Festival Updates and News
News about Ottawa Festivals and our Member festivals, special events and fairs.
Each one changes Canada a little
You don’t have to be a Vietnamese boat person or a Chilean fleeing Pinochet or a child from the Holocaust to realize that Canada has the space to absorb you and not only that, to transform you, writes Adrienne Clarkson
Adrienne Clarkson, The Ottawa Citizen
believe there is room for all of us in Canada because so many of us share the same kind of experiences. These experiences have been so powerful that they have become our background – our shared background. Whether we are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, black or white, if we lost everything and then were taken in and became citizens of Canada, we have found that this country has the space for us all. And by “space,” I don’t mean just physical space; I mean the space in the collective consciousness of every Canadian.
When I was growing up in Ottawa in the ’40s and ’50s, it was a small city of fewer than 100,000 people. There were a half a dozen public schools and a half a dozen high schools. It was really a small town. We had a familiarity with the people we lived among, and although our family, the Poys, came out of the blue into the cold Ottawa winter of 1942, we too became part of this small city.
It was a time of war, rationing, and limited housing as the city swelled with the bureaucracy necessary to guide a government in a wartime situation. I remember the temporary buildings that covered the grounds where the National Gallery now stands and around the Supreme Court. There was always a feeling that somehow this little city was able to cope with everything; and our family benefitted from that.
One World filmfest focuses on protest and revolt
The Ottawa Citizen
Eleven new feature documentaries will premiere in Ottawa this week as the 22nd annual One World Film Festival gets underway. The four-day event will also include previews of new work by local media artists, an opportunity to meet filmmakers from the U.K. and the U.S., and attend workshops on crowd funding and female child soldiers.
This year the theme of the festival, which focuses on human rights and the environment, is “Raise Your Voice.”
“We chose this theme because of the number of very strong films in the program that depict scenes of protest and revolt,” said program manger Pixie Cram. “It also suits the motif of the individual rising up in the face of a challenge to make a difference in the community.”
The festival runs Oct. 13 to 16 at Library and Archives Auditorium, 395 Wellington St.
One World Film Festival to host visiting BBC journalist and filmmaker Ruaridh Arrow
Ruaridh Arrow will be in Ottawa on October 14th to present his documentary on
Gene Sharp, the unknown American Academic who penned numerous books on
non-violent struggle, and who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Arrow’s documentary, How to Start a Revolution, was discussed by Elizabeth
Renzetti of the Globe and Mail on page A2 of Saturday’s paper:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/elizabeth-renzetti/to-start-a-revolution-readgene-
sharps-primer-on-peaceful-protest/article2195375/ .
The timeliness of How to Start a Revolution has particular resonance for North
Americans, when one considers how quickly the Occupy Wall Street movement is
spreading its way across the continent. There is now an Ottawa chapter, with a
protest planned for Saturday October 15th.
Read more on the OttawaStart website: One World Film Festival to host visiting BBC journalist and filmmaker Ruaridh Arrow
The little festival that grew
Ottawa International Writers Festival celebrates 15 years of ‘connecting’
When Sean Wilson started knocking on doors in the mid-1990s, he was trying to spark interest in an artsy startup – a made-in-Ottawa writers’ gathering. But Wilson kept hearing the same thing.
“The initial reaction from many people was, ‘If it was a good idea, we’d already have one.’ I heard that a lot,” he says.
Wilson knew it was a good idea – his father Neil had come up with it – and they were right.
The Ottawa International Writers Festival, now in its 15th year, has become an annual marvel, with spring and fall editions featuring Canada’s A-list authors, as well as promising new writers and literary lions from around the world. As well, the organization brings in authors for one-off events.
Over coffee recently, Neil and Sean Wilson spoke to the Citizen about their love of books, the festival’s early days and its impact on the city.
The first writer ever invited to the festival was Michael Ondaatje. He said no.
Free Thinking Film Festival Brings Pro-Democracy Films to Ottawa!
[Source: Free Thinking Film Society]
| Free Thinking Film Festival Brings Pro-Democracy Films to Ottawa!
On November 11th, 2011, The Free Thinking Film Society kicks off its 2nd annual film festival to celebrate liberty, freedom and democracy. The Free Thinking Film Festival will feature three major events, two panel discussion and over 20 films, between November 11-13, 2011 at Library and Archives Canada and the Bronson Centre. There will also be a Free Thinking Alley where attendees can buy books and DVDs, and enjoy food and drink. “I love celebrating liberty, freedom and democracy,” says Free Thinking Film President Fred Litwin. “Get ready for three days of challenging films and discussions with no political-correctness.” The Festival opens at 6:30 PM November 11th with History Wars, a debate between Jack Granatstein (Historian and former director of the Canadian War Museum) and Michael Byers (Professor of Political Science at UBC) on the future of the Canadian military, moderated by Michael Bliss. This event is co-sponsored by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and will take place at the Bronson Centre. The Festival will end with “Unmasked: Judeophobia and the Threat to Civilization”, the Canadian premiere of a documentary about the current political assault against Israel. Producer Gloria Greenfield will be in attendance. |
Ottawa Storytellers Presents New Series
[Source: Ottawa Storytellers press release]
OTTAWA STORYTELLERS present a new series, Encore! West, at Collected Works, 1242 Wellington Street
Dysfunctional Royalty, October 7, 7:00 p.m., with Gail Anglin, Anne Nagy and Phil Nagy
Enjoy stories and songs about a gaggle of kings, queens and royal children, both real and fictional. This lot never quite made it as people you’d want to sit down and have a cup of tea with but they make delightful subjects for some fascinating stories.
