Tag: Film Reel

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    Recommended Film: ReGENERATION

    April 10th, 2011     by Jessica Balmer     Comments

    I’ve been thinking a lot about passion lately. Not the amorous kind, but the fire-in-your-belly, intense enthusiasm for intellectual pursuit kind. I realized the people I most admire are the ones who are passionate about something, whether it is feminism, cycling, animal rights, environmentalism, fighting for social justice, etc. The opposite of passion is apathy, and according to the film ReGENERATION, apathy is something that plagues youth culture these days. Throw in an unhealthy dose … READ MORE

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    Rage: The Toronto Bathhouse Raids

    March 30th, 2011     by Michelle Schwartz     Comments

    Last night I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Track Two, a 1982 documentary on the Toronto bathhouse raids. After nearly being lost to time and decay, the film has finally been digitized and made available in its entirety for free online, thanks to the generosity of Xtra! and the Pink Triangle Press. The screening took place at Buddies in Bad Time Theatre and was sponsored by Queer Ontario and Xtra!, with proceeds benefiting … READ MORE

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    New documentary explores the issue of shadeism

    November 15th, 2010     by Jennifer Marston     Comments

    In the opening of the documentary Shadeism, director and writer Nayani Thiyagarajah stands on a beach looking intently at the sun. As the sun rises, her voiceover says, “the sight of the sun is not always a good thing - at least not in my family. Though we may come from a small island that sees sunshine almost daily, the sun doesn’t receive a lot of love from us.” In this short 20-minute documentary, Thiyagarajah, a … READ MORE

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    Unexamined privilege: Bite Me! Festival review, part 2

    July 25th, 2010     by Julia Horel     Comments

    This is part two of my previous post reviewing the Bite Me! Toronto International Film and Arts Festival. A Question of Beauty is a Canadian documentary directed and narrated by Moncton-based Colleen Furlotte that seeks to answer the question: what is beauty? The film features approximately 20 women of varying ages, and uses art and other creative pursuits in an effort to broaden the audience’s definition of beauty. The film is a feel-good celebration of beauty … READ MORE

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    Bite Me! Festival Review

    July 23rd, 2010     by Julia Horel     Comments

    This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the Bite Me! Toronto International Body Image Film and Arts Festival, at which I saw six of the nine films being shown. Killing Us Softly 4 - Jean Kilbourne As the title suggests, this was the fourth edition of this film, which was first released in 1979. Jean Kilbourne presents a number of advertising images and campaigns and argues that much of the representation of women in advertising … READ MORE

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    All about the BITE ME! film festival

    July 14th, 2010     by Julia Horel     Comments

    The BITE ME! Toronto International Body Image Film & Arts Festival will take place this weekend, Saturday, July 17 and Sunday, July 18 (details on Shameless here and on the festival’s website here). Shameless had the opportunity to speak with Jill Andrew, the festival’s director, who explains what this festival is all about. The festival’s conception: At the time I was completing my Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto New College, and I … READ MORE

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    BITE ME! Film festival July 17-18

    July 10th, 2010     by Julia Horel     Comments

    BITE ME! Toronto International Body Image Film & Arts Festival Exploring issues of body image, media (re) presentation, identity and advocacy through creative mediums… Where: National Film Board, Toronto Mediatheque, 150 John Street, Toronto, ON M5V 3C3 www.nfb.ca/mediatheque, 416.973.3012/ 416.973.0896 Information: http://www.bitemefilmfest.com/index.html When: Saturday July 16- Sunday July 18, 2010 Shameless readers, take note! BITE ME! YouthZone @ NFB Mediatheque Saturday July 17, 10:00a.m.-4:00p.m. Free Film Screenings, Media Literacy & Self Awareness Workshops, Books and Lunch for Girls 12-18 years of age. For registration, … READ MORE

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    The Reflection of Rape Culture in the Media

    August 8th, 2009     by Michelle Schwartz     Comments

    This week, one of my friends informed me of the premature passing of filmmaker John Hughes, a man who practically defined youth culture in the Eighties with his brat pack movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Pretty In Pink, and The Breakfast Club. We were discussing our favorite Hughes films, our favorite brat pack members, our favorite soundtrack song, when someone brought up Sixteen Candles. We all remembered loving Sixteen Candles when we were younger, but … READ MORE

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    One Reason to Count Down the Rest of the Summer…

    August 4th, 2009     by Diandra Oliver     Comments

    When we started the Roller Derby League here in Prince George we were pretty excited about the onslaught of Roller Derby culture about to hit our communities: the Hell On Wheels documentary, Knockdown Knits, and the forthcoming Whip It. With Whip It about to come out it’s like we, the roller derby’ers, have fully arrived in hegemonic pop culture. The trailer brings on debate about the showiness of the sport, the brutal beatings so … READ MORE

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    Seeing the World in Different Ways…

    June 12th, 2009     by Michelle Schwartz     Comments

    Last week, Heather Wood Rudulph wrote an article for Huffington Post highlighting five reasons we still need feminism. Number four on that list was as follows: Obsessed, Bride Wars, Bridezillas and everything else that paints women as crazed (in various and sundry ways) to find, keep, and marry a man. To that, I say “Amen, sister.” I am quite sick of living in a world that offers men movies like The Hangover or the oeuvre of … READ MORE

