration into the politics, economics and ethics of eating. Travelling from North America to Great Britain to India and back, gourmet chef John Bishop meets scientists and activists with opposing views on genetic engineering, journalists and farmers who have experienced the might of giant biotech corporations, and organic farmers in India who are fighting to preserve the natural biodiversity of crops.

Deconstructing Supper was directed by Marianne Kaplan and produced by Leonard Terhoch and Marianne Kaplan.

Visit our online catalogue for a more detailed description.

To view an interview with filmmaker Marianne Kaplan, visit the Knowledge Network web site.

[top]

Abalone Odyssey

Simon Schneider
24 min. 2003

Abalone Odyssey chronicles a community stewardship project on Vancouver Island's outer coast that couples First Nations wisdom with western science to revive the threatened population of the pinto abalone. Filmmaker Simon Schneider meets the project's enthusiastic participants—hereditary chiefs of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation, ecologists and educators at the Bamfield Marine Science Centre, and members of the Bamfield community. All throw their whole-hearted support into the ambitious Bamfield Huu-ay-aht Community Abalone Project, or BHCAP, in an effort to restore depleted stocks of this sub-tidal creature to Barkley Sound's once-thriving marine landscape.

[top]

All Things Nice

Lulu Keating/Elisabeth Belliveau
Red Snapper Films
4:30 min. 2003

By the time girls have become women, they've been socialized to associate beauty with slenderness. In All Things Nice, filmmakers Lulu Keating and Elisabeth Belliveau all but founder themselves in an act of hilarious subversion—a contest to see who can stomach the most Cherry Blossom chocolate bars! Beneath the humour, they wordlessly proffer a more serious message. Food is not the enemy, despite the fact that women are conditioned to repress and deny themselves.

[top]

Blowing the Whistle

Sarah Vermette
Tattle Tale Productions
17:30 min. 2003

Aimed at teenagers, Blowing the Whistle zeroes in on shoplifting, offering perspectives not always considered on this easy crime. Two shopkeepers, a security professional, a police officer, a counselor and a judge speak about the hidden costs of this theft some may consider harmless. Several convicted felons explain how their criminal careers began with shoplifting at the local five and dime, but progressed to more serious crimes and ended with armed robbery. In frank interviews, teenagers reveal the reasons they steal and their experiences getting caught.

[top]

Broken Dreams

Annette Mangaard
Three Blondes
25 min. 2002

In Broken Dreams, filmmaker Annette Mangaard chronicles depression, a relentless descent into the innermost self. Shot on super 8 and 16mm with a handwind bolex camera, the film layers fractured half-remembered events from her childhood into a barrage of images and symbols—the hard façade of city towers, the stark white tip of a canoe gliding into oblivion, the dry whispering of prairie grass, the grainy distortion of an angry dog. The archetypes of Mangaard's pain paint a breathtaking portrait of sadness and turmoil, a state of mind out of which she begins to emerge through the power of dreams. In her words, “Only those who have been there know how deep the recesses of the mind can be, how dark the world can become.”

[top]

Chika's Bird

Adam Mars/Sharon Yu
Silverlight Entertainment
12 min. 2003

Targeted by the school bully because of her Japanese heritage and misunderstood by her no-nonsense mother, Chika is a shy and dreamy child who finds solace in her aged grandfather. After school, she spends hours mesmerized by the magic he gently creates through the ancient art of origami. But when his increasing memory lapses turn out to be Alzheimer's, Chika must learn to offer her beloved grandfather the tenderness he's always shown her, a turning point that sparks her to assert herself for the first time. With an exquisite simplicity, Chika's Bird captures the pure spirit with which a child responds to one of life's hard lesson.

Courage of Women: Walking Beyond Domestic Violence

Eve Katrina Gordon
Celtic Bear Productions
34 min. 2002

“I began to experience abdominal pain and realized that if I were diagnosed with a terminal illness, I would not choose to die in this relationship. So why would I choose to live in it?"
                 — Writer and poet, Kim Disbury

Courage of Women: Walking Beyond Domestic Violence is an empowering documentary that follows five urban women on the path to healing, a sojourn that takes them into prime grizzly habitat in the Selkirk mountains of southeastern British Columbia. These women come together not to share their stories of abuse, but to reflect on the inner strength they were able to find in order to leave their violent relationships. Trekking into grizzly bear country allows the women to reconnect with their instincts and face fears of the unknown, a powerful metaphor for their journey out of crisis.

