Face2Face with David Peck

Tanya and Face2Face host David Peck talk about mutual trust, Smart Risks, peace-building, mattresses, innovation and a grassroots manifesto for change.

Biography

Tanya Cothran is Executive Administrator at Spirit in Action International, a granting organization that supports community organizations and individuals in Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda.

She started working for Spirit in Action in 2007.

In 2009, she completed her Masters in Library and Information Science at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

She grew up in California and moved to Toronto, ON in 2012.

More about the book here.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Tonya Cothran. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris and Face2Face host David Peck talk about engaged Buddhism, Cambodia, power and politics, photographs as symbols and hope.

Trailer

Synopsis

Fading from black, the frame fills with the image of a rice field, leaves of grass billow in the wind. Cut to construction along the Mekong river in the capital Phnom Penh. On the soundtrack the metronome of steel girders being pushed deep into the ground keeps time. In the foreground a young man prepares to cast his fishing net into the river as an old sampan fishing boat chugs by.

In the background a new bridge is under construction, the sound of which marks the unsteady pace of progress in Cambodia. The film is an intimate portrait of three Cambodian’s involved in forced evictions. We meet the characters at the very beginning of their journey, unsure of themselves and unaware of where they will end up after years of protests against their government.

Biography

Chris is an award-winning video journalist and documentary filmmaker and the founder of Little Ease Films. He has spent the last nine years making his first feature documentary ‘A Cambodian Spring’.

He is a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper and in 2014 produced an award-winning undercover investigation into slavery in the Thai fishing industry.

His work has taken him as far afield as South Sudan, Burma, the Philippines, Laos and Thailand.

He is currently developing an animated feature film about slavery in the Thai fishing industry, a feature documentary about a young Irish man who went to fight Assad in Syria and a Virtual Reality computer game about slavery and migration.

More about Chris Kelly here.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Eye Steel Films and Chris Kelly. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kelita and Face2Face host David Peck talk about country music, trauma, suicide, resilience, and the importance of story telling, listening and how we can break the “cycle”.

More about Kelita’s new album project here.

Biography

KELITA writes, sings and speaks from her own life experiences, sharing her powerful and inspiring healing journey. Coming from a life of countless tragedies and family dysfunction, she shares the lessons of overcoming and victory with an endearing transparency and honesty that engages, encourages and inspires.

Her ability to touch and penetrate the hearts of audiences is what drives her success. KELITA’s is a message that rings true and pours out through the words she shares from her inner being. She has the innate ability to write, sing and speak what others are feeling.

From her imaginary stage in the hayloft of the big barn of her parents’ Claresholm, Alberta ranch, she began to sing at the age of four under the yard light that was her first “spotlight”. Her love of music and performing were KELITA’s escapes from many significant traumatic family experiences and abuse during her early childhood and teen years. In fact, it was those escapes that fine-tuned a dream that she would “one day be a star” – a reality that continues to expand after decades of performance.

Talent, captivating performance and charisma is what attracts the following that KELITA has garnered over her career. From hilarious character comedy delivered by her host of zany unique characters to beautifully written and sung folk/pop/kinda ‘gospelly’ songs to heart wrenching ballads that deeply stir emotions, KELITA’s versatility and diversity causes her to captivate the hearts of her listeners and open up minds to messages with universal appeal.

While climbing to the top of her field, a near fatal automobile accident saw KELITA’s personal life and music career take a dramatic turn. Combining a pending recording contract with Capital Records, Nashville, lost as a result of Capital’s corporate restructuring, along with dissolving a thirteen-year relationship with her husband/manager, you would think that would be enough to crush anyone’s dreams. Instead, it was a time of great soul-searching for KELITA and out of the ashes, a stronger, more resilient and transparent singer, songwriter emerged.

The songs she began to write were not only skillful, but honest, open-hearted and reflective. This new resonance with the heart attracted collaborations with Canadian greats; Michael Burgess, Susan Aglukark (KELITA helped Susan write the hit song “Breaking Down” and “Kathy I” for her Triple Platinum Album “This Child”) and others, as well as a number of notable organizations.

A few years later KELITA met and married multi-talented musician/producer/arranger Gord Lemon, who then became her producer and co-writer. Musically, their first project garnered them KELITA’s signature hit country song “The Strong One”. Together they have created and produced all of KELITA’s award winning music including Juno nominated “Naked Soul” and Canadian Gospel Music Association’s Inspirational Album of the Year, “Because of Love”.