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    Race and Star Trek

    June 1st, 2009     by Michelle Schwartz     Comments

    Since the discussion has been so lively on my previous post about sexism in the new Star Trek movie, I thought I would open up the discussion of race in the new movie and in the series. While I thought Sulu’s dramatic sword fight was awesome (and pretty sexy, too), I was disappointed by Uhura’s reduced role in the new movie. Already saddled with a legacy of being a glorified receptionist, this new Uhura lost even … READ MORE

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    Women and Star Trek

    May 30th, 2009     by Michelle Schwartz     Comments

    I have mixed feelings about the new Star Trek movie. While I quite enjoyed it as an adventurous space romp, my nagging issues with the original series re-emerged in spades. I grew up on the later series, so I’ve always found it difficult to enjoy the terrible special effects and campiness of Kirk’s bridge. I also hated the lack of women, except as girlfriends for Kirk, and the fact that female officers would wear miniskirts and … READ MORE

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    RiP: A Remix Manifesto

    April 28th, 2009     by Michelle Schwartz     Comments

    In January, I blogged about RiP: A Remix Manifesto, a movie aimed at criticizing international copyright law, a system that tramples art and innovation, and makes criminals of small children and old ladies. We live in a world where major corporations are declaring they “own” everything from rain forest plants to human DNA. In February, the Electronic Frontier Foundation began a protest of YouTube’s Fair Use Massacre, in which copyright owners (notably Warner Music Group) … READ MORE

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    Colouring outside of the lines

    February 25th, 2009     by Megan Griffith-Greene     Comments

    There’s a terrific event this Thursday at the National Film Board in Toronto: a screening of The Colouring Book: Short Digital Videos by Artists of Colour. This will be the Toronto premiere of the films, which debuted in Vancouver last November. One of the filmmakers is Indira Dutt, a Vancouver-based writer and student, and an old friend of mine. I was thrilled to catch up with her recently and hear all about the film. MGG: How did … READ MORE

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    Muhammad Knight’s The Taqwacores

    February 17th, 2009     by Stacey May Fowles     Comments

    Michael Muhammad Knight’s The Taqwacores Arrives In Canada! This Is Not A Reading Series celebrates Freedom To Read Week with the Canadian premiere of Michael Muhammad Knight’s controversial novel about the Muslim-punk movement, The Taqwacores (Soft Skull Press). Montreal filmmaker Omar Majeed is currently working on Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam, a feature documentary about the real-life bands who were inspired by Knight’s fictional creation. Majeed and Knight will show footage and discuss the politics … READ MORE

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    Polytechnique

    February 4th, 2009     by Stark Koenig     Comments

    So Denis Villeneuve, director of the award-winning film Maelstrom, has directed a new film called Polytechnique. As suggested by the name, the movie is about the Montreal Massacre at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique in 1989. Scheduled to be released in Quebec on Friday (and in the rest of Canada later this year), the film is already receiving some mixed reactions. See the trailer here: The cast and crew have expressed a need to explore the tragedy in art, … READ MORE

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    FtF: Female to Femme

    February 1st, 2009     by Anna Leventhal     Comments

    I’m a little last-minute with this event posting, but those of you in Montreal might be interested in a screening hosted by Queer McGill tomorrow night. The film is FtF: Female to Femme, and it’s an exploration of one side of lesbian life that often gets ignored: queer women who also identify as femme, girly, ladylike. From the Queer McGill website: [FtF] explores femme dyke identities as radical gender practices. A film that envisions more than … READ MORE

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    Hi, welcome to 1960.

    January 31st, 2009     by Andrea Hoang     Comments

    Last year Mississippi’s Charleston High School had their first mixed race prom. Ever. While in the process of making a documentary about the changes made in Mississippi since the civil rights movement, Canadian film maker Paul Saltzman discovered that the small community of Charleston (population 2,100) still had segregated proms. This prompted him to make Prom Night in Mississipi, a documentary playing at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, with commentary by Morgan Freeman. Charleston is in fact, … READ MORE

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    Indie film makers need your help!

    January 27th, 2009     by Tuval Dinner     Comments

    36-24-36 is being made by a small group of teenage girls in Kitmat, BC who teamed up with two off duty clinical counsellors. The film is about the perception of female body image in our society and its correlation with eating disorders. The film has been two years in the making and has never received financial funding of any kind. What They Need… The filmmakers are looking for photos from girls and women of any age that … READ MORE

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    Sad, Little Dream

    January 10th, 2009     by Diandra Oliver     Comments

    If Friday is still “date night” I’m sure legions of couples spent last night in movie theatres dealing with the fact that they just lost $12 and about 2 hours of their life. I have yet to see the film, but a quick watch of the Bride Wars trailer and the CBC review seal its fate. Katrina Onstad, the author of the article, is my new hero. She considers bride/wedding movies in general, and not without … READ MORE

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