During one-on-one interviews, the women talk about what finally triggered them to get out of their vulnerable situations, what tools and resources they relied upon to survive the most difficult moments, how their decisions have helped their children, and what steps they would suggest to other struggling women. They reveal diverse backgrounds—business owner, student, caterer, writer and even Alberta MLA—underlining that abuse can happen in any home.

[top]

Culture Jam: Hijacking Commercial Culture

Jill Sharpe/Lynn Booth
57 min. 2001

"Hearing all opinions is what democracy is all about. Besides, if you close your ears to dissent, you could miss out on the sharp, often funny documentary Culture Jam: Hijacking Commercial Culture."
     – Marke Andrews, The Vancouver Sun

This film delivers a fascinating rap on the 20th Century movement called Culture Jamming, introducing a new breed of revolutionary who wages war on logos and symbols. It follows three outlandish individuals: media tigress Carly Stasko, New York's Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, and Jack Napier with the notorious Billboard Liberation Front in San Francisco. Pranksters and subversive artists, their mission is to artfully reclaim our mental environment by causing a bit of brand damage to corporate mindshare. Armed with anti-ad stickers, custom neon and stuffed mice on crosses, these culture jammers hijack, subvert and reclaim media space.

Ultimately, theirs is a war of meaning that uses the tools of the media to rewire the message. Will Disney's Mickey Mouse represent a "world of laughter" or will he become the anti-Christ symbolizing "sweatshop labour practices." The verdict of public perception lies in the battle between their guerilla tactics and the billion-dollar PR campaigns they combat.

Hard hitting, controversial, wacky and engaging, this film captures the drama of jammers in action and asks some vital questions: Is Culture Jamming civil disobedience? Senseless vandalism? Or the only form of self-defense left?

[top]

Drawing Out the Demons: A Film about the Artist Attila Richard Lukacs

David Vaisbord/Trish Dolman/Stephanie Symns
Point of View Productions
Two versions: 48 min. & 78 min. 2004
Also available on DVD

gifted artist, tormented soul, egomaniacal bad-boy hyped up on crystal-meth. This is the snapshot, circa summer 2001, as this raw and uncensored documentary begins tracking the dramatic career of Canadian-born painter Attila Richard Lukacs. A bold visionary whose life-size homoerotic renderings of neo-Nazi skinheads fetch as much as $150,000, Lukacs fails in his attempt to crack New York City and the world's toughest art scene. He spirals into depression and drug addiction, alienates arts associates, angers his boyfriends and pushes away his saintly parents. But the wired West Coast artist manages to make it to the other side, retreating from his disastrous NYC exploits to find detox, redemption and creative renaissance in Maui.

A gritty and compulsive examination of the extremes of artistic temperament, the story is set against the backdrop of Lukacs' school days at Vancouver's Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design and his meteoric rise into the international art world. His paintings—once the toast of Berlin and Toronto—shift and change in tone and execution, revealing an artist of uncanny ability and endurance.

The Globe and Mail calls the film "wonderfully voyeuristic" and "compulsively watchable," while the Atlantic Film Festival contends that, "Drawing Out the Demons may be the most honest and substantial documentary ever made about a world-class artist."

[top]

Easter: The Jesus Mystery

In Sight Film & Video Productions
46 min. 2003

Marking the mysterious and miraculous story of Jesus' death, the festival of Easter is the cornerstone of Christianity. For religious scholars as well as secular historians today, the controversy surrounding Jesus' life and death still generates intense speculation. To understand what is known about the life of Jesus, scholars must acknowledge the fact that he did not leave behind a body, bones or even an identifiable gravesite. Nor did he leave any of his personal writings. Only the testimony of eyewitnesses remains as evidence.

Easter: The Jesus Mystery presents the biblical account of Jesus' death. A Catholic priest, a monk and several scholars shed new light on the age-old story. Ancient texts, unearthed in Egypt, are also introduced—texts that most biblical scholars consider a record of Jesus' teachings excluded from the bible by design.

