Those of you with children in high school should check out the Caribbean Tales Youth Film Festivalwebsite and ask your child(ren)'s school to schedule some field trips. Like it or not, if our main institutions are going to do anything to promote Black/African-Canadian contributions, it's during Black History Month. The festival screens films at 9:30 am and 1:00 pm, and sometimes include a talk back session so students can speak directly to members of the filmmaking community. How often do Canadian children get a chance to do this, let alone be in the same space with a black filmmaker? The festival is a good mix of shorts, dramas, music videos, live action and animation. A particular favourite of mine is "Where Do White People Go When the Long Weekend Comes" by Powys Dewhurst.
The Festival is also open to the general public, not just school groups/students.
Caribbean Tales Youth Film Festival February 2nd - 25th William Doo Auditorium (south of Harbord off Spadina) 45 Willcocks Street (south of Harbord off Spadina)
Tickets available at UofTtix Box Office (416) 978-8849 uofttix.ca University of Toronto’s Central Box Office Open Mon-Fri 11am-5pm in Hart House, UofT.
SPECIAL GROUP RATES: Miki Nembhard, Festival Coordinator 416-598-1410 ctyfilmfestival@gmail.com
The Toronto Public Library (TPL) is a great place to start your Black History Month Celebration. TIPL's month-long "Voices" Programming will kick on February 3rd with a talk by Karolyn Smardz Frost about Ontario historian Fred Landon. Born in London, Ontario in 1880, Landon graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 1906, and went on to become the chief librarian at London Public Library in 1916. Among the other "voices" to be heard at a variety of TPL locations are Austin Clarke, Dalton Higgins, Sandra Whiting, trey anthony, Njacko Backo, and Muhtadi, just to name a few participants. Click here for TPL's Black History Month line up.
On January 30th I had the pleasure of speaking with TPL staffer, Rachelle Gooden on TmTm. Gooden is in charge of purchasing material for the Rita Cox Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection. The extensive collection of 16, 000 items is housed at four main locations: Malvern, Parkdale, York Woods, and Gooden's home base, Maria A. Shchuka. The best way to be introduced to the collections is to see them in person. Bits and pieces of Black History are so scattered that it's nice to have tangible evidence of Black contributions.
Calling TPL's Answerline (416-393-7131) as well as chatting on line is also a way to begin your explorations before heading out to the branches or ordering your material on-line. Click here for the various ways you can contact the TPL.
Below are the books that Rachelle and I discussed during the show. I hope you check them out and suggest them to family and friends of all cultures.
CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS
Lola at the Library By: Anna McQuinn & Rosalind Beardshaw
Mathieu Da Costa: First to Arrive By: Itah Sadu
A Safe place By: Lucy Markovitch
ADULT BOOKS
Ontario's African-Canadian Heritage: Collected writings by Fred Landon, 1918-1967 Edited by: Karolyn Smardz Frost, Bryan Walls, Hilary Bates Neary & Frederick H. Armstrong **TRIVIA: Landon Library in London, Ontario is named after Fred Landon.
"Go to school, you're a little black boy" : the honourable Lincoln M. Alexander : a memoir By: Lincoln M. Alexander
The Hanging of Angelique By Afua Cooper
In her footsteps: 101 Remarkable Black Women from the Queen of Sheba to Queen Latifah By: Annette Madden
My Jamaica: The paintings of Judy Ann MacMillan By Judy Ann MacMillan
Early Art and Architecture of Africa By: Peter Garlake
Wounded Bird No More By: Joszann St. John
Caught in Action: 20 Years of West Indies Cricket Photography By: Gordon Brooks
It doesn't start until the end of February (Feb. 24-March 6), but I wanted to give you a heads up to buy your tickets for the Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival. I spoke with Jasmine Herlt, the Executive Director of the Canadian branch yesterday on TmTm about four of the ten compelling films that make up this year's programme. According to Herlt, HRW included film as a component in it's fight for justice because film is a visceral way of making these issues "real", regardless of whether the format is fictive narrative or documentary. There is something about seeing the issues played out on a screen that make people react and take notice of what's going on in this world we all share.
BACK YARDA fictionalized version of true events in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico where the murders of hundreds of women remain unsolved. How can women be murdered on a regular basis with no one seeming to care? Director, Carlos Carrera and his crew risked much to bring this story to the screen despite threats to their production. The film is Mexico's submission to this year's Academy Awards.
BE LIKE OTHERS In Iran homosexuality is punishable by death. The sanctioned solution to this is gender reassignment surgery. Since gender and sexuality are not linked, I can't help but wonder about the psychological damage being done to young generations of gay men forced to choose this medical resolution that doesn't match their identities. Director, Tanaz Eshaghian follows the life-altering journey of several men in this documentary.