Inspired by her deep understanding of the hurt and pain associated with childhood trauma, KELITA has developed a passion for women, children and social justice. Over a period of several years, led by her dedication and humanitarian efforts, her critically acclaimed album “Heavenly Night” and initiative project of the same name raised both awareness and $250,000 for the rehabilitation of young children rescued from child exploitation in Cambodia. KELITA has also contributed to the healing of childhood wounds for men and women around the globe through her Award-Winning songs “Bella” and “Deep Dark Secret”.

KELITA speaks to the acknowledgement, empathy and the very real struggle of overcoming adversity. It has become commonplace for her audience to bestow virtues on KELITA for her music helping them through hardships, illness or seemingly insurmountable life challenges. As more than one of her fans have proclaimed; “Your music literally has saved my life!” KELITA is not just an immensely talented singer, songwriter, speaker and comedienne, she is an exceptional woman who is a compassionate artistic vessel who is used to powerfully impact and touch the human spirit.

Learn more about Kelita here.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heather and Face2Face host David Peck talk about greed, activism and sweatshops and her new film Complicit and why consumers have so much power when it comes to making a difference.

Trailer

IMDB

TIFF

Synopsis:

The documentary follows the intimate journey of Chinese migrant worker Yi Yeting, a benzene-poisoned victim-turned-activist who takes on the global electronic industry. While struggling to survive his own work-induced leukemia, he brings his fight against benzene from his hospital room where he helps other workers, to Silicon Valley and the international stage. Yi's efforts along with the support of others, ultimately contributes to Apple banning two of the most toxic chemicals, benzene and n-hexane, in its final assembly.

Against huge odds Yi directly confronts corporate and government interests, while empowering and inspiring the people around him. His wife Liu Huihui, a stay-at-home mom, goes undercover to investigate an Apple supplier. Xiao Ya, an teenager rural migrant, who arrives in the city with hopes and dreams of a working "paradise" that she's imagined since she was a kid.

Tragically she gets poisoned on her first job by n-hexane, a solvent she used in polishing iPhone screens, at a hidden Apple subcontractor. Inspired by Yi, she starts to help other sick workers. Ming Kunpeng, another benzene-poisoned protagonist we meet through Yi, can't bear the burden his illness places on his family, and commits suicide.

Shot under the radar and with incredible access, the film explores global brands' social responsibly and consumers' role, while offering an in-depth look into love, family, Chinese culture, and the people sacrificing everything to make a difference.

Biography

Heather White is a first-time documentary director. From 2011-2014 she was a Network Fellow at Harvard Universityʼs Edmond Safra Center for Ethics, researching potential conflicts of interest in independent monitoring models of supply chain risk.

She is the founder and former Executive Director (1995-2005) of www.verite.org, a respected non-profit organization recognized for its groundbreaking leadership in the areas of independent monitoring and factory social audits.

During her tenure at Verité she advised companies such as adidas-Solomon, The Body Shop, Marks and Spencer, Macyʼs, The Gap and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).

More here on the website about the campaign and film.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anna Jane Edmonds, Karl Janisse and Zach Ramelan and Face2Face host David Peck talk about immersive storytelling, collaboration and inclusion, globalization and how movies can in fact change the world.

More about Blackout Media here on the website.

Biographies

Anna Jane (AJ) Edmonds is an emerging leader in the film industry, working in Toronto and Los Angeles as a producer and idea creator for movies with an edge. After working on set with a number of Toronto based film productions, in 2014 she secured the opportunity to work at Silver Pictures Entertainment and be a part of its management and development team during the production of the films THE NICE GUYS and COLLIDE. 

Zach Ramelan is an award winning independent filmmaker from Ontario, Canada. From the age of 17, Zach has pursued his passion as a full time filmmaker. Since then he has created several award-winning short films, music videos and feature films. His music videos have enabled him to collaborate with international artists such as Sixx AM and FlyLeaf.

After the success and global distribution of his feature film, DEAD RUSH, Zach is looking forward to working on his next big project! Zach runs a popular Youtube channel on filmmaking tips and tricks called "Film Freak" with over 13,000 followers. 

Karl Janisse was born and raised in Burlington, ON. Karl Janisse has been working professionally in film and television from the age of 18. He now works as a Cinematographer and Independent Producer in Toronto. 

