Before Shock Waves came a 30-minute short called Umiaq Skin Boat which followed a group of Inuit elders building the first Umiaq (a traditional skin boat) in the community in 50 years. Boat-building being only so riveting, we also get some tall tales of survival from the elders, reminding me of an incredible book, Uqalurait: […] More »

Blogging a Toronto film festival may not be literally dangerous (despite being an act of aggression against actual literature), but real journalism often is. This evening, I’m hoping to explore the theme twice. Apparently, neither film is a “hot pick“. Then again, the margins are where the action is; as a German Jew might have […] More »

Anvil is ostensibly a movie about a metal band, but like any classic narrative, it’s really about something more elemental–a self struggling against a context. Or in this case, two selves, Lipps (lead guitarist Steve Ludlow) and Robb (drummer Robb Reiner), who in the 1980s influenced and played with David Bowie and various metal luminaries […] More »

DOWNTOWN TORONTO–Today begins the 15th Hot Docs, “Canada’s international documentary festival”. This is my first time blogging a festival–I’m excited. First off, as I’m not a documentary “expert”, I’ll spare you a long introductory rumination on the documentary form. For the moment. But I am a narcissist. So I’ll kick things off with a quick […] More »

For the next 10 days, Blog This will be alive with reviews and news from Hot Docs, a documentary film festival taking over the screens of Toronto. All this thanks to our special Hot Docs correspondent, Daniel Cohen. Daniel lives in Toronto and has written about politics and culture in Canada and South America for […] More »

Those of you who are up on the news will know that Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been in a little hot water lately, first for suggesting that thousands of seal deaths are more tragic than the deaths of four seal hunters who died in a recent marine accident, and this […] More »

We do love a good bookstore and Holland’s Selexyz Dominicanen is our kind of store. The store is housed in a 13th century Dominican monastery. It kind of reminds us a bit of that Umberto Eco novel The Name of the Rose. Foreign relations expert Mark Leonard raises an interesting point about rising power China. […] More »

In this instalment of his twice-monthly column, Dave Bidini laments China’s unstoppable development rush. In an effort to be seen as good Olympic hosts, he writes, it is sacrificing pieces of its cultural uniqueness. Bidini’s trip ten years ago to the walled city of Yingpao is particularly illustrative: We ended up staying at the only […] More »

Today in Nepal, voting began for a new constituent assembly that may well chart a radically different course for the Himalayan country. The election comes after more than 10 years of warfare waged by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). The main parties squaring off are the Maoists, the Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist-Leninist […] More »

National Geographic looks at China’s ‘instant cities.’ All over China’s coastal regions huge cities are popping up seemingly overnight to make room for factories and the thousands of workers flocking from the countryside to fill them. The writer, Peter Hessler, is one of my favourites working in China at the moment. France is fighting the […] More »

Mexican emos are being targeted for attacks. We’re not talking about light-hearted jabs or mockery but full-on assault. There’s even a dark homophobic element underneath the whole thing. From the article: Most of all, however, the assailants target the emos for dressing effeminately, still a provocative act for many in a macho Mexico. “At the […] More »