Face2Face with David Peck

Film Synopsis

Directed by Avi Lewis and produced in conjunction with Naomi Klein’s best-selling book of the same name, This Changes Everything is an urgent dispatch on climate change that explores how our violent disregard for our planet has endangered both it and ourselves, and how resisting this abuse and opposing the forces that propagate it can have a profound — even revolutionary — impact upon the makeup of our society.

With Klein serving as narrator and guide, the film examines several individual cases worldwide — from ranchers in Montana dealing with floods and an oil spill to grandmothers in Greece protesting the arrival of a Canadian gold-processing complex, from fishermen in India rejecting a coal-fired power plant to migrant workers in Fort McMurray drowning their sorrows — to show both the ravages of unchecked capitalist “development” and some of the grassroots initiatives that have begun to combat them.

Filmed on several continents over a period of three years, This Changes Everything argues that the greatest crisis we have ever faced also offers us the opportunity to address and chere orrect the inhumane systems that have created it.

Biography

Avi Lewis is a filmmaker and TV host with a 25 year history of pushing the boundaries of mainstream media. He is the director of the feature documentary This Changes Everything, inspired by the bestselling book by Naomi Klein.

His first documentary, The Take (2004), followed Argentina’s legendary movement of worker- run businesses. It premiered at the Venice Biennale and was released theatrically around the world.

He co-created and hosted both Al Jazeera English Television’s acclaimed documentary series Fault Lines, and the ground-breaking The Big Picture on CBC Television.

Watch the trailer here

Visit the website for more info.

And get Naomi’s book here that inspired the film.

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Biography

Inspired by her Uncle, Canadian astronaut Cmdr (Ret’d) Chris Hadfield, Kelly Hadfield was raised recognizing that a person has no limits to what they can accomplish. In 2007, Kelly co-founded a local non-profit organization in Ontario called the Prom Blitz, which enables marginalized graduating high school girls to proudly attend their prom with their peers and celebrate their achievements.

During her B.Sc. Honours with a Major in Biomedical Science at the University of Guelph, Kelly gained experience in a diverse array of health improvement fields, including physiotherapy, peer counseling, global health, and research.

While completing her undergraduate degree, Kelly founded Ghana Medical Help, an international charity aimed to alleviate suffering and improve health outcomes in rural Ghana. She then completed a M.Sc. thesis focused on utilizing an innovative technique for large scale monitoring of malaria in Africa.

She is currently working on maximizing the impact Ghana Medical Help can have on sustainably improving the health status of rural West African communities and while completing medical school in Ireland.

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Listen in as Paul talks about the complexities of war, how the world is “not settling down” and about his encounter with absolutes.

Trailer here.

Synopsis

Paul Gross (Passchendaele) directs and co-stars in this taut war drama about Canadian troops in Afghanistan weathering Taliban attacks while struggling to complete construction on a crucial highway link. Writer-director-star Paul Gross’ new film portrays the heroic duties undertaken by Canadian armed forces in Afghanistan with the same gut-wrenching immediacy that Gross brought to the blood soaked Belgian battlefields of World War I in his epic Passchendaele. Hyena Road is a masterful examination of modern warfare that drops viewers straight into the belly of the beast. Depicting an embattled Canadian-American initiative to increase safe transport across Afghanistan, Hyena Road is a group portrait of men and women at work in a dangerous and often confounding conflict zone. Alternating between relatively tranquil scenes of life at the base and adrenalized sequences that thrust us into the heat of battle, Gross orchestrates a cinematic symphony of soldiering: the highs and lows, the brotherhood and barbarity. Hyena Road does what great war movies can do: it carefully examines the plight of a few so as to speak to the experience of many.

Biography

Paul Gross is internationally known for his role as Constable Benton Fraser on the multi award-winning drama series “Due South.” He was honoured with two GeminiAwards for Best Actor, and one Gemini Award for his writing on the series. Gross also received two Gemini Awards for best performance by an actor in the critically acclaimed series “Slings & Arrows”. In 2000, Gross wrote, directed and starred in the feature film Men with Brooms, which was the highest-grossing English-language Canadian film of the previous 20 years. He also starred in, co-wrote and produced the miniseries “H2O” as well as its sequel “The Trojan Horse”.

In 2008 Gross released his feature film Passchendaele, a movie based on the famous First World War battle heroically fought by 50,000 Canadians in the bloodied fields of Ypres, Belgium. Passchendaele, which Gross wrote, directed and starred in, was the highest grossing Canadian film of 2008 with the box office reaching over $4.5 million, and won five Genie Awards, including Best Picture.

Gross earned a degree in drama at the University of Alberta, and went on to perform extensively in Canadian regional theatres in addition to forging a writing career. His first play, The Deer and the Antelope Play, performed in Edmonton, won the Clifford E. Lee National Playwriting Award and the Alberta Cultural Playwriting Award (1982).