He values above all else, the importance of a meaningful story, and the impact it can have on people. He is constantly pursuing how the art of filmmaking can expand our minds; and strives for unique photography that can tell a captivating story. His notable work includes feature films such as Dead Rush and The Hexecutioners and commercial clients like Tesla and Coca-Cola, and is an associate member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers

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Vaden Earle and Face2Face host David Peck talk about human rights, statelessness, change, immigration policy and the current state of affairs in Canada.

Link to ONE Vaden’s must have book.

Biography

As a motivator, Vaden has the incredible talent of releasing vision and purpose in others, as his life message is all about making vision a reality, and not giving up until the end result is in your grasp. 

As an innovative forward thinker, Vaden has a knack to stay ahead of the curve and continually come up with initiatives that are relevant and timely.

As a speaker, his dynamic and avant-garde approach is sure to activate his audience, and yet his unaffected manner will keep them at ease, and assure them that change really is possible.

As a writer, Vaden has an incredible ability to bring stories to life in such a way that the reader cannot help but be inspired.

Having received and been nominated for numerous speaking and entrepreneurial awards, Vaden has accumulated vast amounts of experience in a relatively small amount of time. He has spoken and travelled with teams all over Canada and the United States, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, and is also a leader in his own community. He has consulted for World Vision, been a keynote speaker for Home Depot Canada, CSLC (Canadian Student Leadership Conference), the Millennium Scholarship Foundation as well as numerous other leadership events and social justice conferences including speeches on Parliament Hill.

Vaden has exceptional skills in developing high-level relationships as well as corporate associations and partnerships. During his time as CEO in the non-profit sector, Vaden cultivated corporate relationships with numerous major national and multinational corporations. During this same period his fundraising efforts totalled over thirty million dollars and he was also a direct consultant for various Members of Parliament.

Vaden has also been featured on several television programs and radio interviews, and his materials have been used in numerous books and publications. In 2007, Vaden authored a bestselling social justice book entitled One: A Face behind the Numbers. This book hit number one on Amazon in under four hours solely on sales made from Vaden’s social media contacts. The book later went on to be named as the Social Justice Curriculum in numerous school districts across Canada and The United States.

There are many who credit the recent rise in Canadian “voluntourism” to Vaden’s efforts and writing, as no other group has hosted humanitarian trips to the scale that his group has.

And more about Widlene here.

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Josh Freed and Face2Face host David Peck talk about “line regret”, “queue science”, cars as “me” vehicles, occupied time and why Brits like to talk to strangers.

Synopsis:

All over the world people are lined up now - millions, maybe billions of us - losing trillions of hours of our time. We line up at hospitals, banks, border crossings, supermarkets, trains, planes and fast food chains. In fact, for over 50 years queue designers have been trying to conquer the queue, in vast, largely secret worldwide experiments - and the lab rats in the maze are us.

THE TAMING OF THE QUEUE travels from Canada to England and India to look at how humans behave in queues. It looks at the boredom, frustration, stress, fatigue and fury we all feel in line-ups, as our fast-paced lives slow to a crawl.

Biography

Josh Freed, the Montreal-based writer/director of THE TAMING OF THE QUEUE, is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and journalist. His documentary films have been seen in over 50 countries, and include Deluged by Data (for which he won a 2016 Writers Guild of Canada award in the Documentary category); The Good, the Bad and the Bike (as narrator/on-camera host of this 2016 Radio-Canada documentary); Life Below Zero; The Trouble With Experts; Where Did I Put…My Memory? My Messy Life; China’s Sexual Revolution; In Search of Sleep - An Insomniac’s Journey; Coat of Many Colours; To Kill or To Cure; Polar Bear Safari; and Juggling Dreams in Mongolia.

For his writing, Freed has won two National Newspaper Awards as Best Canadian Columnist for his weekly column in the Montreal Gazette. He is also the author of several popular books, including Moonwebs; Vive Le Quebec Freed; The Anglo Guide to Survival in Quebec; and Fear of Frying, which won him the Stephen Leacock Prize for humour.

His theatre projects include co-writing and co-starring in the hit play Four Anglos of the Apocalypse, for the Centaur Theatre in Montreal, and The 25th Century Belongs To Canada, which also had a successful run at the Centaur.

Learn more about Josh here.

And more about the film here.

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Josh Freed. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zaradasht Ahmed and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his film “Nowhere to Hide”, the Iraq War and the Triangle of Death, compassion and humanizing the victims of the ongoing conflict.

More here on the website about the film.

