Face2Face with David Peck

Terry talks about “weaponized” religion, compound worldviews, about living in a “both/and” world, and unpacks notions of interdependence, integration and inter-relationship.

Biography

Terry is Mi’kmaq / Acadian. He and his wife Bev are in their 44th year of marriage. They have three adult children – twin daughters and one son.

In addition to being the Executive Director of Indigenous Pathways, he is also the founding Chair and current Director of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community. Terry holds an interdisciplinary PhD from Asbury Theological Seminary, specializing in Theology and Anthropology.

Terry serves as adjunct professor at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Oregon, Acadia University and Divinity College in Wolfville, William Carey International University, and Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, where he also resources the B.Ed. program. Terry has accrued over 38 years of community work in Native North American and global Indigenous contexts including as an educator in theology, cultural anthropology and community development practice.

Author of numerous articles, papers and assorted book chapters, Terry has won several awards for his varied writings. In June 2010, for his work on the creation of NAIITS, Terry became the 28th recipient of the Dr. E.H. Johnson Memorial Award for Innovation in Mission – an award he holds in common with such distinguished recipients as Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In May of 2015 Terry was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Acadia University.

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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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Esther talks about her love for knowledge, philosophy and wisdom, defective approaches to knowing, how “it’s all connected and why she is concerned about others as a philosopher.

Biography

Esther L. Meek (Ph.D., Temple University; M.A., Western Kentucky University; B.A., Cedarville College) is Professor of Philosophy at Geneva College, and Visiting Professor of Apologetics at Redeemer Theological Seminary. She is also a Fellow with Artist Makoto Fujimura’s Fujimura Institute.

Her 2003 Longing to Know: The Philosophy of Knowledge for Ordinary People (Brazos) is a book for people considering Christianity who have questions about how we know anything at all. Her 2011 book, Loving to Know: Introducing Covenant Epistemology (Cascade), proposes the interpersonal covenantal relationship as the paradigm for all human knowing. A Little Manual for Knowing (Cascade, Spring 2014) distills covenant epistemology into a how-to for any knowing venture in any field.

Her website, www.longingtoknow.com, links to some of her other work, and to related resources for knowing well. Esther enjoys talking with people in all walks of life about how knowing works—artists, athletes, scientists, counselors, believers, cooks, parents, teachers.

Esther lives in Aliquippa, near Pittsburgh, PA.

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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.

Helen talks about her new film Hold Your Fire, about police violence, fear, the Sammy Yatim shooting and how 1 in 5 of us will suffer form a mental health crisis at some point in out lives.

Film Trailer

Film Synopsis

Hold Your Fire explores the reasons why officers who signed on to serve and protect somehow end up shooting a vulnerable person. The documentary looks at how police training and response to people in crisis went off track, and shows how progressive police forces, from Rialto, California to Leicester, U.K., are striving to get onto a better path. We travel with Canadian police mobile teams to calls involving people in emotional crisis, and meet a Hamilton mental health worker who responds to 911 calls and is quite possibly the only civilian in Canada to ever send home the tactical team.

Biography

In naming her one of BC’s 100 Most Influential Women, the Vancouver Sun said, “Helen Slinger’s filmmaking is all about taking a grabber of an event and turning it on its head. The documentarian deliberately digs deeper, looking for real meaning beneath surface shock.”

Slinger began her career as a reporter, first newspaper, then television. After a lengthy left-turn into news management, she left mainstream media to pursue her passion for documentary. An empathetic director, the subjects of her films trust her completely, revealing deeply intimate aspects of their lives. But it’s Slinger’s command of the narrative that is most remarkable.

She artfully weaves together complicated storylines, delivering a nuance that eludes most. Notables from a long list of documentary credits: Shadow Warrior, Leaving Bountiful, Alexandra’s Echo, Mounties Under Fire, The Gangster Next Door, When the Devil Knocks, Dog Dazed, and The Condo Games. When not immersed in Bountiful projects, Slinger is an in-demand writer and script doctor, whose efforts elevate dozens of documentaries.

Read more about Bountiful Films here.

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

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Dayne Pratzky

Listen in as Dayne talks about why he’s called The Frackman, coal seam gas mining, why we all matter more than we know and how to be bold, brave and proud when becoming an activist.

TIFF and Human Rights Watch co-present the 13th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival in Toronto, March 30 to April 7.

For more information about the festival go here.

Watch the Trailer Here.

And find out more info about the film here.

Synopsis

Dayne Pratzky loved the quiet life on his rural block in central Queensland. Then the coal seam gas company arrived, and that changed everything. Legally he couldn't stop them mining his land, but that didn't mean he wouldn't fight. And so began a David and Goliath battle against a $200 Billion industry. Along the way he found love, tragedy and triumph.

