Face2Face with David Peck

Fred and I talk about his new film All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of I.F. Stone, speaking truth to power, unplugging from the mainstream, pressure from below and good journalism.

For more information about TIFF go here.

IMDB

Trailer

More info about the film here.

Synopsis

Vancouver-based filmmaker and TV news veteran Fred Peabody explores the life and legacy of the maverick American journalist I.F. Stone, whose long one-man crusade against government deception lives on in the work of such contemporary filmmakers and journalists as Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, David Corn, and Matt Taibbi.

For decades, maverick American journalist I.F. Stone took on the powers that be — from Red-baiting fearmonger Joe McCarthy to Lyndon Johnson to Ronald Reagan — in the pages of the tiny publication I.F. Stone's Weekly (and later in the New York Review of Books and The Nation), most of it typed, two-finger style, by Stone himself. Working without the "access" to those in power so prized by establishment journalists, Stone took on the system regardless of personal risk. In All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone, Fred Peabody pays tribute to Stone's work and looks at those who carry on his legacy today.

Not surprisingly, those contemporary journalists most influenced by Stone have had to work outside the mainstream. In one telling cut, Peabody juxtaposes the screeching, overpaid martinets at Fox News with John Carlos Frey, who has spent years investigating mass graves of undocumented migrant workers in Brooks County, Texas. Peabody also introduces us to others who are keeping Stone's legacy alive by relentlessly speaking truth to power, despite the obstacles placed in their way: Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald, and Laura Poitras (who together founded The Intercept as a platform for the Snowden NSA leaks), Amy Goodman, David Corn, and Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi.

Recounting the mainstream press' failure to call out the Bush administration's justifications for the invasion of Iraq, Peabody chillingly reminds us of what can happen when media organizations place profit over social responsibility — a charge that CBS president Les Moonves cheerfully and openly copped to when he recently crowed about the ad dollars Donald Trump's presidential run has generated for his network. At a time when a creature of privilege like Trump can present himself as a champion of the common man, Peabody's portrait of Stone — a true American hero, one who actually gave voice to the powerless and dispossessed — is all the more vital.

Biography

Fred Peabody is an Emmy-winning journalist and filmmaker whose credits include seven years as a producer-director on the acclaimed CBC investigative program “the fifth estate”.

In 2003 he was Supervising Producer on “Perfect Illusions”, a PBS documentary about eating disorders in young women.

His film on the childhood exploitation of the Dionne quintuplets was nominated for an Emmy in 1998, and he won an Emmy in 1989 for a film about wild horses rescued from starvation and abuse.

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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.

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Marie and I talk about knowledge, gender disparity, about focus and passion and how her new film touches on both the beauty and the limitations of science.

For more information about TIFF go here.

IMDB

Synopsis

Polish actress Karolina Gruszka stars in this sweeping biography of the legendary, Nobel Prize–winning physicist and chemist, who courted controversy with both her challenging of France’s male-dominated academic establishment and her unconventional romantic life.

Physicist, chemist, and pioneer in the study of radioactivity, Marie Sklodowska Curie spent her life setting precedents. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice. As the first female professor at the University of Paris, she had to overcome the condescension and antagonism of France's male-dominated academic establishment. She also courted controversy of the sort that still threatens to quash the careers of public figures today. This sweeping biography brings to life Curie's inspiring story of discovery, heartbreak, and triumph.

Marie Curie, The Courage of Knowledge depicts the blissful union between Marie (Karolina Gruszka) and her husband Pierre (Charles Berling), the father of her children, her partner in research, and co-winner of that first Nobel. When Pierre perishes in a tragic accident, it's up to Marie to continue their work. But as a woman and a foreigner, she's met with doubly fierce resistance. And though she perseveres, she's nearly undone by revelations regarding her relationship with a married colleague.

Director Marie Noëlle conjures turn-of-the-century Europe with camerawork whose restless precision is an analogue of the brilliant scientist's mind. Split-screen compositions slide like shoji doors, and lyrical montages emphasize the momentousness of Marie's innovations. At the centre of all this activity is, of course, Marie herself. Gruszka's performance, alternately stoic and vulnerable, never lets us forget that this visionary woman was also very much a complicated and fascinating human being.