[top]

Fiddler's Map

Robert McTavish/Merelda Fiddler
Non-Inferno Media Production
47 min. 2003
Also available on DVD

Fiddler's Map follows a young Métis woman as she maps out what it means to be Métis in Canada today. Merelda Fiddler, descendant of mapmaker Peter Fiddler, surveys Métis history, culture and politics while grappling with her own sense of family and identity. Among the many individuals she meets on her journey, Fiddler visits John Lagimodiere, whose forebears fought next to Louis Riel at Batoche. Publisher and editor of Eagle Feather News, he also facilitates Aboriginal awareness seminars detailing the progress of Métis people since their infamous defeat. She speaks with Maria Campbell—a writer and filmmaker best known for her revealing bestseller Halfbreed—about the political impact of telling Métis stories. This sharp and incisive documentary moves across Saskatchewan, home to one of the largest aboriginal populations in Canada, examining the racism and resentment that once led many families to repress their heritage. The result is both an overview of Métis life in Canada since the fur trade and a personal quest to rediscover one's roots.

[top]

FootBinding: Search for the Three Inch Golden Lotus

Yue-Qing Yang
East-West Film Enterprise
46 min. 2003

Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yue-Qing Yang returns to her birthplace to unravel the secrets of footbinding, an ancient Chinese custom that saw a sculpted three-inch foot become the feminine ideal. In interviews with aging Chinese women, including her own mother and aunt, Yang begins to grasp the complexity of this once widespread practice.

A thousand years ago, an emperor expressed a preference for small-footed women and this fancy quickly trickled down to the poorer classes. Less interested in aesthetics than in securing wealthy husbands for their daughters, many believed footbinding was a vital right of passage. Four billion Chinese women would have their feet bound before communists banned the practice in 1949.

In her travels across today's China, Yang encounters great difficulty finding archival material and even greater resistance convincing elderly women to reveal their re-shaped feet to the camera. She meets many villagers who continue to idealize the grace of the lotus-feet woman and shoe collectors who discuss the exquisite art and sexuality of footbinding. She also visits the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, where Columbia University Professor Dorothy Ko mounts her show Every Step a Lotus and contends that footbinding was not the tragedy modern thinkers make it out to be.

Both personal journey and political awakening, Yang's deeply affecting documentary dwells ultimately on the deep scars footbinding has left for generations of Chinese women.

[top]

Fury for the Sound: The Women at Clayoquot

Shelley Wine
Telltale Productions
24 min. 2003

This 24-minute version of Shelley Wine's award-winning documentary Fury for the Sound: The Women at Clayoquot updates the fight to protect BC's ancient rain forests. With the 10th anniversary of the feminist peace camp at Clayoquot Sound just past, the film reveals the important role women played in establishing grassroots social movements. In the tradition of suffragettes and the Chipko women in India, who are among the world's first treehuggers, women of all ages were moved to leave their comfortable lives to enact social change at Clayoquot Sound in 1993. Women suspended themselves from trees to defy BC clear-cutting and many of these women, including grandmothers and young children were taken into custody. The fight to protect the Sound, one of the largest remaining tracts of untouched Canadian rain forest, resulted in the biggest single act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Over 850 people—two-thirds of them women—were arrested. With 2003 statistics not promising any improvements, Fury for the Sound proves that the struggle of these women to save BC forests is still very precarious. The original 52-minute version is also available.

[top]

Ghosts on the Land

Robert McTavish/Merelda Fiddler
47 min. 2001
Also available on DVD

"There are so many variables in farming. It's hard for people to understand which part of the farming crisis is attributable to a systematic control and profit-taking elsewhere which sucks resources out of a rural community in such a way that it's impossible for the people who live there to actually continue."
      –Nettie Wiebe, Ph.D., former president, National Farmers' Union

The ghosts of Saskatchewan's rural heritage that haunt the modern prairie are not alone. A new spectre, the global corporate culture, is waging an invisible battle for control of the land. As the family farm slips closer to oblivion, this documentary examines the Canadian farm crisis through the stories of three Saskatchewan families—all of whom descended from original homesteaders working the land at the start of the 20th century. These farmers discuss the choices they've made to survive, whether that's meant selling off the family land or expanding massively only to watch the community wither as other families leave.

With commentary from Jack Stabler, Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Saskatchewan, renowned Canadian writer and farmer Sharon Butala, and Nettie Wiebe, Ghosts on the Land addresses the cultural and sociological consequences that accompany the death of the family farm.