On stage, Gross performed the title role in the Stratford Festival’s 2000 production of Hamlet to record-setting audiences. He received a 1985 Dora Award nomination for his performance as Romeo in Romeo & Juliet and a Dora Award for Best Performance for his role in the acclaimed North American premiere of Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme, which played at Toronto’s CanStage. In the Fall of 2011 he appeared in Noel Coward’s Private Lives opposite Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) on Broadway and at the Royal Alex in Toronto and in 2012 he starred in John Guare’s Are You There McPhee at the McCarter Theatre at Princeton.

Gross has received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award and the Pierre Burton Award. He was recently appointed to the Order of Canada and also received the Earle Grey Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award, from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

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Don’t miss this interview as Rossif talks about his move into acting, why he’s a storyteller at heart and why he feels “we’re all in this together.”

Check out the quote from him below in a recent Toronto Sun article by Jane Stevenson.

“I don’t mean to be existential or anything, but we find ourselves in this world with all these questions and so few answers and then we try and educate these beautiful children of ours and we try and guide them through one generation to another, we adopt whatever mistakes the previous generation has made. There’s a whole cycle to it all. This war, and this constant answer of correcting a wrong with another wrong. I hope one day…we get to accept each other and celebrate each others differences and in those differences realize how we are one and the same.”

Film Synopsis

Trailer here.

IMDB here. 

Paul Gross (Passchendaele) directs and co-stars in this taut war drama about Canadian troops in Afghanistan weathering Taliban attacks while struggling to complete construction on a crucial highway link.

Writer-director-star Paul Gross’ new film portrays the heroic duties undertaken by Canadian armed forces in Afghanistan with the same gut-wrenching immediacy that Gross brought to the blood-soaked Belgian battlefields of World War I in his epic Passchendaele. Hyena Road is a masterful examination of modern warfare that drops viewers straight into the belly of the beast.

Depicting an embattled Canadian- American initiative to increase safe transport across Afghanistan, Hyena Road is a group portrait of men and women at work in a dangerous and often confounding conflict zone.

We meet a sniper (Rossif Sutherland who becomes precariously implicated in the life of one of his targets — as well as the life of an alluring colleague (Christine Horne). There’s an intelligence officer whose customary world-weary wisecracks — “Even the dirt is hostile” — veil a fundamental belief in the ethics of war.

And the film introduces us to a legendary former mujahid known as The Ghost (Neamat Arghandabi) who, for mysterious reasons, is lured back into the battle zone to assist the Canadian forces.

All these characters’ trajectories collide in ways that illustrate the triumphs and frustrations that occur amid the moral uncertainty of war. Alternating between relatively tranquil scenes of life at the base and adrenalized sequences that thrust us into the heat of battle, Gross orchestrates a cinematic symphony of soldiering: the highs and lows, the brotherhood and barbarity.

Hyena Road does what great war movies can do: it carefully examines the plight of a few so as to speak to the experience of many.

Biography

Rossif Sutherland, an established performer in Music, Film and Television has developed an extensive resume.

Film credits include “Big Muddy” directed by Jefferson Moneo, “I’m Yours” opposite Karine Vanasse, Gary Yates’ feature film “High Life” opposite Timothy Olyphant and Joe Anderson for which received a Genie nomination, and the critically acclaimed Clement Virgo feature “Poor Boy’s Game” opposite Danny Glover all of which premiered The Toronto International Film Festival. Others include “Timeline”, a Paramount feature directed by Richard Donner as well as the independent feature film “Red Doors” directed by Georgia Lee. Most recently he just completed filming a supporting role in ‘Back Country’ opposite Joel Kinnaman and the starring role in ‘River’ directed by Jamie Dagg which shot in Laos.

In Television, Sutherland has had recurring guest spots on shows such as NBC’s “Crossing Lines” and BBCA’s “Copper” with other guest starring roles in TMN’s “Living In Your Car”; “Monk” and “Being Erica” and “Cracked” for CBC as well as a recurring role in season 10 of NBC’s hit show “ER”. He’s been series regular on Showcase’s “King” and the hit show “Reign” for the CW. When he’s not acting, he is busy recording his music.

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Listen to with David Verbeek and actor Gregoire Colin talk about their new film Full Contact, our disconnect from reality, how silence can be instructive and PTSD.

Film Synopsis

Trailer here

IMDB

A drone operator tries to deal with his guilt after an air strike gone wrong, in this enigmatic drama from Dutch director David Verbeek.

The hypnotic new psychological thriller from director David Verbeek is a startling and extremely unsettling look at a modern man caught in a puzzle that may or may not be of his own making. Verbeek presents the audience with a veritable Rubik’s Cube of a movie that is destined to be the subject of much analysis due to its form of storytelling. Each viewer’s response is bound to be different.

