Tyler Mackenzie Evans joins me to discuss Sea Star, where he focuses on a grown Black Caribbean man overcoming his fear of swimming. Then, Kalainithan Kalaichelvan and I talk about Karupy, a Tamil Canadian film about a 65-year-old woman who has decided she's had enough of her family and life. Both films screen in separate sections of the Toronto International Film Festival's Short Cuts Programme.

Part 1 of #TIFF50 Coverage Guests: Tanya Talaga (Ni-Naadamaadiz Red Power Rising) and Lucía Aleñar Iglesias (Forastera)

Lisa Haller, Interim Executive Director / Director of Programming for the Atlantic International Film Festival (AIFF) joins me to talk about the New Waves and Shorts Programme sections of the festival. Held in Halifax, the AIFF runs from September 10 - 17, 2025, and showcases a diversity of international and domestic films while proudly holding space for films and filmmakers from Atlantic Canada. Post-festival, films will be available in the region for those unable to attend in Nova Scotia. Whether you're planning a vacation in time for the festival or just love film discussions, this show is for you. https://atlanticfilmfestival.ca/ 

Music selections: Molly Johnson (Boogie Street 🇨🇦), Lillian Allen (Dis ya Mumma Earth 🇨🇦), Four the Moment (In My Soul 🇨🇦), Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra (Che Che Cole Makossa), Lorraine KLAASEN (Jolinkomo 🇨🇦), Nubya Garcia (Together is a Beautiful Place to Be)

The focus of today's show is film. I'll be welcoming dancer, actor, and producer Brennan Clost to my show for the very first time. You might know him from the shows The Next Step and Tiny Pretty Things, but we're going to get into his transition from dancer to his other roles as a movie actor in The Legacy of Cloudy Falls, available now on VOD, and the August 29th Canada-wide theatrical release of Loathe Thy Neighbor, where he is both an actor and producer.

Later on in the show, I'll share some film-related audio selections on Libby and Kanopy.

Music: 'Crabapples' by Bruce Peninsula

David and Sydney Dacks are chat about 'Radio Active Community' part of the Intersection Festival. The performance takes place on August 30 at 8 PM at Sankofa Square, with the talk happening on August 31 at 3 PM at 918 Bathurst. For more information, please visit https://intersectionfestival.org

David Dacks is a Toronto-based advocate of creative music in all its forms. He is currently Executive Director of Labyrinth Music Workshop Ontario and was previously Artistic then Executive Director of renowned experimental venue the Music Gallery from 2011-23. Previously, David was an editor of Exclaim Magazine’s coverage of jazz, R&B, experimental music, reggae, and music from around the world. His has also written for Spinner.com, The Grid, Weird Canada, BlogTO, Paste Magazine, The African Drum and Musicworks. He was a programmer and host at CIUT-FM for 25 years, and produced four documentaries for CBC Radio. As a musician and DJ, he recorded eight albums featuring wild combinations of electronics with dub, cumbia and improvised elements, and ran his own record label. David served on the Toronto Arts Council’s Board of Directors from 2017-23, and was a juror for Polaris Music Prize (Grand Juror, 2011), and Polaris Music Heritage Prize. He currently serves on the board of New Feeling Writers Cooperative.

Sydney Dacks is a Toronto and Montreal-based student and up-and-coming video game developer, completing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Sociology at McGill University, graduating this fall. Sydney is passionate about investigating the creative potential of the computer and about using technology for storytelling, and helping artists to execute their creative vision. They have built six video games in Unity and have another two under development. They have participated in several hackathons and Game Jams, winning the best VR Game award in the 2024 McGameJam. They have designed and taught curriculum for childhood coding education, centered on fun and engagement while providing IT support. Sydney is also interested in and has conducted responsible AI research with a focus on algorithmic fairness and data privacy. - INTERSECTION FESTIVAL

Plus works by Elizabeth Acevedo, Nikita Gill and Sunnah Khan.

Music: 'Close' by LAL 🇨🇦

Revisiting Favourites from TIFF 2019 with frequent guest, Heidy M, and Daniel Garber of CIUT's Critic's Circle and Cultural Mining.

Director, Dr Jules Arita Koostachin joins me to talk about her latest film 'Angela's Shadow' screening at the Carlton Cinema for one week only, beginning July 25.

Then "pan man" Alvin Rostant joins me to talk about learning the steel pan back in Trinidad when he was 14 years old, his travels around the globe playing pan, writing his book "Carnival is Me" (also a song) and living and working in Australia.

The hilarious, Jennie Bovard joins me to chat about starting in AMI+ tv 's 'Pretty Blind' Canada's first TV show about a blind woman with albinism.

Then an archival interview (TIFF 2023) featuring filmmakers Suvi West and Anssi Kömi talking about the repatriation of Sami cultural artifacts from museums back to their original Sami locations in their doc, 'HOMECOMING.' Suvi is Sami and Anssi is Finnish.

Frequent collaborator, Heidy M joins me for a discussion of the film '40 Acres' by R. T. Thorne, starring Danielle Deadwyler and Michael Greyeyes as a couple trying to hold their land and protect their children from cannibalistic outliers in a post-apocalyptic future. Were my expectations too high? Why, when I enjoyed the film, did I expect more from a Black writer/director because he made a film about a Black and Indigenous family?

Then Portuguese animator, Alexandra Ramires and I talk about the process involved in making her short film, Tie (Elo). This is an archival interview from TIFF 2020.

Music: 'bom feeling' by the late Portuguese singer, Sara Tavares.

They want YOU! These 8 productions tell you why you should go and see their shows at this year's Toronto Fringe Festival. The Fringe is Ontario's largest performance festival with over 100 shows at various venues across the city. My guests today pitch the following shows: alpha, Edgar and the red room, playground, plan v, people suck, pornstar(I), terrible fish, and you me and the highland coo.

The Fringe runs July 2 - July 13, 2025 www.fringetoronto.com