[top]

Girls Kissing

Barbara K. Lee
Pinpoint Productions
48 min. 2003

This edgy documentary goes behind the scenes with porn stars, a Penthouse photographer, ad execs and purveyors of adult sex toys to explore the ultimate fantasy of straight men everywhere—watching two women together. At times lighthearted, it also touches on serious underlying questions: Is the mainstream portrayal of lesbian sex anywhere near accurate? How much pressure does this fascination put on otherwise straight women to explore the threesome with their titillated male partners? Does the proliferation of this sexual ideal confuse teenage girls or push them prematurely towards sexual experimentation?

Se Johanson of the Sunday Night Sex Show, Lou Paget, author of The Big O, and Dr. Sybille Artz of the University of Victoria's School of Child and Youth Care offer their well-researched perspectives to demystify this popular predilection. Scott Seomin, media director for Hollywood's Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), shares his critique of the media's misrepresentation of gay sexuality, while Annetta Small of the West Coast Kerusso Ministries argues that homo-erotic imagery in advertising gives young people an unnatural push towards homosexuality.

Intertwined throughout is a love story between Maura and Dietrich who offer an intimate look into their attempts to live out the fantasy.

[top]

Growing the Future: Parent Voices for Public Education

Catherine Evans/Helesia Luke/Keet Neville
32 min. 2003

In March 2002, major cuts to school budgets galvanized parents across British Columbia. In Vancouver, parents formed Save our Schools (SOS) and launched a letter writing campaign. Working through Parent Advisory Councils (PACs), SOS collected thousands of letters and sent them to the Provincial Government, the major provider of school funds.

In 2003, SOS looked for a way to reach a wider audience. Growing the Future: Parent Voices for Public Education is the result. Individual parents and PACs from across Vancouver were invited to participate. Parents spoke with courage and conviction about the importance of public education in our society; they voiced their concern that chronic underfunding is putting BC's public schools at risk.

This video can be used in public meetings to initiate a dialogue about the role public education plays in our society and how our communities are affected by the trend to underfunding schools. The creators of this video encourage people to find public expression for their concerns.

[top]

Infinity Child

Lori Reid
Common Weal Community Arts
5:30 min. 2003

Infinity Child, a segment of the I Can See Queerly Now project from Regina's Common Weal Community Arts, maps the moments of fear and excitement as a young Métis woman re-unites with her mother after a 26-year separation. The two women discover they've harboured the same questions about each other during their many years apart and shared more than a few personality traits. Their meeting becomes particularly poignant when the daughter reveals a fear of rejection due to her sexuality and non-traditional family situation.

[top]

Le jour et la nuit

Gilbert Taggart
7 min. 2003

Available for the first time on video, this classic animation follows an elfin flute player as he awakens the forest creatures with his music. Discovering the never-ending cycle of day and night, the tiny musician enchants both plant and animal as he wanders. Created for children, this film, with its lyricism, lightness, optimism and universal theme, continues to delight viewers of all ages.

[top]

Lest We Forget

Jason DaSilva
54 min. 2003
Also available on DVD

December 7, 1941. The bombing of Pearl Harbor thrusts America into World War II. In the name of national security, all people of Japanese origin are proclaimed “enemy aliens” and interned for the duration of the war.

September 11, 2001. A new chapter in national security begins as America suffers another terrible tragedy. This time, a new alien arises: Arabs, South Asians and Muslims.

With a critical eye, Lest We Forget explores a lesson that America seems determined to learn twice. Violating civil liberties, alienating their own citizens, vilifying the visible minority, America is bent on homeland security but does this once again cross the line to unlawful treatment of innocent individuals? The film blends a chronology of voices speaking about the severity of wartime racism in the U.S. Award-winning director Jason DaSilva carefully reaches out to the communities most affected, giving many individuals the opportunity to share their profoundly disturbing stories.