Biography

Marie Noëlle was born in Châteauroux, France. She co-directed, with Peter Sehr, the films The Anarchist's Wife and Ludwig II, and co-wrote Love the Hard Way, which Sehr directed. Marie Curie, The Courage of Knowledge is her latest film. 

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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.

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Mark and I talk about his new film All I See Is You, broken relationships, our shifting attention, expectations, loneliness and why it’s so important to realize that sometimes all we have is each other.

For more information about TIFF go here.

IMDB

Trailer

Synopsis

Blake Lively (The Shallows) and Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) star in this thriller from director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball,World War Z), about a blind woman who regains her sight and begins to discover disturbing new details about her marriage and her life.

Marriages are a delicate psychological interplay between two people, and there's no shortage of stories about how that connection is altered when things take a turn for the worse. But this insightful new drama is about a married couple who face unexpected challenges when their circumstances seemingly change for the better.

James (Jason Clarke) and Gina (Blake Lively) are a happily married couple living in Bangkok. Gina has been virtually blind since the childhood car crash that destroyed her sight and killed her parents. Despite her difficulties, Gina lives a full life, depending on James for help navigating the raucous bustle of the city.

When Gina has the opportunity to have sight-restoring surgery on her right eye, she jumps at the chance. After the procedure, her world is changed. Not only does she see everything around her, but she sees herself in a new light. Their lives change in a million ways both large and small, and James' surprising response to the new status quo will reveal the troubling power dynamics underpinning their relationship.

With the collaboration of cinematographer Matthias Koenigswieser and a standout sound design team, director Marc Forster lets us experience the world as Gina does at all the different stages of her sight's recovery. Boasting finely tuned technique that augments our understanding of the characters' emotional arcs, All I See Is You is a truly cinematic and moving experience.

Biography

Marc Forster was born in Germany and raised in Switzerland. He studied film at New York University. His films include Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction, which screened at the Festival, The Kite Runner, Quantum of Solace, and World War Z.

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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.

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Gave Lindo

Gave and I talk about The Reel World Film Festival, storytelling, and creating opportunities for people to act through dialogue, empathy and film.

For more information about the Reel World Festival go here.

Biography

Gave is currently the Executive Director of the Reelworld Film Festival. During his tenure, he repositioned the festival to focus on issue driven films of global importance. He also expanded the festival’s programming to include virtual reality films and interactive gaming and created Canada’s first ever Media for Impact Conference which brings together filmmakers and organizations behind acclaimed issue driven films such as Virunga, The True Cost, Girl Rising, Bully, The Hunting Ground, The Square, and Gasland. Gave began his career as a media lawyer working for a Bay street law firm in Toronto where he acted for broadcasters such as CHUM/CityTV and Astral. He then joined CBC as a business executive where he was responsible for structuring and negotiating deals with independent producers for television shows such as The Book of Negroes, Schitt's Creek, and Murdoch Mysteries and feature films such as Deepa Mehta’s Midnight's Children. He was also the lead business executive overseeing CBC’s children and youth division. In 2013, he was selected as a CivicAction DiverseCity Fellow, which is one of North America’s top programs for rising leaders interested in impacting change in their communities. He has served as a board director, committee member or advisor to a number of arts and nonprofit organizations such as Obsidian Theatre Company, Hot Docs, ArtsSmarts, blackandblue dance projects, the United Way Toronto, and the Emerging Leaders Network. He is currently Vice Chair of the Laidlaw Foundation and holds BA, JD, and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto.

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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.

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Hugh Gibson

Hugh and I talk about his new film The Stairs, “harm reduction care”, addictions, empathy and compassion and “Toronto: The Not So Good.”

PANEL DETAILS

Date/time: Wed Oct 12, after 6:40pm screening.

Guests: Toronto city councillors Joe Cressy and Gord Perks (both head Toronto’s Drug Strategy), plus Roxanne Smith (from the film), and Raffi Balian, South Riverdale CHC Project Coordinator. (FYI: SRCHC is one of 3 approved supervised injection sites in Toronto)

Moderator: Joe Fiorito (Toronto Star columnist)

For more information about TIFF go here.

IMDB

Trailer

More info about the film here.

