November is turning out to be our favourite month this year. Tons of unusual of sun - and lots of great events.
We are launching the DVD Box Set Thursday Nov 19th with a reception and short screening. So if you are in Toronto, come join us at 6:30 pm to Innis Hall, 2 Sussex (St. George subway).
And on Friday, FIR is off to Amsterdam for the world’s largest documentary festival IDFA. We’ll be presenting FIR and the new project (cough cough - more soon here about it) to 150 participants of the IDFAcademy. We’ll also be making appearances at a Doc Lab presentation with an awesome new tech company and at an IDFATalks event about people vs. power.
For those of you in Toronto this week, come join us at the NFB’s amazing Mediatheque for two FIR events. Friday November 6. An afternoon workshop with Kat and Heather, and an evening screening of the 7 Interventions of Filmmaker-in-Residence, followed by a Q+A with Heather Frise, co-director and editor of the film.
A nice shout out in today’s Torontoist about our presentation at Creative Places and Spaces conference yesterday. Also this mentionin Now Magazine, this notice in blogTO and this synopsis at Spacing. Another great blog post about FIR at the conference, here.
And just-in a week later, Kwende Kefentse (of the Creative Class blog) ranks us “best collaboration” of the conference here.
Gearing up for our participation in “Creative Places + Spaces” two day extravaganza put on by Artscape and the City of Toronto about THE COLLABORATIVE CITY. We’ll show an abbreviated version of 7 Interventions, and talk about the collaboration between media and medicine in the inner-city.
Other presenters include Sir Ken Robinson, Richard Florida and Spencer Tunick (the photographer who collaborates with masses of nude subjects==>
Well, that’s a divergent set of views and perspectives.
Check out the keynote speaker clips reel:
We may even take the opportunity to make a *special announcement* (cough cough) while we have the mike. So stay tuned…
Event happens in Toronto, On Oct 28-30, FIR presents on day 1 along with our dear friend Dr. Katherine Rouleau. More here.
We are honoured and proud to announce that our film Drawing From Life has won the Media Award from the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. The film is about a 20-week group therapy program for people who have attempted suicide more than once.
This is what they said: “Your film is an outstanding example of an effective education tool that respectfully tells the stories of individuals who have struggled with re-current suicidal behavior.The film was created with dignity, compassion, integrity and sensitivity.The stories of those who have struggle with suicidal behavior have rarely been told so in many ways your work gives voice to these stories.The film challenges stereotypes and illustrates how a group intervention can assist in healing and recovery.”
Thanks to Jaime, David, Elizabeth, Wendy, Lois, Belinda, Bria, Jill, Glen, Jordan, Mario and Jay and most of all Yvonne Bergmans for creating Drawing from Life with us.
The awards ceremony will take place in Brandon Manitoba, on Oct. 21st/
Had a great screening last night here in Montreal, at Concordia U. I was invited to be part of a very interesting series of lectures called GOING PUBLIC: Outside the Box; it’s continuing throughout the fall. The series explores the idea of artists, scholars going into residency with communities, and looks at innovative forms of collaboration. Wish I could make it to all the upcoming instalments (maybe you can?):
Going Public: Outside the Box Public Lecture 2
The Department of History’s 2009 Public History Lecture
Liz Ševčenko: The power of place Formerly of NYC’s unique Lower East Side Tenement Museum,
the director of the InternationalCoalition of Sites of Conscience will discuss
how historical sites can be “activated” for civic engagement.
For more information, please visit: http:www.sitesofconscience.org
Going Public: Outside the Box Public Lecture 3
Toby Butler: Memoryscapes - deepening our sense of place
This historical geographer creates location specific new media trails to
"spatialize" oral history. He will discuss his experiments to give voice to
present - and past - residents of rapidly changing London districts.
For more information, please visit: http://www.memoryscape.org.ukGoing Public: Outside the Box Public Lecture4
Julie Ellison: The fraught logic of positive thinkingA short history of hopeful civic engagement (1999-2009), presented
by the founding director emerita of the consortium
Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life.
For more information, please visit: http://www.imaginingamerica.orgGoing Public: Outside the Box Public Lecture 5
Bill Cleveland: Doing arts-based community developmentThe founding director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community
will speak about strategies for mobilizing a vastly underutilized
natural resouce - human creativity - to build caring, capable
communities. For more information, please visit: http://www.artandcommunity.com
Next week, FIR goes back to school. For one week, that is.
It’s an invitation from a very interesting new cross-disciplinary research group at Concordia University called GOING PUBLIC*. FIR is doing a series of lectures and screenings all week long, culminating in a public screening on Thursday Sept 24, 6 pm at EV 1.615, York Building.
On Friday Sept 25, I go back to my alma mater, McGill U, for two talks, one in the education faculty, the other in medicine. Both are open to all disciplines though. check out the events and news section for deets.
* GOING PUBLIC is an initiative in Conversational Scholarship exploring public histories, public art practices, public memory and knowledge
FIR is hitting Europe next week. First up, Brussels, for the European Media Event, and then to the pebble beaches of Slovenia, for the third and final re-iteration of the EsoDoc sessions of this year.
Both visits involve mentoring emerging new media doc projects, with talented and experienced creators.
And speaking of emerging projects, we here at FIR are gearing up to announce our new FIR project very, very soon. Its been in the works for over a year, and we are close to a public announcement, so stay tuned.
Meanwhile, watch our events and new page for FIR screenings and events this fall.
Great new project emerging in the States, a documentary film + online engagement.
THE WAITING ROOM is not just a film about the health care crisis. It is a place for change: an organic melding of traditional documentary film and innovative social media. The central question of the project, “what r u waiting for?” is directed not just at policy makers but also at individual citizens like those sitting in the waiting room – isolated, tired, stuck – who now possess the means to use their own voices to push the agenda of health care reform.
It’s got an amazing team: Emmy-award winning media-makers, matched up with digital information designers, and an oscar-winning executive producer. Check it out: http://whatruwaitingfor.com