[top]

The Life and Work of the Woodland Artists

Dr. Raoul McKay
First Voice Multimedia
46 min. 2003

Available in English, Mechif and Ojibway
Also available on DVD

In the 1970s, Potawatomi painter Daphne Odjig brought together a small group of native artists to collaborate and support one another. The group—Odjig, Norval Morrisseau, Jackson Beardy, Carl Ray, Joseph Sanchez, Eddy Cobiness and Alex Janvier —quickly gained attention for their spirited, stylized canvases that gave a visual interpretation to the First Nations oral tradition and challenged the establishment's perspective of aboriginal art as craft. The group's work covered the gamut from intensely spiritual to slyly humourous, deeply personal to fiercely political. It took Canada by storm, in both native and non-native communities. One journalist even coined them the “Indian Group of Seven,” a tongue-in-cheek comparison that nonetheless pointed to the impact this group made both culturally and politically.

The Life and Work of the Woodland Artists paces this pivotal transition in Canadian and aboriginal consciousness through candid interviews with surviving members Odjig and Janvier, the group's family members and art critics, archival radio interviews with Jackson Beardy, as well as commentary from well-known Métis artists Duke Redbird and Bob Boyer of the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College.

[top]

The Little Forest

Gilbert Taggart
8 min. 2001

In The Little Forest, Mr. and Mrs. Beetle put aside their work to enjoy a little weekend entertainment. Taxiing down the runway on the back of a dragonfly and breaking even at the acorn racetrack are just a start to their adventures. This delightful animation encourages children to look closely at small creatures and imagine the rich detail of their lives.

[top]

The Many Faces of Arnaud Maggs

Annette Mangaard
Three Blondes
50 min. 2002

Nearing his 80s, internationally acclaimed photographer Arnaud Maggs is one of Canada's senior living artists. He is best known for detailed, grid-like portrait studies that betray a stark intimacy. 64 Portrait Studies, Ledoyen and 48 Views, a series that included such Canadian notables as Northrop Frye, Irving Layton, Yousuf Karsh and Leonard Cohen…these just begin an accounting of his prolific output. In interviews, Maggs discusses his decision, at the age of 47, to become a visual artist and abandon early career success as a graphic designer and fashion photographer. He also touches on the motivation of his own mortality, an inevitability that keeps him working both to consolidate his massive body of work and yet to continue the search for fresh ideas. Whether it's death notices that once arrived on French doorsteps in black-edged envelopes, tickets recording child labour in textile factories, or the familiar vertical lettering of hotel signs, Maggs combs the streets and markets at home and abroad for inspiration. Meticulous and courageous in his approach, Maggs creates art that speaks of the universality of the human experience and yet demands an attention to the subtleties of each moment.

[top]

Mother's Day

In Sight Film & Video Productions
46 min. 2002

Many people mistakenly believe that Mother's Day is a commercial invention—a marketing ploy to sell millions of cards and bouquets. In fact, the history of the holiday reveals an inspiring but tragic mother and daughter story. It also traces the roots of women's social activism in North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The mother, Anne Marie Reeves Jarvis, was a Virginia housewife who spearheaded Mothers' Work Day Clubs, bringing women together to improve sanitation and curb the region's high mortality rate for children. Later, during the worst battles of the American Civil War, her clubs nursed soldiers on both sides of the field.

Her daughter, Anna Jarvis, was a savvy lobbyist and indefatigable letter writer. When her mother died, she launched a single-minded crusade to commemorate her mother's life by creating a day to honour all mothers. The campaign was wildly successful, but in the end, Jarvis lost the battle to keep the holiday commerce-free.

[top]

The Nature of Love

Ingrid Alesich
Common Weal Community Arts
5:30 min. 2003

In The Nature of Love, a teenage boy explains that he's always wanted a fairy tale wedding; he just doesn't know if he'll be the bride or the groom. A bisexual woman questions the honesty of anyone insisting they've never had a twinge of feeling for the same sex. Another woman describes her surprise when she came out to her grandmother, only to have her grandmother turn around and come out to her. Part of the collaborative video project I Can See Queerly Now from Common Weal Community Arts in Regina, this poignant short explores notions of sexuality, gender identity and desire. Ultimately, it points to the real power of love—a celebration of sharing yourself with another human being—regardless of how you choose to define yourself.