Synopsis

Hugh Gibson's compassionate and profoundly affecting The Stairs takes us inside Toronto's Regent Park Community Health Centre, whose staff of social workers includes both former and current drug users. These workers understand all too well what their clients are going through.

Shot over five years, Gibson's film focuses on three staff members: the loquacious, seemingly tireless Marty, who was so addicted at one point that, after being shot in a deal that went south, he stopped for a hit before going to the hospital; Roxanne, a former sex worker whose tales of life in the trade are beyond harrowing; and Greg, a biracial child of the 1960s consumed with a long-delayed legal case hinging on a police officer's use of excessive force.

As it draws us closer to Gibson's subjects, The Stairs challenges prejudices and preconceived notions. It also underlines how tentative sobriety and stability can be for people who have lived in addiction for years. In one of the film's rawest moments, Marty, when asked what kind of future he sees for himself, explains that "When you wake up and you're at that next day, you're very happy because it's another day you didn't smoke crack … I didn't do it yesterday, I'm not gonna do it today either. That's our happy ending. Cuz it never ends."

As the film progresses, Gibson subtly builds a wide-ranging portrait of the conditions that can nurture addiction, most notably poverty and homelessness. In its nuance, social conscience, and moving affection for its subjects, The Stairs is a worthy continuation of the tradition set by the NFB's legendary Unit B.

Biography

 A graduate of York University (BFA: Film), Gibson participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus, TIFF’ s Talent Lab and TIFF STUDIO. Selected credits include writing/directing the acclaimed short drama, Hogtown Blues: TIFF, Bilbao: Audience Award), and producing short doc A Tomb with a View: TIFF, VIFF). 

He produced A Place Called Los Pereyra (IDFA, RIDM, BAFICI), which screened extensively in Latin America and Canada. The Stairs is his feature debut as director. He lives in Toronto.

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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.

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James Alan

James and I talk about mathematics, magic and mystery, risk and about how to leverage small secrets, and why it’s not about how smart you are, but it’s about what you know.

Biography

James Alan is a professional magician and sleight of hand artist based in Toronto. James has performed across Ontario for small intimate audiences and on large stages creating performances, which are “thought provoking, funny, astonishing and thoroughly entertaining.”

His one man shows, Lies, Damn Lies & Magic Tricks and The Uncertainty Project have been featured at the Summerworks Performance Festival (Toronto), The Hamilton Fringe Festival and The Wychwood Theatre. His latest project, Magic and Martini (www.magicandmartini.ca), sets out to prove that magic really is for grownups.

Read more about James here.

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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.

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Bob Phillips

Bob and I talk about residential schools, urban reconciliation, why he was thrown out of Burnamthorpe Collegiate some 55 years ago and how colonialism still is having its impact.

Biography

Dr. Bob Phillips (Great Bear) is a Non-Status Urban Micmac who was raised in the west end of Toronto.

He is a Traditional Pipe Carrier who began university at age 51 and now holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies.

Bob Phillips was also the host and producer of the AVR Arts Review Show for ten years on the Aboriginal Voices Radio Network where he discussed art, culture and contemporary issues with community members from across Canada and the Far North.

Read this article for a little more background on Bob and his past.

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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.

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

Adrian Sitaru

Adrian and I talked about his new film “The Fixer”, journalism, abuse, slavery, human behaviour and why sometimes compassion is not enough.

For more information about TIFF go here.

IMDB

Trailer

Synopsis

A headline-grabbing sex scandal gives a Romanian trainee at a French news network an opportunity for his big break, in this charged moral drama from Romanian director Adrian Sitaru.

At the heart of The Fixer lies a cautionary moral tale — on the surface a realist procedural in the vein of the Dardenne brothers, Adrian Sitaru's film is imbued with the signature minimalist approach of the Romanian new wave. Using journalism as his lens, Sitaru asks us to reflect on how far we're willing to go, and who we're willing to hurt, to get ahead in a competitive world.

Romanian-born Radu Patru (Tudor Istodor) is a trainee at a prestigious French news network. Serving as a translator and general problem solver, or "fixer," for the headlining journalists during his trial period, he's looking to make his big break. He sees his opportunity when two underage Romanian prostitutes are repatriated from France, creating an international scandal. Taking advantage of his language skills and local connections, Radu is prepared to do whatever it takes to interview one of the young girls. But as he ventures into tricky moral ground, he must stop to ask himself if, as an aspiring journalist, he can live with the consequences of his actions, and if, as a father, he's setting a good example for his son.

