18:Beckett

Opening Lecture (followed by Opening Reception):
Wednesday November 8th, 4 pm
A free bus leaves the Hart House (U of T Downtown) at 3 pm for the lecture
A free bus leaves the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. W, Toronto) at 6 pm for the opening

Exhibition runs from November 9 – December 21, 2006

18:Beckett is an interdisciplinary exhibition project marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nobel Prize-winning Irish writer Samuel Beckett. The title refers to the eighteen years since Beckett’s death and the eighteen sites where this project will take place in Mississauga and Toronto. These sites and events are an artist’s lecture, eight artist projects, six weekly film/video art events, a film screening evening, a symposium and performance, and a publication; all of which arise out of Beckett’s legacy.

Events are free of admission and have free shuttle service to and from venues.


Wednesday November 8th
1) Artist Talk with Gary Hill: Kaneff Centre 137, University of Toronto at Mississauga (adjacent to the Blackwood Gallery); 4 to 5 pm.

Participating artist Gary Hill discusses his work with curator Séamus Kealy.

2) Exhibition opens to the public, Blackwood Gallery (and satellite locations); 6 to 10 pm

Eight international artists will present their work in and around the Blackwood Gallery, as well as at the Goethe Institut Toronto. The exhibition highlights formal and conceptual strategies that artists are exploring in relation to Beckett’s work and includes a catalogue with essays by Séamus Kealy and Terry Eagleton. Artists:

Martin Arnold (Austria), Dorothy Cross (Ireland), Stan Douglas (Canada), Gary Hill (USA), Bruce Nauman (USA), Gregor Schneider (Germany), Ann-Sofi Siden (Sweden), Zin Taylor/Allison Hrabluik (Canada)

Contemporary Video Art Program including Stephane Gilot (Canada), Kelly Mark (Canada), Nikos Navridis (Greece), Daniel Olson (Canada), Hans Op de Beeck (Belgium), Michal Rovner (Israel), Anri Sala (Albania), Magdalena Szczepaniak (Poland)


Wednesday November 22nd
1) Symposium: CCT Building, Room 1050, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 10 am to 5 pm

International and local scholars discuss Beckett’s experiments with new media and the use of Beckettian formal strategies within contemporary visual arts and film. Includes new media performance.

2) Film Screenings and Lecture Evening: Goethe Institut, 163 King St. W, Toronto, 7 to 9 pm

Screenings of Beckett-related films hosted by Walter Asmus and Linda Ben-Zvi.

Funding by the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, Humanities Centre U of T, Culture Ireland, Connaught Fund (University of Toronto), The University of Toronto at Mississauga, Foreign Affairs Canada, The Centre for US Studies, The Department of English and Drama (UTM), The Gladstone Hotel, Goethe Institut Toronto, Irish Embassy (Ottawa)

Isuma Events

still from Atarnarjuat (The Fast Runner) @ Norman Cohn/Igloolik IsumaProductions Inc.


Sunday, October 1, 2006 12:30 pm to late afternoon
CONTEMPORARY ART BUS TOUR SUNDAY
A free bus departs the Textile Museum (55 Centre Ave.,Toronto) at 12:30 pm to the Blackwood Gallery, Koffler Gallery and Doris McCarthy Gallery UTSC. To reserve a seat, please call the Doris McCarthy Gallery at 416-287-7007 by September 29. This event is FREE.


Thursday, October 12, 2006 3-5pm
RECORDS IN OUR HEADS: WOMEN'S VOICE AND VIDEO
Screening of video by Arnait Video Productions
Followed by a Panel Discussion with Marrie Mumford, Kass Banning, Peggy Gale and Marie-Helene Cousineau. Moderated by Joan Simalchik
Co-Presented with the Study of Women and Gender Program at UTM

MIST Studio Theatre, CCT Building, University of Toronto at Mississauga Admission: FREE

Arnait Video Productions (Women’s Video Workshop of Igloolik) voices concerns, beliefs and experiences of Inuit women in debates of interest to all Canadians. Arnait shares oral traditions (songs and stories), re-enacts traditional activities, history and legends, and celebrates the specificity of the culture of women in Igloolik.