[top]

Near to Nature's Heart: Women of Waskesiu

Jeanne Corrigal/Susan Risk
Live Wire Video Productions
51 min. 2001

Near to Nature's Heart: Women of Waskesiu explores the diverse lives of eight First Nation, Métis and Euro-Canadian women who made their homes in Prince Albert National Park. Elder Agnes Dreaver guided her family to create an alcohol and drug-free traditional community. Victoria Patterson was a renowned Métis medicine woman. Speaking through her 1927 diary as an isolated pioneer, Elizabeth Pease welcomed her sole female visitor, a Montreal Lake Cree woman, with whom she did not share a language. Myrtle Strangway was a tourist teacher, photographer and community activist. Mohawk conservationist, Anahareo received international awards for her work. Dorothy Corrigal, Margaret Ferguson and Leona Leader-Genge were de facto park wardens, partners in every way in the tasks that their husbands were paid to do. With original music by Connie Kaldor, this moving documentary delves into the spiritual relationship these women enjoyed with the land, how this shaped not only their lives but the history of Waskesiu area.

[top]

A New Arcadia: The Art of Gregg Simpson

Mehdi Ali
Fountain Productions
24 min. 2003

Gregg Simpson is an internationally recognized artist and musician who began his work during the west coast renaissance of the 1960s. This thoughtful documentary reveals how the rain forest in which he grew up influenced his work and how he felt a kinship with the imagery of west coast native artists. It features the new-surrealistic dreamscape paintings for which he was known in the 70s, followed by the cellular organic shapes of later work, the Mediterranean-influenced cloisonnist series of the 1990s and more recent free form abstractions. It also explores the hybrid style that Simpson developed by mixing west coast landscape with the Arcadian worlds of Tuscany and Provence. This innovation culminated in an exhibition of his work in the 14-century Fortezza di Montalcino in Tuscany during May 2000. Writers, art historians and gallery directors discuss Simpson's place in the Vancouver, Canadian and international art scenes and illuminate the process by which he transmutes the influences of diverse cultures, landscapes and historical art movements.

[top]

Painting Outside the Lines

S. Wyeth Clarkson/Phillip Daniels
Travesty Productions
49 min. 2001

Painting Outside the Lines tells the dramatic story of an artist's mental breakdown—and her ultimate recovery through artwork. As a child in the 1940s, Teresa's creative spirit is continually quashed by the societal pillars that imprison her. Whether it's her overbearing mother, the church, her pre-selected husband or her patronizing family doctor, Teresa's problems are always defined by others. Struggling against her husband's desire for more children, Teresa suffers a terrible breakdown. She spends eight long years misdiagnosed, shuffled in and out of institutions and subjected to a steady regimen of damaging neuroleptic drugs. Recovery becomes possible only when Teresa visits a women's hospital and encounters a more compassionate approach. Through therapy, healthy living, a strong support network and especially artistic expression, Teresa begins to make her own choices for the first time.

This powerful drama scrutinizes a time in the not-so-distant past when misdiagnosis and over-medication were all too common. As the sale of psychiatric drugs today nears $9 billion annually, it also begs the question—how much has our approach to mental health improved?

[top]

Public Education: NOT FOR SALE!

Jason Fischer/Sherry Peters
Blacklist Productions/British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF)
27:30 min. 2003

With global spending on education estimated at $2 billion a year, corporations are eyeing public schools as huge potential markets. But public education is not a business, and knowledge is not a commodity.

This video was produced by a group of Capilano College students, just out of high school themselves, who were appalled to learn of a soft drink exclusivity deal on their campus. Spurred to learn more about corporate intrusion into public schools, these students approached the B.C. Teachers' Federation and were invited to record the Vancouver conference, Public Education—NOT FOR SALE. At the May 2000 conference, educators, students, support workers, administrators and parents discussed local battles over corporate sponsorship, exclusive marketing arrangements, and commercialisation of curriculum and research,placing these incidents in a global context.

Among featured speakers are No Logo author Naomi Klein, author Heather-Jane Robertson, University of Wisconsin Education professor Alex Molnar, and Andrew Hagelshaw of San Francisco's Center for Commercial Free Public Education.

[top]

Queer Companions

Brita Lind
Common Weal Community Arts
5 min. 2003

According to director Brita Lind, the first being she ever came out to was her dog. Queer Companions, the film Lind created as part of the Common Weal's video project I Can See Queerly Now, sounds the depths of connection between gay and lesbian pet owners and their four-legged companions. Whether their dogs function as substitute children or their cats feed a compulsion to rescue the world's forgotten, these individuals revel in their pet's unconditional acceptance.