LAST TRAIN HOME Directed by Canadian Lixin Fan, this documentary takes us into the world of Chinese industrialization and the impact it has had on family dynamics. By following one family, Fan is able to sum up the effects of modernization on the traditional Chinese family. Opening Night film.
THE GREATEST SILENCE: RAPE IN THE CONGO Director, Lisa F. Jackson, a rape survivor herself, spent a year documenting the plight of Congolese women and girls and their bravery in speaking out about what they survived. Surprisingly, Jackson was also able to capture on film the soldiers who committed these crimes.
I had the opportunity to see PRESUMED GUILTY, one of the films on the HRW roster last September at the Toronto International Film Festival. I'm glad that others will have the chance to see this documentary about the Mexican judicial system. Click here for my interview with directors Roberto Hernandez and Geoffrey Smith.
Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival February 24th - March 6 416-968-FILM (3456) 1-877-FILM (3456)
U of T Student Special! Tickets: $5.00 Contact: Jessika at jessika.berns@utoronto.ca Student specials are also available at Ryerson,Humber and York University. Contact your HRW Film Festival Student Committee for tickets.
Mario Beausejour, host of CIUT's weekly Haitian show "Creole-a-go-go" will host an expanded show this Sunday. Mario will welcome Haitian-Canadian community leaders, and members of the Haitian-Canadian community-at-large from throughout the GTA and southwestern Ontario to the show. Conversation, etc., will be centered around the horrific situation in Haiti following the earthquake this week. Mario's guests will bring a truly unique perspective to the on-going scenario there. Please tune in to CIUT 89.5 FM this Sunday for this special radio broadcast. It will be presented in Creole, French, and English.
Yep. It's COLD outside, but come on! It's January. I'm no cold worshiper, but I came from Jamaica to Canada one January many, many years ago, so maybe that's why I don't fear the cold. Now, gray days? That's a different story, but as long as the sun is shining, I'm a happy go lucky gal. Do what I do: layer up. The Weather Network is my dearest friend, and I don't leave my house without checking for that wind chill. -15 and on go the thermals, public layers, and coverings for the extremities.
The Toronto Fringe wants you to think of them more often than just in July when they have their huge theatre festival, so they have devised a brilliant slogan to promote their Next Stage Theatre Festival: "January is the New July". Yesterday, I had the opportunity to connect with three festival participants: Tessa King (BURIED), Jordan Merkur (JUST EAST OF BROADWAY) and Justin Sage-Passant (QUITE FRANKLY). The Next Stage Theatre Festival(Jan. 6th - 17th) is affordable, varied and a great way to love winter, or make it less intolerable.
Australian writer, Tessa King and I had met previously; I interviewed her on my radio show ba.ba.ehm mama when her play "One Last" was making it's debut at the Summerworks Theatre Festival in 2007. Like "Buried", that play was about death. King admitted she found the topic of death to be an interesting one that could be revisited in different ways. While "One Last" was based on monologues derived from interviews she had done with real people, "Buried" deals more with the issue of what emerges when the matriarch of a family has passed, the secrets, the impact on family dynamics created by her absence, and the inevitable loss of memory by the patriarch who is suffering from Alzheimer's. Directing the play is King's long-time friend and colleague, Andrew Lamb (they met while working at the Tarragon Theatre). Lamb's recent work, My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, started out as a fringe play that was picked up by Mirvish Productions and has gone on to become a big hit in 2009 (it will be back up and running this February). With their respective histories of success, "Buried" is bound to be one play not to miss. You can also listen to see if King's Canadian husband was successful in helping her to get the Canadianisms out of her script (except where required by one character who has been living Down Under).
I have never met Jordan Merkur (former artistic dir.Eclectic Theatre, Red Barn) but talking to him yesterday, I couldn't help but be infected by his enthusiasm for theatre and for the new play he is directing, "Just East of Broadway". Okay, I'm a sucker for those "let's-put-on-a-play" musicals, but Jordan Merkur has a wealth of experience behind him and a string of Dora nominations to boot. I'm expecting this play about a has-been star who goes to China to do a play only to find out he's performing to farmers, to be very worthwhile viewing. I'm also curious about the 12 songs in 90 minutes that Jordan says he wakes up singing, and, where there's music there's often choreography and how often do you get to see a musical for $15 that's got so much talent involved? Besides Merkur being at the helm, the book and lyrics are penned by Nicholas Hune-Brown (who also did the music with Daniel Lee) and Ben King.