Moby Dick, November 4, 7:00 p.m., with Dean Verger, Storyteller
The year was 1851. A large tome had just been published portraying the whaling industry, the society of the day, and one man’s obsession. But it became the victim of unlucky timing because the year before a whale had sunk a ship, with all hands. It was not until the 20th century that Herman Melville’s, Moby Dick, found its audience. Now enjoy Dean Verger’s adaptation in an 80 minute storytelling with musical embellishment.
Sail Around the World with Stories at the 2011 Children’s Storytelling Festival
[Source: Ottawa Storytellers website]
Story Yoga for Kids* – Tania Frechette
Tania Frechette’s passion for yoga began a decade ago. She is a trained yoga professional at the highest level (ERYT-500). Tania loves to teach people of all ages. Her approach to yoga is creative and fun. www.yogaland.ca
Yogini Went To Sea – Join a yogini for an adventure to the sea. We will transform ourselves into different sea creatures, have fun surfing big waves and row some boats. (1pm to 1:30pm)
The Zoo – Let’s go to the zoo! Have fun with your animal friends. Jump like a monkey, roar like a lion, walk like heavy elephant, hiss like a snake and much more. (2:30pm to 3pm)
*Please bring a yoga mat or large towel.
Read more on the Ottawa Storytellers website: World with Stories at the 2011 Children’s Storytelling Festival
Teach Ontario kids “food literacy,” says chef Michael Smith
Trevor Pritchard, Open File
Chef Michael Smith calls for Nutritional Literacy – Ottawa Writers Festival – September 26, 2011 from OTTAWA INTL WRITERS FESTIVAL on Vimeo.
Renowned P.E.I. chef and Food Network personality Michael Smith was in the city on Monday as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival. And in this clip posted today by the festival on Vimeo, Smith talks about the need for a province-wide food literacy strategy:
I’m talking food literacy. Nutritional literacy. And I strongly believe that it needs to be in your kids’ schools from kindergarden all the way through to twelfth grade.
Smith’s timing is prescient: earlier this month, the Ontario government’s new guidelines around what foods can and can’t be sold in school cafeterias went into effect.
The host of such shows as Chef Abroad and The Inn Chef was at Ashbury College to talk about his new recipe collection, Chef Michael Smith’s Kitchen.
British Animators win big at festival
Steven Mazey, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — British animators Phil Mulloy and Stephen Irwin took home two of the top jury prizes as the Ottawa International Animation Festival that ended Sept. 25.
The annual festival, the largest of its kind in North America, ran Sept. 21 to 25, presenting short and feature films on screens around town, as well as workshops and special screenings outside of the competition. In a closing ceremony at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the festival presented more than a dozen awards.
Phil Mulloy, a two-time previous winner at the festival for best feature film, won the prize again for Dead but Not Buried, a dark comedy bout a dead body that goes missing. The jury praised Mulloy’s “innovative way of filmmaking, bold use of minimalistic graphics, original use of sound and subversive humour.”
Stephen Irwin won the $3,000 Nelvana Grand Prize for best independent short animation, for his film Moxie, “for its powerful combination of style and narrative, leaving a memorable impression.”
Gilmour’s life as novel
Powerful ‘fictional autobiography’ takes CanLit and author’s own work to task]
Mark Medley, Postmedia News
THE PERFECT ORDER OF THINGS
By David Gilmour,
Thomas Allen, $27.95
A funny thing happens near the end of my interview with David Gilmour. We’re sitting in a quiet café in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood, discussing his latest novel, The Perfect Order of Things, when he stops mid-sentence. “Oh my God, an ex-wife,” he exclaims.
Anne Mackenzie, managing director of the Toronto International Film Festival, and mother of Gilmour’s daughter, has just walked in the door. “I don’t know what she’s doing here,” he says. Mackenzie, or at least her fictional doppelgänger, appears in a chapter that is set, in part, at a film festival party, at a time when the marriage between the narrator and “M” is basically over. “By then we both hated each other,” he writes.
Mackenzie comes to the table and the exes exchange pleasantries. When she walks away, Gilmour leans across the table and motions for me to do the same. “She has not read this,” he whispers conspiratorially. “She doesn’t know she’s in it yet.” He asks that I don’t mention it to her.
Mackenzie returns to the table a few minutes later, and they make plans to rendezvous on the patio once the interview is over. But Gilmour, like a kid showing off a new toy, cannot help himself.
Read more on the Ottawa Citizen website: Gilmour’s life as novel
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