Archive for January, 2007
Toronto Book Launch of Challenge for Change Book, February 25, 2010
edited by Thomas Waugh
with screenings from FIR DVD Box Set
Toronto Mediatheque
CIZEK mentors REBOOT, a Doc National initiative, Feb 16, 2010
http://docorg.ca/en/reboot
CIZEK at U of T Health Studies Class, February 9, 2010
Screening of 7 Interventions, Nov 19, 2009
Please join us for a reception, screening and discussion
Thursday November 19, 2009 at 6pm-8:30pm
Innis Town Hall, University of Toronto 2 Sussex (St. George subway)
FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Filmmaker-in-Residence website selected for IDFA’s DOCLAB 2009
http://www.idfa.nl/industry.aspx
FIR @ RIDM, Montreal, Nov 13, 2009
Panel on docs + interactivity in Montreal, 15:15-17:00
http://ridm.qc.ca/fr/industrie/activites/tables-rondes-et-ateliers/documentaire-et-interactivite/
FILMMAKER-IN-RESIDENCE workshops and screenings
in support of NATIONAL MEDIA LITERACY WEEK @ The NFB Mediatheque
Filmmaker-in-Residence Workshop - Friday November 6 at 1 PM
Led by director Katerina Cizek, the NFB’s Filmmaker-in-Residence, this workshop brings the public together with educators and health-care specialists to examine how digital storytelling can work as a tool for social action.
The Seven Interventions of Filmmaker-in-Residence - Friday November 6 at 7 PM
This film tells the story of Katerina Cizek’s four-year stint as Filmmaker-in-Residence at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital. Followed by a Q&A session with the co-director and editor, Heather Frise.
BOTH EVENTS ARE FREE! Capacity is limited. For a group reservation, please call Lindsay Wright at 416-973-2380 or e-mail l.wright@NFB.ca.
Panel + Screening of 7 Interventions, Oct 29, 2009
Creative Places + Spaces Conference, Toronto Canada
Screening of 7 Interventions @ 20th annual St. John’s Women’s Film Festival
Oct. 20-24, 2009
http://www.womensfilmfestival.com/
CIZEK on New Media Panel, ImagiNATIVE 2009
http://www.imaginenative.org/
CIZEK guest lectures @ McGill U, Sept. 25, 2009
morning session 10:30-12:00 @ the Faculty of Education
McGill Faculty of Education, 3700 MacIntosh Street, Room 233
afternoon session 2:30 -4:00 @ McGill Programs in Whole Person Care
546 Pine Avenue West, Basement Seminar Room
RSVP: 514.398.2298
Screening of 7 Interventions and Q+A, Concordia U, Thurs. Sept. 24, 2009
6 pm, EV 1.615 York Building, followed by reception
CIZEK guest lectures @ CONCORDIA U, Sept. 21-24 2009
Drawing from Life, Sept 10th, 2009
VICTORIA BC Sept 9, 6:30 pm Drawing From Life
Movie Monday, Eric Martin Pavilion, 1900 Block of Fort St., Victoria, BC
www.islandnet.com/mm/
CIZEK @ EsoDoc Session 3, Sept 9-14, 2009
in Slovenia
http://www.esodoc.eu
CIZEK attends EUROPEAN MEDIA EVENT, Sept 6-9, 2009
Brussels, Belgium
http://www.europeanmediaevent.com/
World Premiere of 7 Interventions of Filmmaker-in-Residence
Berlin, Germany, July 14th 2009
Tuesday July 14th, 20h00 (8 pm)
Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb)
Filmhaus - 9th floor
Potsdamer Straße 2 - 10785 Berlin
CIZEK @ ESODOC July 2009
Mentor at European Social Documentary Berlin, Germany
Filmmaker-in-Residence DVD BOX SET released
available on-line starting at 45$ CAD, at NFB store
CIZEK @ SIFT May 2009
5-day workshop at Summer Institute of Film and Television, Ottawa, Canada
CIZEK @ ESODOC May 2009
Mentor at European Social Documentary Bolzano, Italy
CIZEK @ HOT DOCS April 2009
Guest visits at Doc U and Doc Lab with FIR
January 31st, 2007
Spent the weekend with my old friend, Montreal.
I weaved in by train at the invitation of the Concordia Documentary Centre, a new-ish brainchild of 4 great profs Liz, Dan, Tom and Marty, who are bridging documentary thought to action. They put together a day-long event to discuss the old and new Challenge for Change projects.
And it sure is fun to watch old films. Tom Waugh screened great archives from the first-wave Challenge for Change. He gave us a strong historical analysis of a program that sought to use film as an instrument for social change - rather than just document it. Here’s a pic of one of his favorite films out of the 230 films created between 1967-1980. This one’s called “A Young Social Worker Speaks Out” and the whole movie is just a talking-head shot, discussing how the system keeps the poor poor (can’t dig up the subject’s name anywhere… Tom?)
Dan the Man Cross and his colleagues Mila and Gadget updated us on their phenomenal online creation, Homeless Nation, a website by and for the homeless. They have 1,400 + members now, and there’s great stuff going on there – podcasts, music videos, political organizing around the squat movement across Canada.