Though the imposing buildings and socio-economic policies of Romania's communist past loom over Sitaru's characters, universal themes firmly anchor The Fixer in the present. Claudia and Adrian Silisteanu's intelligent script uses engaging conversations and telling interactions — both inside and adjacent to the film's central narrative — to paint a fulsome picture of Radu's world. Naturalistic performances, combined with a desaturated colour palette and fluid hand-held photography, add to the film's authentic feel.

Exploring rich moral ground, Sitaru seamlessly connects themes of fatherhood, journalism ethics, and the class politics of contemporary Europe. Sitaru never preaches to his audience, instead inviting us, along with his characters, to make our own conclusions.

Biography

Adrian Sitaru was born in Deva, Romania. He has directed several features for television and short films. His debut feature, Hooked, screened at the Festival.

His other films include Domestic, Illegitimate and The Fixer.

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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.

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

Todd Minerson

Todd and I talk about masculinity, gender violence, “calling out versus calling in”, the business case for doing it “right”, and why Jack Layton believe you need a dream to live beyond yourself.

Biography

Todd Minerson is the Executive Director of the White Ribbon, the world’s largest effort of men and boys to end men’s violence against women. He is also the CEO of Parker P. Consulting, a social enterprise wholly owned by White Ribbon, working on gender issues with the private sector.

Initiated in Canada in 1991, the White Ribbon now has a presence in over 65 countries around the world.

The White Ribbon symbolizes a man’s pledge to never commit, condone, or remain silent about violence against women.

Todd’s work on engaging men and boys in gender based violence prevention and the pursuit of gender equality has taken him around the world.

His also work includes numerous engagements with the United Nations, including as a member of the UN Women Global Civil Society Advisory Group. Todd is also a member of the Province of Ontario’s Permanent Roundtable on Violence against Women, and the Advisory Council for A Federal Strategy on Gender-Based Violence with the Government of Canada. Recently Todd was elected as the Co-Chair of the Global MenEngage Alliance, a group of 600 NGOs working on gender equality issues with men and boys.

Of all these accomplishments he is most proud of being a father, a husband, and a really average hockey player.

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Please visit my website for more information on my podcasting, writing and public speaking.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

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Jonas and I talked about refugees and memory, about ambient noise, poetry, the new film I Had Nowhere To Go, and why he's spent a lifetime ignoring Hollywood.

For more information on I Had Nowhere To Go (IMDB) and TIFF.

Synopsis

Internationally acclaimed multimedia artist Douglas Gordon (24 Hour Psycho, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait) returns to the Festival with this intimate portrait of avant-garde cinema legend Jonas Mekas.

"An adventurer can always return home; an exile cannot. So I decided that culture would be my home." Jonas Mekas

Internationally acclaimed multimedia artist Douglas Gordon returns to the Festival with an intimate portrait of Jonas Mekas, the legendary poet, film critic, risk-taking curator, "the godfather of the American avant-garde cinema" -- and, at 93 years old, among the remaining few to have escaped and survived Nazi persecution.

I Had Nowhere to Go plunges us into both a collective and individual space of memory via long, imageless stretches over which Mekas narrates, in his inimitable voice, excerpts from his memoir (which lends the film its title).

An extraordinary life story emerges as the film zigzags between Mekas' early years in a forced labour camp and a Displaced Person centre during WWII and his arrival in New York as a young Lithuanian émigré. With an immersive sound environment and intermittent, fleeting images that stand in evocative juxtaposition to Mekas' anecdotes, Gordon's film reveals in its subject a puckish humour that outweighs despair, and an unabated zest for life that both illuminates and softens the sadness.

A deeply moving tribute from one great artist to another and a singular work in its own right, I Had Nowhere to Go has timely resonance today as mass migratory movements are displacing millions of people throughout the world as refugees, exiles, and stateless persons. While Mekas is certainly no ordinary person, the story he tells is a profoundly humble one, as much about daily survival as it is about aspiring to accomplish so much more. Gordon, who is ingenious at activating memory and the cinematic imaginary, compellingly presents quotidian moments outside of Mekas' famous film-related activities in order to reveal the desires, impulses, melancholy, and perseverance that inform Mekas' filmmaking and infectious love of cinema.