Trailer

IMDB

Synopsis:

Nowhere to Hide follows male nurse Nori Sharif through five years of dramatic change, providing unique access into one of the world’s most dangerous and inaccessible areas – the “triangle of death” in central Iraq.

Initially filming stories of survivors and the hope of a better future as American and Coalition troops retreat from Iraq in 2011, conflicts continue with Iraqi militias, and the population flees accompanied by most of the hospital staff.

Nori is one of the few who remain. When ISIS advances on Jalawla in 2014 and takes over the city, he too must flee with his family at a moment’s notice, and turns the camera on himself.

Biography

Director and Photographer Zaradasht Ahmed is a Kurdish/Norwegian filmmaker. He was born and raised in Northern Iraq.

His latest work “Nowhere to Hide” has won multiple awards including the IDFA Award for Best Feature Documentary and the One World Human Rights Film Festival Award for Best Documentary.

Earlier works include the award-winning documentary Road to Diyarbakir, and Fata Morgana. Zaradasht has many years of experience working with documentary filmmaking in the Middle East, North-Africa, and Asia, as well as training local people in documentation.

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Nathan Fitch and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Island Soldier, the US military and Micronesian soldiers, service, hope and economics.

Trailer

IMDB

More about the film here on the website.

Synopsis:

ISLAND SOLDIER follows members of the Nena family from one of the most remote islands in the world to the training grounds of Texas and the battlefields in Afghanistan. The death of Sapuro “Sapp” Nena in Afghanistan makes waves through his tiny home island of Kosrae - where nearly everyone is connected to the U.S. Military directly or through family members.

In an attempt to heal from his own deep wounds, Sapuro’s best friend in the Army, Mario Robles, heads to Kosrae with his family to meet Sapp’s parents for the first time and pay his respects on Veteran’s Day.

It is an emotional gathering of two families, from opposite sides of the world, brought together by loss, love and honor.

Biography

Nathan is a filmmaker and visual journalist based in Brooklyn. He currently works in the video department of The New Yorker. His work has been featured in The New York Times, TIME magazine, and The National Film Board of Canada.

Nathan holds an MFA in documentary storytelling from Hunter College where he was the recipient of the Welfare and Scholarship fund, and the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.

Nathan served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Micronesia doing Historic Preservation work, and still has a great fondness for breadfruit.

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George and Face2Face host David Peck talk about love, gratitude, celebrity and rebellion and influence, “earned fear”, how you can be angry for good reasons, U2 and why poverty is so not necessary.

More about The Strombo Show here.  

More about George here.

Biography

A six-time Gemini Award and Canadian Screen Award winner for best host in a talk series, George Stroumboulopoulos has interviewed a who’s who of entertainment icons, world leaders and respected thinkers.

George has also taken an active role in global initiatives and is a strong advocate for social issues.

George is the first Canadian National Ambassador Against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme. And he’s one of three Canadians recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader for 2012.

He was also a driving force behind Canada for Haiti, a live benefit that raised more than 27 million dollars for Haitian earthquake victims, and One Million Acts of Green, which saw Canadians register 1.6 million acts of green on the official website.

Along the way, George has interviewed Hollywood legends such as Oprah, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Michael J. Fox, Clint Eastwood, Jodie Foster, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Samuel L. Jackson; political leaders such as Hillary Clinton, Stephen Harper, Jean Chrétien, Sarah Palin, Brian Mulroney, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter; critically acclaimed authors including Christopher Hitchens, Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, Peter C. Newman and Gore Vidal; music stars Coldplay, Nickelback, Robert Plant, Snoop Dogg, Tony Bennett, Shania Twain, Michael Buble, Ice Cube and The Foo Fighters; renowned directors including Spike Lee, James Cameron, Deepa Mehta, Brian DePalma, and Paul Haggis; and Hollywood breakout stars Ewan McGregor, Olivia Wilde, Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Robert Pattinson.

As well, George took part in The Greatest Canadian TV series on CBC, hosting a documentary to make his case for the founder of medicare in Canada, Tommy Douglas. He was one of ten finalists and ultimately received the most votes from Canadians, winning by more than 50,000 votes over second-placed Terry Fox.

George has also hosted the highly regarded CBC documentary series Love, Hate & Propaganda - which examined how propaganda helped shape significant events of the 20th century, including the Second World War, the Cold War and the War On Terror.

George is the host and co-executive producer of George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. You can find him on Twitter at @strombo as well as on Facebook.

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For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: George Strombolopolous. Used with permission.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.