Full Contact drills into the world — and deep into the psyche — of a drone navigator who, from his base in the Nevada desert, conducts surgical missile strikes against targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Maintaining a distance from his targets that is psychological as well as geographic, Ivan (Grégoire Colin) walks away from these daily missions and spends his off-hours in strip clubs. Until, one day, he hits the wrong location, triggering within him a wave of guilt that sends him reeling into the arms of both a military psychologist and a Vegas stripper. But this is just the start of a psychic odyssey that is unpredictable, moving, and illuminating.

There’s a force and authority to Full Contact: it’s wonderfully constructed, with vivid photography and impressive, Lynchian transitions that provoke new trains of thought. The filmmaker’s control is of the essence here. Verbeek captures the robotic, depersonalized behaviour of a man who kills people from the safety of a control centre 12,000 kilometres away, which is a challenge in itself. To deconstruct that character’s personality is an even bigger challenge, and Ivan’s mind, his very existence, is brilliantly broken down for us to reassemble in our interpretations. This is an ingenious, provocative work.

Biography

Graduated in Directing from Amsterdam’s Film Academy, in 2005. During his second year there, he directed the feature film Beat with a budget of only 500 euro’s. It was selected for the International Film Festival Rotterdam, as well being released on DVD and nationwide in theatres. The following year, he was asked to direct a television film for the VPRO, resulting in the critically acclaimed Yu-Lan.After graduating he left for China, returning three years later with his second feature film Shanghai Trance; a cinematic portrait of Shanghai that depicts a generation of young Chinese, bedazzled by a city that is changing faster than they can grow up. The film was selected for the Tiger Award Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam as well as numerous international festivals. It was released in China in over 250 cinemas and in late 2008, David made the front page of the Volkskrant newspaper for being the first Dutch director to achieve this.

He shot third feature film in Taiwan, a Dutch/French/co-production. “r u There” is a multi-dimensional experience that comprises 20% Second Life images. It is an exploration of the virtual world in which the younger generation is so deeply immersed. The film got selected to Un Certain Regard in Cannes.

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Today's interview was a delight for me as I spoke with Leena and her three main actors from the film Parched. We talk about popular culture, shame, fear, gender disparity, and how we should question everything. You really don’t want to miss this one.

Film Synopsis

IMDB

In a rural Indian village, four ordinary women begin to throw off the traditions that hold them in servitude, in this inspirational drama from director Leena Yadav.

This year has seen a cultural shift that puts more women at the active centre of Indian films. At the vanguard of this trend stands Parched, in which director Leena Yadav turns her lens on a group of ordinary women who, like the desert lands they inhabit, thirst for more than what life has given them.

“Society has rules for a reason,” says a village elder at the opening of this modern melodrama. And the rural community — home to widowed Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee, most recently seen at the Festival in Siddharth), her vivacious best friend Lajjo (Radhika Apte), and the erotic dancer Bijli (Surveen Chawla) — lives and dies by those rules the old man cites. But when it falls to Rani to find a teenage bride for her entitled fifteen-year-old son, she and her friends begin to subtly question this status quo that favours men, sends child brides to abusive husbands, and ostracizes women for being educated and opinionated.

With a bold visual confidence, Yadav combines the stark realism of Rajasthan’s hostile desert landscapes with a Bollywood palette, vibrant tones that celebrate the unleashing of the women’s repressed sensuality and dreams. Splendidly shot by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter (Titanic), Parched gradually accrues a feeling of grandeur — mirroring the way in which Yadav elevates these women’s stories, transforming her characters’ struggles into a stirring portrayal of liberation.

Biography

Leena Yadov was born in Mhow, India. She began her career as an editor on commercials and an assistant director for television. She made her directorial debut with Shabd, followed by Teen Patti and Parched.

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This week’s conversation is a real treat and with a good friend of mine. My advice is to listen closely. Pay attention as Dave talks about his deep passion for the two-thirds world, why he does what he does and why he thinks that we’re all able to give. He’ll tell you why he’s preoccupied with hope, about opportunities for peace and why gender justice is essential to building a better world.

Biography

As president and chief executive officer of World Vision Canada, Dave Toycen heads the country’s largest humanitarian relief and development agency. In his 26 years as a leader with World Vision Canada – 18 as president – donations have increased and the number of children sponsored through World Vision Canada has risen.

Dave has led the agency into significant advocacy and public policy work, with an emphasis on issues that affect children. He has spoken before the World Bank, and has met with heads of state, key global executives and development leaders to discuss the well being of the world’s children.

Dave’s career with World Vision internationally has spanned more than 40 years. His recent book, The Power of Generosity (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2004), draws from his experiences and calls readers to become more engaged in the world and to develop a more generous way of life.

A Canadian citizen, Toycen holds degrees in philosophy and divinity and has received three honorary doctorates—from Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California and Wycliffe College in Toronto.

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