The Doc centre is actually about to publish an interview I did with Dan, in a book called “D is for Discursive: Digital, Documentary, Democracy” here’s an excerpt:
KC: The very name “Homeless Nation” challenges the presupposition that democracy need be based on a group of citizens who share a geographic “home.”
DC: The first title was actually “the Homeless Archive.” The idea came to me because I was sick and tired of just editing people’s stories — 400 hours of footage — to deliver a 75-80 minute narrative piece of entertainment. This is criminal. Danny O’Connor’s the king of the hobos, a character in Dan’s first film, The Street] and I just cut his story out, after working six years of his life with me to tell it. I thought there should be a place where people can go and tell and listen to these stories without them being edited for ease of consumption.
So when I first started the project, I was literally going to take my camera across the country and collect a 5 minute testimonial from every single street person in Canada and put it on a website. That’s all I really wanted to do. But as I thought about it, and worked with the technology, I realized it could be way more interactive, way more immediate. It could have an ebb and a flow, it doesn’t just have to be an archive.
Now the name is the Homeless Nation. It’s a website, a meeting place, a communication space. It’s really important that it be accessible and available to anybody and everybody who wants to take part in a respectful dialogue. To express their own first hand experiences of being homeless, of working at street levels with poverty, disenfranchisement or homelessness. Or maybe talk about a family member that they’ve lost, displaced to the world of the street. It’s meant for everybody to use, participate and breakdown barriers between the different strata of class society.
I gave a rundown on FIR, and we spent the afternoon talking about possible collaborations between old and new… It’s actually a Challenge-for-Change-kinda-week for me, I meet George Stoney in Washington tomorrow. It could be a Challenge-for-Change-kinda-year, it’s the 40th anniversary in 2007, after all.
January 30th, 2007
We’re gonna be on the radio, on a show called CBC Arts Tonight with Eleanor Wachtel (She’s just been appointed to the Order of Canada, btw, along with Denys Arcand, Paul Anka and Aga Khan).
This Monday, January 29 between 10-10:40 pm.
on CBC RADIO ONE (99.1 in Toronto, 89.1 FM in Kitchener-Waterloo, 104.5 FM and 88.5 FM in Montreal, 1010 AM and 99.1 FM in Calgary, 690 AM in Vancouver… or all around the world, on the net at www.cbc.ca)
It’s about I WAS HERE art show, and it’ll feature the voices of the photobloggers and me.
January 29th, 2007
-17 (felt like -25) cold winter weather didn’t stop a solid turn-out for us last night. 75+ people came out for our reception at toronto’s most liberated gallery, run by the beautiful freedom-fighter Heather Haynes. Notable guests included MPP Peter Tabuns (recently named toronto’s best MPP by Now magazine), star photoblogger Rannie Turingan, and most importantly… tons of kids!
January 26th, 2007
I’m shooting again. A new documentary.
It’s with the Suicide Studies Unit, and the idea comes from Yvonne, a feisty social worker. We’ve been developing this idea since Sept 2005. She’s hoping the film will help with her work.
For the last 7 years, Yvonne’s been running a group for people with recurrent suicide attempts – people who have attempted suicide 2 or more times. The weekly group programme seems to be helpful for the people who stay through the 20 weeks.
But the drop-out rate is high. Up to 40% drop out by mid-point each time she runs a new session, and Yvonne believes it may be because people may not know what they are getting into when they start. So our film will document 10 people in one group for 20 weeks, to follow the transformations and the process, starting this week. Then Yvonne will use the film with new people who are considering group.
It’s pure interventionist research, pure interventionist media.
I met individually with all nine people a few days ago, to explain the film, and the philosophy behind Filmmaker-in-Residence.
“Why have you chosen to be part of a group that will be filmed?” Yvonne asked each person. And the answers were resoundingly similar and clear. “To break the taboo on suicide, on mental health and to help others who may be going through the same thing.”
January 25th, 2007
Today our installer team moved the art show to the Toronto Free Gallery, a fine east-end gall, dedicated to urban, social and political work. A new space gives the show a whole new meaning. In this reconfiguration, the work is mounted collectively - not by artist, as it was at city hall. The portraits line a wall in the lower space. gor-geous. We’re here for a solid two weeks, so if you’re in toronto, come on by. 660 Queen East.
January 23rd, 2007
It’s all set up. I am meeting with George Stoney in Washington DC in 2 weeks.
He is 91, and he’s coming down by bus from NYC, to give the opening address at Making Your Documentary Matter conference. And thanks to Pat, George is also taking a few hours to talk to me about the legacy he left behind in Canada when he headed up the NFB’s Challenge for Change project from 1968 to 1970. I also want to ask him what he thinks of our new re-inventions of those ideas today at Filmmaker-in-Residence.
January 20th, 2007
The show opened tonight at Toronto City Hall.
Great turnout! A great mix of advocates and artists, dreamers and doers. Lotsa photographers, lotsa press. Many city councillors, hospital people, and media-makers.
Alice spoke eloquently about housing. The photobloggers all blew the audience away with their speeches.
My favorite moment: The photobloggers take the mayor on an impromptu tour of the exhibit.
Also: After the mayor finishes his opening remarks, he leaves the mike, stands beside me. A beat later, with a really worried look on his face, whispers to me “Was that okay?”
January 17th, 2007
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