Frackman is like no other Australian film. It aims to spark a broad national conversation about the risks of our headlong rush into massive coal seam gas development.

Can we imagine any other issue that would bring together the likes of Alan Jones and Bob Brown?

See it and find out why.

Biography

Dayne Pratzky is a leading figure in the anti-Coal Seam Gas movement in Australia. Dayne starts his campaign of resistance when the Queensland Gas Company (QGC) begins CSG operations in his community of Tara, Queensland (near Chinchilla). The Tara locals recruit veteran campaigner Drew Hutton to the cause, who then founds the vast Lock the Gate Alliance.

Outraged that gas companies are demanding access to their land, and deeply troubled by the terrible health affects they believe are being caused by the industry, Dayne and his neighbours begin to fight back.

Dayne is an ‘accidental’ activist, having had no previous involvement with environmental campaigning. “I was a roo shooting, pig hunting kind of bloke,” he says. “I’m the most unlikely environmentalist in the world. But when they force their way onto your land and destroy your community, you have no choice but to fight back.”

Dayne discovers early on that the techniques used to extract unconventional gas buried deep beneath the ground have many potential risks. There is a significant chance that the region’s water supply will be contaminated, and kids in his estate are getting sick. Deeply concerned, Dayne startss Gasileaks, a citizen-run watchdog for CSG operations. He is invited to Washington to address a huge rally of Americans opposed to ‘fracking’ and his campaigning takes him to Wyoming and Colorado, investigating the disastrous consequences of fracking in America. “They’re ten years further down the track in the US, and what we are facing at home is an environmental catastrophe that will rival the asbestos disaster,” says Dayne.

In the course of fighting for his community, Dayne sometimes skirts the law and his civil disobedience activities lead to charges of dangerous driving and public nuisance. Undeterred, Dayne will continue touring Australia throughout 2015, helping communities living with CSG to fight back and attempt to prevent the industry’s spread beyond Queensland.

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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.

Listen in as Michele talks about the new film The Uncondemned, rape as a war crime, why we have a responsibility to others and the “grace of fate.”

TIFF and Human Rights Watch co-present the 13th annual Human Rights Watch Film Festival in Toronto, March 30 to April 7.

For more information about the festival go here.

Watch the Trailer Here.

And find out more info about the film here.

Synopsis

"The Uncondemned" tells the gripping and world-changing story of a group of young international lawyers and activists who fought to make rape a crime of war, and the Rwandan women who came forward to testify and win justice where there had been none.

Up until this point, rape had not been prosecuted as a war crime and was committed with impunity. A courtroom thriller and personal human drama, "The Uncondemned" beautifully interweaves the stories of the characters in this odyssey, leading to the trial at an international criminal court--and the results that changed the world of criminal justice forever. 

Biography

Michele Mitchell

Former investigative correspondent to Bill Moyers (PBS) and political anchor at CNN HLN, Mitchell has reported extensively throughout the US, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and North Africa. A graduate of Northwestern University, she wrote sports for the ChicagoTribune. She began her career on Capitol Hill and is the author of three books. She was the director, producer, writer and co-executive producer of "Haiti," as well as for "The Water War."

Nick Louvel

A graduate of the Tisch film program, Louvel directed his first independent feature "Domino One" before graduating from Harvard in 2003. Louvel worked in development at Miramax and as creative assistant to screenwriter Eric Singer on "The International." His second directorial feature, a literary documentary, is currently in post. He has freelanced for clients such as Chase Bank, Emotional Branding, Saatchi & Saatchi, Sears, and IFC. He was editor of "Haiti" and the editor and DP of "The Water War."

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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.

Listen in today as Mark talks about falling in love with journalism, how too often it’s a business and not a calling, what “getting it first” versus “getting it right” is all about and why he’s still hopeful.

Biography

Mark Bulgutch retired from CBC News in 2009 after a career that lasted more than 35 years. But he continued to produce every CBC TV News special event until 2012. In 2012 he wrote a weekly column on the web site of CBC’s chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge (www.cbc.ca/petermansbridge).

He graduated from Carleton University in 1974 with an honours degree in journalism. He was immediately hired by CBC News as a reporter in his hometown, Montreal. He became a line-up editor there, before moving to Toronto to work as a writer on The National. He soon became the program’s line-up editor, a position he held for 11 years.

