Free Thinking Film Festival
| November 2, 2012 | to | November 4, 2012 |
Overview:
The Free Thinking Film Festival was started in 2010 in Ottawa to provide an outlet for filmmakers and moviegoers alike who are looking for an alternative to the ‘alternative’. In other words, we celebrate the efforts of risk-taking documentarians whose work espouses the values of limited, democratic government, free market economies, equality of opportunity rather than equality of result, and the dignity of the individual, all underscored by a healthy and patriotic respect for Western culture and traditions. Although there are a lot of courageous voices in the non-fiction film industry producing thoughtful pieces of art which reject cultural relativism, central economic planning and American culpability for all that ills the world, you wouldn’t know it by looking at the listings for most art house cinemas. The SecondAnnual Free Thinking Film Festival runs from November 11-13th, 2011 at the Bronson Centre and Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.
Event Highlights:
- 20+ films
- Panel discussions
- DVD/Book Table
- Food/Drink
Festival Information:
General phone contact: Fred Litwin (613) 261-9060
General information contact: email
Locations:
Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1R 6H4
Library & Archives Canada, 395 Wellington, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N4
On the Web:
Website: www.freethinkingfilms.com
Online tickets: www.ticketweb.ca
Facebook: www.facebook.com/FreeThinkingFilms
Twitter: www.twitter.com/FreeThinkFilms
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/FreeThinkingFilms
Jazz road warrior
Kellylee Evans loves to tour, whether it’s performing for thousands of fans or a handful
Peter Hum, The Ottawa Citizen
KELLYLEE EVANS
When: Thursday, Dec. 8, 6: 30 p.m.
Where: Library and Archives Canada auditorium
Tickets: $50, with a $30 tax receipt issued
Contact: 613-241-2633, ottawajazzfestival.com
Email: phum@ottawacitizen.com
Blog: ottawacitizen.com/jazzblog
Watch a video of Kellylee Evans performing in Paris.
OTTAWA — In the last month, Ottawa singer Kellylee Evans sang for crowds big and small, in venues near and far.
An indefatigable road warrior, Evans, who won a Juno Award this year for her most recent CD, Nina, performed for Canadian athletes in Guadalajara, Mexico as part of the Para Pan Am Games, revellers in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, jazz buffs at Birdland in New York and music-lovers at a Perth house concert.
Evans, who performs in Ottawa Thursday at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival’s annual fundraiser, discusses her travels, their impact on her family, and the live show that most recently knocked her out.
Tell me about your far-flung shows in the last month. What were those experiences like?
This last little bit has been just wake up and go wherever my calendar says to go. I really haven’t had a chance to process all of it. I love it though. I love being busy doing something I love. The trip to New York was wonderful. I had an opportunity to visit with friends and perform a couple of times. Both occasions were with the Sultans of String, who had gigs in the area and invited me to join them to promote our respective music to a new audience. We performed at a little venue called the Living Room and then moved to Birdland in the Times Square area. I know I say this a lot, but I really had a wonderful time.
Kellylee Evans to play Jazz Festival fundraiser Dec. 8
Dan Lalande, Ottawa Performing Arts Examiner
Looking to get away this winter?
Then your first trip should be to the Ottawa Jazz Festival’s annual fundraiser, December 8 at the Library and Archives of Canada.
The annual event, in which items of all kinds are auctioned off, regularly offers travel packages fit for a snowbird – not to mention getaways to Europe and New York. It’s a great way to bag a bye-bye bargain.
And if your winter getaway plans are already secured, no worries: there’s still the great food and good company of the pre-auction reception, plus the post-bidding concert by Ottawa’s own rising star, Kellylee Evans.
Read more on the Examiner.com website: Kellylee Evans to play Jazz Festival fundraiser Dec. 8
Community groups baffled, frustrated by decision to limit access to Archives space
Chris Cobb, The Ottawa Citizen
Leaders of Ottawa area community groups are baffled and frustrated with a federal government decision to effectively oust them from Library and Archives Canada in a move officials say is necessary to create more meeting space for federal bureaucrats.
“It’s a bizarre, absurd decision,” said Ottawa International Jazz Festival executive director Catherine O’Grady. “We are charities that use the space. We’re all doing what we do for the community and not for profit. What are they thinking? Why take that away from us?”
O’Grady, who, along with other group leaders, is scrambling to find alternate accommodation in a city where there is little space available, says she will mobilize the festival’s 10,000 subscribers to protest the decision.
“We have staged hundreds of concerts there over the years,” she said. “The space is absolutely perfect and vital for our education and outreach programs.
Storyteller talks up her passion for voice and ear
Jasleen Singh, Centretown News
Kim Kilpatrick says a story is a gift you give to a listener.
She says she was inspired more than 10 years ago after going to the Ottawa Storytelling Festival for the first time.
Now a professional storyteller and disability awareness advocate, Kilpatrick will share autobiographical stories about living as a blind person at the Ottawa Children’s Storytelling Festival at Library and Archives Canada on Nov. 5.