[top]

Rock and Desire

Ariella Pahlke/Barbara Badessi
Off the Road Productions
47 min. 2003

Rock and Desire portrays modern-day gold fever—for Lindsay Allen, an obsession that steadily usurps weekends, evenings, home life and no small amount of family savings. After meticulous research, Lindsay stakes a claim to the Gold Eagle, one of Nova Scotia's 70 working mines from the turn of the 19th century. Like 1,100 other registered prospectors in the province, he counts on uncovering that great untapped vein left behind by prospectors past. Rock and Desire follows his efforts from the home front, where a gracious family humours his latest hobby, to the mine shaft, where a motley collection of friends and fellow enthusiasts make their way into a mine abandoned since 1902. Surrounded by pumps, charges, metal detectors, scaling bars, vent pans, climbing gear, a roto-panner, boulder buster and bad camp cooking, these men reveal the hard-headedness, bold vision and boyish hope that draws them into Lindsay's uncertain adventure.

[top]

Some Girls Grow Up To Be Kings

Mirtha Rivera
Common Weal Community Arts
4 min. 2003

Drag kings have gained visibility in the last few years and Mirtha Rivera's bold short doc explains their staying power. “It's not about me being a man,” she asserts in her four-minute piece from the Common Weal series I Can See Queerly Now. Though her workshops for budding kings offer a few practical tips, she points out that the experience goes far beyond putting on facial hair or shoving a sock in her pants. “I feel more comfortable exploring my masculinity on stage and therefore reconciling those feelings off stage.” Through this emerging performing art, Rivera and her king compatriots engage in a truly feminist act that explores gender, identity, sexuality, masculinity and femininity.

[top]

Speaking Out: Women of Uganda

Peter Campbell/Penny Joy
Gumboot Productions
46 min. 2003

Until recently, Uganda garnered attention for its policy of placing women in decision-making roles. For over 10 years, the country not only had women in the roles of Vice President, Minister of Ethics and Integrity and frequently members of parliament, they also focused substantial dollars on education and community development for girls and women. Speaking Out: Women of Uganda introduces not only these high-level politicians, but also a diverse array of women empowering themselves and their communities. From the child-led Girls Education Movement (GEM), to the Cow Project initiated by AIDS widows to improve their financial status, to the hosting of the 2002 International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women, Ugandan women demonstrate their ability to develop and implement solutions to the social issues plaguing their people. Many initiatives focus on the education of young girls, most of whom can ill afford school fees and represent the group most vulnerable to HIV infection. Interviews with these young scholars and their mentors reveal a savvy new generation of women ready to tackle the many challenges in today's Africa.

[top]

Stewards of the Land

Bill Weaver/Across Borders Media
24 min. 2003

"As a species, we really have only one asset. We might think it's our house or some material possession, but it's really the land that we live on, this planet that supports us."
     – Lee McFadyen, organic farmer

Across Canada, unchecked development, farming and mining threaten to destroy landscapes that have taken eons to evolve. In British Columbia, private landowners hold the greatest potential for preserving critical wildlife habitat. Stewards of the Land takes a gentle journey across the province, revealing how several of these unsung heroes are sharing their land with the plants and animals that also call it home.

Meet a common-sense cattle rancher, a farsighted organic farmer, a 102-year-old guardian of a Garry Oak meadow, and a giant mining company willing to forego windfall profits. What motivates them to go the extra mile for the acreages they watch over? From rebuilding streamside habitat to placing conservation covenants on crucial ecosystems, their personal contributions add up to a healthier future for biological diversity. Stewards of the Land is an inspiration for landowners to make their land a better place for all living things.

[top]

Stranger from Away

Vera Graaf / Max Scott
24 min. 2003

A stranger appears on the remote Canadian island of Grand Manan and creates quite a stir. He motors around in a boat that resembles a sardine can. For his living quarters, he chooses a defunct old herring smokery on the harbour. Over time, he turns the place into a museum. Much to the astonishment of the islanders, he exhibits personal memorabilia next to the old tools and machinery used for smoking fish years ago. When the stranger begins to invite artist friends from abroad to create works of art with found objects, Grand Manan gets its first look at contemporary art. Some like it, some don't—but no one is indifferent to the Sardine Museum and Herring Hall of Fame that lures islanders and tourists to the small village of Seal Cove and has turned the stranger into its keeper of memories.