Even when truly having nowhere to go, Mekas always saw brief glimpses of beauty as he was moving ahead.

Biography

Jonas Mekas - Writer

Jonas Mekas born December 24, 1922, is a Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals across Europe and America. In 1944, Mekas left Lithuania because of war. En route, his train was stopped in Germany and he and his brother, Adolfas Mekas, were imprisoned in a labor camp in Elmshorn, a suburb of Hamburg, for eight months. The brothers escaped and were detained near the Danish border where they hid on a farm for two months until the end of the war. After the war, Mekas lived in displaced person camps in Wiesbaden and Kassel.

From 1946-48, he studied philosophy at the University of Mainz and at the end of 1949, he emigrated with his brother to the U.S., settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York.

After his arrival, he borrowed the money to buy his first Bolex 16-mm camera and began to record moments of his life. He discovered avant-garde film at venues such as Amos Vogel's pioneering Cinema 16, and he began screening his own films in 1953 at Gallery East on Avenue A and Houston Street, and a Film Forum series at Carl Fisher Auditorium on 57th Street.

In 1954, he became editor of Film Culture, and in 1958, began writing his "Movie Journal" column for The Village Voice. In 1962, he co-founded Film-Makers' Cooperative (FMC) and the Filmmaker's Cinematheque in 1964, which eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives, one of the world’s largest and most important repositories of avant-garde films. The films and the voluminous collection of photographs and paper documents (mostly from or about avant garde film makers of the 1950-1980 period) were moved from time to time based on Mekas' ability to raise grant money to pay to house the massive collection.

He was part of the New American Cinema, with, in particular, fellow film-maker Lionel Rogosin. He was heavily involved with artists such as Andy Warhol, Nico, Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Salvador Dalí, and fellow Lithuanian George Maciunas.

In 1970, Anthology Film Archives opened on 425 Lafayette Street as a film museum, screening space, and a library, with Mekas as its director. Mekas, along with Stan Brakhage, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, James Broughton, and P. Adams Sitney, begin the ambitious Essential Cinema project at Anthology Film Archives to establish a canon of important cinematic works. Mekas' own output ranging from narrative films (Guns of the Trees, 1961) to documentaries (The Brig, 1963) and to "diaries" such as Walden (1969); Lost, Lost, Lost (1975);Reminiscences of a Voyage to Lithuania (1972) and Zefiro torna (1992) have been screened extensively at festivals and museums around the world.

In 2001, he released a five-hour long diary film entitled As I Was Moving Ahead.

Martin Scorsese said once: "Jonas Mekas is the one that gave me the desire and strength to be a director."

Douglas Gordon - Director

Douglas Gordon's practice encompasses video and film, installation, sculpture, photography, and text. Through his work, Gordon investigates human conditions like memory and the passage of time, as well as universal dualities such as life and death, good and evil, right and wrong. Gordon's oeuvre has been exhibited globally and his film works have been presented at many competitions, including the Festival de Cannes, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the International Venice Film Festival. Gordon received the 1996 Turner Prize, the Premio 2000 prize for best young artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale, and the 1998 Hugo Boss Prize.

Most recently, in May 2008 he was awarded the Roswitha Haftmann Prize by the Kunsthaus Zurich and, in 2012 the KätheKollwitz Prize from the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. Gordon was the International Juror at the 65th International Venice Film Festival, and in 2012 he was the Jury president of CinemaXXI at the 7th International Rome Film Festival. In December 2014 Douglas Gordon and pianist Hélène Grimaud have joined forces to explore the beauty of water in an extraordinary performance at Armory on Park, New York.

The collaboration continued when Gordon directed the theatre performance Neck of the Woods starring Charlotte Rampling and Hélène Grimuaud at the 2015 MIF - Manchester International Festival, Manchester. Born in Scotland, Gordon lives and works in Berlin and Glasgow and teaches film at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main. He is represented internationally by Gagosian Gallery, as well as Untilthen in Paris, Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Zürich, and Dvir Gallery in Tel Aviv

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