In the Toronto film, art and literary communities, Marc Glassman is a true renaissance man and this weekend the former owner of beloved Pages Bookstore synthesizes all of his loves into the Pages Festival (from the 13th to the 15th). In this first part of a two part interview, we talk about how Glassman's previous work has led to the creation of the festival, as well as in depth looks at events with Atom Egoyan and Bob Bossin and talks about urban narratives and the art and future of the book.
The 14th annual environmentally minded Planet in Focus film festival kicks off today and runs through Sunday, and here's a look at some of the film's playing as a part of this year's line-up!
This week at the Bloor Hot Docs cinema we take at the hard to watch, but rewarding No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, the informative but bone dry architectural documentary Sagrada: The Mystery of Creation, and briefly note some cool events and special guests for this coming week.
Documenting a documentarian is a tricky proposition, but when said craftsman is also an impassioned activist and exceedingly talented artist it becomes even tougher to do justice by the subject. The work done by director Liz Marshall to showcase and contextualize the work done by her friend and fellow photographer Jo-Anne McArthur in her film The Ghosts in Our Machine is nothing short of triumphant.
We sit down with The Ghosts in Our Machine director Liz Marshall to talk about documenting her friend Jo-Anne McArthur's efforts to advocate for animals caught up in the machine of modern life, how the two friend's stories paralleled each other, steeling herself to look at animal abuse, and why you don't need to be a vegan to help in the lives of animals.
To honour the start of today's 20th anniversary of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, all of the films we look at today either take place or come from Canada, including a look at opening night film The Manor, Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children, 15 Reasons to Live, NCR: Not Criminally Responsible, The Auctioneer, The Ghosts in Our Machine, Occupy: The Movie, and Special Ed