[top]

SUSPINO—A Cry for Roma

Gillian Darling Kovanic/Tamarin Productions
72 min. 2003
(50-minute version also available)

SUSPINO—A Cry for Roma takes an unflinching look at the persecution that continues to plague Europe's largest and most vilified minority.With the fall of communism and rise of right-wing nationalism, the Roma (or Gypsies as they are pejoratively called) have become scapegoats for Eastern Europe's nascent democracies. Because of violent conflicts and discrimination, tens of thousands of Eastern European Roma are fleeing their countries. The film focuses on Romania where Europe's largest concentration of Roma are considered 'public enemies,' and Italy, where the Roma are classified as nomads and relegated to living in camps. Here they are denied basic human rights available to refugees and foreign residents.

Aiming to create a "Gypsy-free" Romanian town, a mayor tries to move local Roma into an abandoned chicken farm, encircled with barbed wire and patrolled by guards with dogs. A Roma family gathers in a Transylvanian graveyard to mourn the deaths of three brothers murdered in an earlier pogrom that also saw the destruction of 21 of their houses. In a squalid trailer camp 10 kilometers from Vatican City, a young Roma couple that fled persecution in Romania is trying to build a new life. Instead they end up begging to feed their children. Their nightmare worsens when the mayor of Rome decides to bulldoze the camp to the ground. A Romanian Roma activist seeking asylum in Canada tells a heart-breaking story of a pogrom against his community back home, and explains that this international human rights crisis has its roots in 500 years of Roma slavery in Eastern Europe.

Romania hopes to enter the European Union by 2008 but first must improve its treatment of minorities, especially the Roma. But what hope is there for the Roma when gatekeeper countries like Italy are also in flagrant violation of human rights conventions?

Awards: Gold Plaque (Cinematography, Music Score), Silver Plaque (Overall Sound), Chicago International Television Awards; Honorable Mention and Excellence in Media of Print, Columbus International Film & Video Festival

[top]

The Trickster: Edward Poitras in Venice

Gordon McLennan/Lloyd Martell
Reel Eye Media
48 min. 1995

Edward Poitras was the first artist of aboriginal descent to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale, a prestigious international art exposition held every two years in Italy. As a Métis, born of French and Salteaux parents, Poitras straddles identities by belonging to a distinct third culture. Both culturally and spiritually, he blends the vocabularies of European and native art. Poitras' work is regarded as a crucible for understanding how contemporary aboriginal people are repossessing and articulating their identities. The Trickster covers both the six months preceding the Biennale, as Poitras creates the exhibition in Saskatchewan, and the Biennale itself where Poitras and his work mount the world stage.

[top]

Tucked into Bedlam

Susan Levine/Magic Cat Films/New Media
43 min. 2003

"Good evening, fellow insomniacs" croons Tomás Kubínek in this surreal look at life on the road. Based on his highly acclaimed one-man show, "Bed," this quixotic performance piece chronicles the inner chaos of a failing cabaret artist as he wrestles with the existential issues of isolation, death and the absurdity of life. Whether trapped in the confines of his hotel room, a mental hospital or the blinding circumference of the spotlight, Kubínek uses brilliant physical comedy to draw viewers into his bizarre world. At the apex of strange, he morphs into a giant chicken, clucking and scratching his way among hens and roosters in an actual chicken coop. Self-proclaimed "certified lunatic and master of the impossible," Kubínek creates a dreamy and beautiful parable about art, madness, vulnerability and hope.

More information on this Czech-born Canadian performer is available at www.kubinek.com. The film features music composed by Toronto jazz artist Marilyn Lerner.

[top]

Waiting

Shirley Chen
6:30 min. 2003

Shirley Chen's exquisite animation explores a poignant moment in a father-daughter relationship. A little girl's attempts to edge closer to her artist father cause havoc when he drops and ruins a painting in progress. “Go back to the garbage can where I found you,” he shouts, words he will regret later when a more serious accident befalls the girl. The question is: when she needs it most, will she get the attention for which she's so desperately waiting?

[top]

For more information, contact Moving Images Distribution