Such a punim (face)! I couldn't help but think that phrase when I checked out the blog for the play "Quite Frankly". I have never met Justin Sage-Passant and have no idea whether his character Frank, a hen-pecked (by his mother) socially inept man is Jewish, but my head full of Toronto English immediately picked out those words to describe him. Talking to Sage-Passant via telephone yesterday, I couldn't help but feel that those words described his non-macho alter ego. Sage-Passant created the role with friend and director Juno Katz. The two wanted to bring to the stage an examination of masculinity as defined by someone who is not the traditional hero/leader type. Does strength of character only equate with the hyper-masculine image we have become used to? Sage-Passant says that the development of Frank, which was done over several years of successful portrayals at other Fringe festivals, has lead to a warming up of the character that audiences have responded to very well in this tragicomedy.
NEXT STAGE THEATRE FESTIVAL (runs until Jan. 17th) FACTORY THEATRE 125 Bathurst Street (between Queen and King)
TICKETS: 416-966-1962 or www.torontofringe.com $12 afternoon performances $15 evening performances
See website for complete details:
Just because...still no reason to stay inside. Enjoy but get outside:-)
Looking for a break from the hectic holidays? Why not try out a couple of these DVDs?
I am very happy to know that Charles Officer's first feature film, NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY. is sometimes not available at my local mainstream video rental store. The fact that is is renting means that more people than the usual art house or Canadian film film lover (like me) are taking a chance on this wonderful love story. See my review.
I'VE LOVED YOU FOR SO LONG(Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) with Kristen Scott Thomas. One of my faves from 2008 about two sisters reuniting after many years. Don't read "chick flick" just because it's about sisters. The movie is paced like a mystery. In French with English subtitles. See my review.
IT'S NOT ME, I SWEAR! Didn't you or a kid you know utter these words when you were a kid? Yes, another French one, but this time from Québec about a young boy dealing with his parents divorce. Heartbreaking and funny at the same time. French with English subtitles. By the way, if your kid likes to get into mischief, I would suggest you don't let them in the room when you watch this--they may get ideas.See my review.
She was overlooked at the Oscars this year, but I think Michelle Williams was simply exquisite in WENDY AND LUCY. This is more than just the story of a woman and her dog--Lassie, it ain't. See my review.
I'm reaching way into the past (1987) for this little gem, but it was time to pull this one out of the cobwebs and dust it off. The film is BAGDAD CAFE. Set in the California desert, the dusty, dry landscape makes you want to cough as you watch the fascinating story about Jasmin (Marianne Sagebrecht), a German tourist who leaves her husband and walks with her suitcase to the cafe. There Jasmin encounters, CCH Pounder's character, Brenda, whose own marital situation is none too bright and whose world is in chaos. Magical, with a haunting refrain, this film will draw you in without you knowing you're being pulled. (I don't know when the film's title was changed to Out of Rosenheim, but the name change makes no sense to me or to the story.)
THANKS to Nadine McNulty (below left), I have been having a great time at the Lula Lounge lately. If you were there on December 6th to see David West, and heard a loud group of enthusiasts near the front of the stage, that's where I was. No, we weren't friends of the band, we were just enjoying the musical sounds of Batuki Music Society's Africa Meets First Nations project; in this case Africa met Ecuador.
In my boisterous crowd was eight-year old Chrystal L. (above right), the neice of Golan S., a new supporter of TmTm. (You may remember that Golan won my show prize package during CIUT's Fall Fundraising Campaign.) Chrystal was my photographer for the evening taking lots of snaps of David West's ensemble Choclo y la Orgia Cosmica and leaving me lots of opportunity to just dance!
Golan and his sister, Zorah (Chrystal's mother) were not shy about showing their appreciation of the band. Heidy M. (not pictured) was also part of our small but very vocal crowd and pointed out some differences and similarities between Ecuadorian and Guatamalan music.
Photo Credit: band and dancers photos by eight year old Chrystal L.; photos of Nadine, Chrystal, Golan, and Zorah by donna g
Those of you with children in high school should check out the Caribbean Tales Youth Film Festival website and ask your child(ren)'s school to schedule some field trips. Like it or not, if our main institutions are going to do anything to promote Black/African-Canadian contributions, it's during Black History Month. The festival screens films at 9:30 am and 1:00 pm, and sometimes include a talk back session so students can speak directly to members of the filmmaking community. How often do Canadian children get a chance to do this, let alone be in the same space with a black filmmaker? The festival is a good mix of shorts, dramas, music videos, live action and animation. A particular favourite of mine is "Where Do White People Go When the Long Weekend Comes" by Powys Dewhurst.
Caribbean Tales Youth Film Festival