He became the senior producer of CBC News Specials, and then the Senior Executive Producer of CBC TV News and CBC NewsWorld (now CBC News Network). He was responsible for all live news programming on both networks. He has produced every federal election night for CBC from 1997 to 2011, and was part of every CBC election night program in every province and territory from 1995 to 2011. He produced the federal election debates for all networks in 2006, 2008, and 2011. He was a writer for CTV at the Olympic Games in London in 2012, and for CBC at the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014.

Among the many news specials he produced are: The 1995 Quebec Referendum, the funeral of Pierre Trudeau, the Sept 11 attack on the United States, the 50th and 60th anniversaries of D Day and VE Day, the memorial of four RCMP officers killed in Alberta, the war in Iraq, and the National Remembrance Day ceremony from Ottawa between 1995 and 2012. He has also been the executive producer for the host broadcast feed to the world of several events including World Youth Day and the Pope’s visit to Canada in 2002, and the XVI International AIDS conference in 2006.

His work has been recognized with 31 Gemini Award nominations, 14 Gemini Awards, 4 RTNDA Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation Award of Excellence, and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Gold Ribbon Award. In addition he was honoured with the Gabriel Award from the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals for a documentary on the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

He has also had a long career as a journalism educator. He has been teaching at Ryerson University since 1987. He taught at Concordia University from 1979-1982. And he taught at Sheridan College in 2009.

He often lectures for the Department of National Defence at both the Defence Public Affairs Learning Centre, and the Canadian Forces College.

He also serves as an adjudicator for the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.

His book, That’s Why I’m a Journalist (Douglas & McIntyre, 2015), tells the stories of 44 reporters and their most remarkable days on the job.

He has also co-authored two other books, Canadian By Conviction (Gage Publishing, 2000) and Defining Canada: History, Identity, and Culture (McGraw – Hill Ryerson, 2002).

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Listen in as Sophia talks about her new film Inside The Chinese Closet, LGBTQ rights here at home and in China, trust, transparency and why she’s still optimistic about the future.

Festival Runs from: March 30 - April 7, 2016

For more information about the festival go here.

Watch the Trailer Here.

Synopsis

Andy devotes his days and nights to looking for a lesbian wife of convenience who could possibly bear his child; from online search to underground marriage markets, he is meeting all sorts of girls. Cherry has already married a gay man, but the quest for a baby proves to be a far more complex challenge. Will Andy and Cherry deny their own happiness and sexual orientation to satisfy their parents’ wishes? Inside The Chinese Closet follows Andy and Cherry in their search. Along the way, they clash with their parents’ hopes, their love partners and the partners of convenience. It is through these encounters that the film lays bare the challenges that confront gay people in China today.

Biography

Sophia Luvarà received her MSc with merit in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Turin, where she also studied for a PhD in Cancer Research, but in 2007 she discontinued her studies and moved to London to follow her passion for documentary filmmaking.

In 2008 she attended the Documentary Filmmaking course at the London Film Academy and subsequently directed a number of independent documentaries, including: The Great Mafia Orange Squeeze (2011, UK/Italy), about African immigrants who rioted against ‘Ndrangheta mafia oppression in a small town in the South of Italy. The Road to Fureidis (2011, UK), about Arab Israeli women, who receive training to increase their self-confidence and employability.

In 2013 Sophia spent two weeks embedded with soldiers on duty in Afghanistan for the MTV documentary Soldati – Missione Afganistan. She is currently co-directing and producing the feature length documentary ‘Ishmael’s forgotten children of Israel’ about Arab citizens of Israel, for the Foundation Media EdProject, where she is also a board member.

Inside The Chinese Closet is Sophia first feature length documentary, which she developed at the Documentary Campus Masterschool in 2011 and at the Crossing Borders in 2012 - Eurasia-Pacific documentary training scheme.

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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.

Listen in as Eileen talks about her new film A Jihadi In The Family, Islamophobia, brokenness, and the power of real community.

See the trailer and Read more here.

 Synopsis

Overnight, Calgary mother Christianne Boudreau has a new identity, “mother of a terrorist,” when her son Damian is killed fighting with ISIS. “I never saw it coming”, she says, echoing hundreds of mothers in Europe and North America whose children have left home to embrace violent extremism.

How and why young people, who have grown up in western countries, are being recruited to terrorist groups and the effect it’s having on the families they leave behind, is the focus of the new documentary A JIHADI IN THE FAMILY.

Unlike many parents who fear to speak publicly about what happened to their children, Christianne’s response to this tragedy is to personally take on the battle against ISIS.  Driven to understand the destructive path her son chose, Christianne embarks on a journey to meet others who have a stake in the issue. Her quest for answers takes her to her son's imam, to counter-terrorism experts, and to a man who survived his own experience with extremists and became a crusader against their recruiters.