Kilpatrick will bring a unique take on storytelling, through the use of non-visual descriptions, which engage the imagination.
By describing what something sounds or feels like, children learn that although the storyteller may perceive things differently, they can still share common experiences with the audience.
“If you just tell children what it’s like being blind, they would still be interested,” says Kilpatrick.
“But when you tell a story, you never know, the next day they might go up to their teacher and ask ‘well, how did Kim get from her house to the store?’ That’s why storytelling is so powerful – because the story’s still sitting with them.”
Read more on the Centretown website: Storyteller talks up her passion for voice and ear
Ottawa StoryTellers Presents the Following Events for March, 2011
March 3
Ottawa StoryTellers Story Swap: Open Stage Night
7:00 – 9:30 p.m.
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Room 156.
March 8
Wild Women
Ruthanne Edward and Lisa Virtue
7pm – 8:45pm
The Tea Party, 119 York St
March 17
On the Heels of the Hound
Clare Muireann Murphy
7:30 pm
NAC 4th Stage
March 22
L’amour, toujours l’amour (In English)
Jo Maple
7pm – 8:45pm
The Tea Party, 119 York St.
March 25
Once Upon a Slam
Featured Performer: Klyde Broox
7:00 pm
Mercury Lounge Underground (aka Bar 56) 56 Byward Market
Free Thinking Film Festival breaks ground
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
Canada’s first film festival to celebrate “limited government, free market economics and the dignity of the individual” kicks off Friday in Ottawa.
The Free Thinking Film Festival, sponsored by Ottawa’s Free Thinking Film Society, will take place Nov. 12 to 14 at Library and Archives Canada, and will feature three galas, and 19 films. There will also be a Free Thinking Alley where attendees can buy books, DVDs and food.
Full story: Free Thinking Film Festival breaks ground
Metro Minute at One World film fest
TRACEY TONG | METRO OTTAWA
For more than two decades, the World Inter-Action Mondiale has been raising awareness about social issues through its annual One World Film Festival.
The festival returns Friday through Sunday at Library and Archives Canada at 395 Wellington St. with 10 new documentaries over three days. “Documentary films have the power to expand what people know about the world they live in,” said festival co-chair Carolyn Elliott-Magwood.
More on the Metro Ottawa website: Metro Minute at One World film fest
It’s festival season in the capital
TRACEY TONG, METRO OTTAWA
Ottawa is widely known as the city of festivals.
For residents looking for something to do on weekends without having to leave the city, the lineup doesn’t disappoint.
Read the full article on the Metro website to see a run down of a few of the many, many events that will be happening over the course of the next few months: It’s festival season in the capital
SAW Video Presents Radical Polish Video Artist Artur Zmijewski – Apr. 21
OTTAWA – April 6, 2010
Radical Polish artist Artur Zmijewski is well-known and discussed in the international arts community, notably for his provocative video work. SAW Video is bringing a selection of these works to Ottawa for an exclusive one-night screening on April 21, 2010, in the auditorium of Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St, at 8pm.
The event is open to everyone and admission is free. Guest speaker Daniel Baird—arts and literature editor for The Walrus—has written extensively about contemporary Polish video.
The Films
Often inviting people living with infirmity, disability or illness to participate in social experiments, Zmijewski’s videos rip open the safety nets and social contracts built into the terms of contemporary representation. Questions about socially approved “norms” and how the body functions or looks different recur in his work. Zmijewski unabashedly confronts and depicts controversial viewpoints on historical and contemporary structures such as the Polish military and the church. The artist constantly draws a line between the manifestation of socio-political corruption and the innocence and purity of humanity. In doing so, viewers are left to consider their own limitations as they come face-to-face with potentially difficult or unfamiliar ideas.
The Program
THEM, 26:30 minutes, 2007
The Game of Tag, 4:25 minutes, 1999
KR WP, 7:10 minutes, 2000
Eye for an Eye, 10:00 minutes, 1998
Videos in Polish with English Subtitles
The Artist
Artur Zmijewski lives and works in Warsaw, Poland. He studied in Grzegorz Kowalski’s studio at the Department of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1990-95). His video and photography has been extensively exhibited and critically reviewed. He represented Poland in the 2005 Venice Biennale and in 2007 was included in Documenta 12. Zmijewski is also on the editorial team of Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique), a forum for left-wing political and cultural discourse in Poland. He is represented by Galerie Peter Kilchmann in Zurich, Switzerland.
Established in 1981, SAW Video is an artist-run-centre committed to support ground breaking artistic production, presentation and programming of independent video and media art. SAW Video provides many services to its membership including affordable technical facilities, and a wide range of programmes designed to create an atmosphere that will inspire production through the exchange of ideas around form, content and style.
SAW Video receives ongoing financial support for its activities from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa.
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For more information, contact:
Denise MacDonald
Communications Coordinator
SAW Video
67 rue Nicholas Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7B9
denise@sawvideo.com
613:238:7648