In Europe, where thousands of young men and women have been lured into terrorist groups, she develops strong bonds with other women who’ve been shattered by the disappearance of their children. Each of these mothers is also a victim of terrorism.

A JIHADI IN THE FAMILY will have a repeat broadcast on CBC Thursday, March 24th at 9 pm ET.

Biography

Eileen Thalenberg is, with Gail McIntyre, the founder of Toronto-based independent film and television production company Stormy Night Productions Inc. Eileen has trained her director’s eye on subjects around the world and across the arts, sciences and social and political issues. Fluent in eight languages, she has a global sensibility and an award-winning ability to take viewers to the heart of a story. Up Against the Wall, about the walls built by three democracies after the Berlin Wall collapsed, was nominated for the Gemini Award’s Donald Brittain Award and won the Special Jury Award for Best Social And Political Documentary at Worldfest. Silence at the Heart of Things, filmed during the last months of fiddler Oliver Schroer’s life, won the Silver Chris Award for Best Arts Documentary and was nominated Best Overall at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival. Streets of Encounter/ Loin des favelas, about choreographer Ivaldo Bertazzo’s work with teenagers in the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil, won the Prix Gémeaux for Best Arts Documentary and the Platinum Award for Best Arts Documentary at the Houston International Film and Video Festival. Other award-winning work includes Born to be Good?, a lively look at the moral trajectory of children from infancy, and The Long Journey Home, which follows opera star Isabel Bayrakdarian on a moving exploration of her roots in Armenia. Eileen has directed, written or produced more than 50 TV and feature documentaries and has gained a wide international audience.

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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.

Listen in as Magali talks about Human Rights, the power of film to work towards social change and why she might be a cynic at heart, but still eternally hopeful.

For more information about the festival go here.

Biography

Simard is the Manager of Film Programmes at TIFF, working on new releases, TIFF Cinematheque, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and ongoing film series. Bringing her experience in the Canadian film industry and deep knowledge of Quebec cinema, she sits on the programming team for the Toronto International Film Festival’s Canadian feature films.

She co-programmed the Festival’s Short Cuts Canada section for five years. Simard has served on juries for the Berlinale Teddy Awards, Rio de Janeiro’s Curta Cinema, the Festival du Nouveau Cinema and the Sundance Film Festival. 

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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.

Peter talks about the ”dialectics of violence”, why cooperation will be essential to our survival as a human race, why he makes films for himself and how capitalism is a killer system.

Biography

Villon Films was founded by Peter Davis, who has written, produced, and directed more than seventy documentaries. His work has been shown on every major television network on the globe including CBC, CTV, BBC, CBS, NBC, Swedish Television, German Television, and NHK Japan.

Davis was born and raised in England. He completed his masters studies at Oxford University before emigrating to Sweden and then North America. His early career included positions as scriptwriter for the National Film Board of Canada; director-cameraman for BBC, CBC, Swedish TV, Danish TV, Australian Broadcasting, and WNET; as well as producer for Swedish TV, London’s Rediffusion Television, BBC, CBS, CBC, CTV, Polytel (West Germany), WNET, the United Nations, UNICEF, and C.A.R.E.

The Villon Films collection includes biographies of spies such as CIA agent and Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt and U2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers, and of the World War II Foreign Service officers who were accused of “losing China”; a satirical history of the American annexation of the Philippines; and a sociological history of the Jewish experience in the Catskills.

The Peter Davis Collection at Indiana University represents over 50 years of work. It includes not only films, but also corresponding outtakes, photographs, audiocassettes, and manuscripts, all available for research and study. The South African material spans the period of the most intensive struggle for human rights in that country, and also includes historical footage dating from the beginning of the century. Among the documentaries held there are Remember Mandela!, In Darkest Hollywood, White Laager and Generations of Resistance.

Both Peter Davis and Villon Films have won numerous awards, including:

In Darkest Hollywood, First Prize, Big Muddy Film Festival, 1994

This Bloody, Blundering Business, Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival, 1978

Stocking Up, Red Ribbon, American Film Festival, 1982

Winnie Mandela: Under Apartheid, Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival, 1986

Urkunde, Internationalen Demokratischen Frauenfoderation, 1986

League of Mediterranean Women’s plaque, 1987

Getting The Most From Your Garden, Red Ribbon, American Film Festival, 1981

Side by Side, Women against AIDS in Zimbabwe, Jury Award, WHO, 1995

D.H. Lawrence in Taos, Chris Award, Film Council for Greater Columbus, 1970

D. H. Lawrence in Taos, Blue Ribbon Award, American Film Festival, 1970.

For more information about Villion Films visit their site here.

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