Saturday, October 21, 2006 5 pm to 6:30 pm
RECORDS IN OUR HEADS: MEMORY, MEDIA AND THE TELLING OF HISTORY
Panel discussion co-presented with Toronto’s ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, with filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk, Merata Mita, and Alanis Obomsawin

To be followed by a screening of Isuma's new feature film The Journals of Knud Rasmussen at 7 pmAl Green Theatre (750 Spadina, downtown Toronto)


Sunday, October 22, 12 noon to 2 pm
CLOSING RECEPTION for Isuma -- to have an idea
co-presented with Toronto’s ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts FestivalArtist Talk and Reception with Isuma filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto at Mississauga FREE bus transportation will be provided from downtown Toronto to the reception at the Mississauga campus. Buses will leave Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre (Bloor and Spadina) at 11:00am and will return at 1:30pm.


BLACKWOOD GALLERY WRITING AWARD
$150 Juried Prize for winning entry for a critical review (750-1000 words) of the film(s) featured in ISUMA - to have an idea Drop off a printed copy at the Blackwood Gallery, E-gallery or Curatorial Office (CCT Room 3019) Deadline: Oct 23rd 2006, 5pm

Be A Blackwood Volunteer!

Want to gain valuable art volunteer experience?

We are looking for responsible and arts minded people to help with gallery supervision, special events and other gallery tasks.

For more information contact us at:

905.828.3789
or cvictor@utm.utoronto.ca

ZOMBIA

The Blackwood Gallery Summer Project Presents:

monochrom and the Nation of Zombia

A zombie is a member of the Zombie Nation -- which wants to turn the United States of America and the Federal Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Democracy of Canada into Zombia, the home of the Zombies -- and the official representative of the Zombie Nation.
A zombie has to hold a certification.

A zombie looks like and acts like every average North American because he or she is an average North American apart from the fact that he or she is a zombie -- which means an ex-human.
Each zombie can infect any other US and Canadian citizens. Sometime in the future a zombie might address you. Think of it as a chance. But please be aware: Being turned into a zombie is a legal act of naturalization.

To become a zombe please email: ceckert@utm.utoronto.ca

Do you already have your Zombie document and you want to register?
Please register here. Please have your Zombie Registration Code ready. Please have your Zombie Registration Code ready.

You want to see how Zombia grows?
You can find the epidemic map here. Thank you for your interest.

http://www.monochrom.at/zombia/

monochrom

The Blackwood Gallery and Mercer Union present

monochrom:
"We're great together, the liberal society and it's enemies"

A lecture/event at Mercer Union, 8pm, Thursday July 13th, 2006

Free Admission

monochrom from Vienna is a collective, operating worldwide, that deals with technology, art, context hacking and philosophy and was founded in 1993. monochrom is an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science and political activism. Their mission is conducted everywhere, but first and foremost in culture-archeological digs into the seats (and pockets) of ideology and entertainment.

monochrom has released a leftist retro-gaming project, established a 1 baud semaphore line through the streets of San Francisco, started an illegal space race through Los Angeles, buried people alive in Vancouver, and cracked the hierarchies of the art system with The Thomann Project. In Austria they ate blood sausages made from their own blood in order to criticize the grotesque neoliberal formation of the world economy. Sometimes they compose melancholic pop songs about dying media and hosted the first annual and inevitably leading festival concerned with cocktail robotics. At the moment they're planning a conference about pornography as one of the driving forces of technological innovation. Also they do international soul trade, propaganda camps, epic puppet theatre, aesthetic pregnancy counseling, food catering and -- sorry to mention -- modern dance.

monochrom’s medley at Mercer Union is a little tour-de-farce about their projects and political motivation. The evening also features a teaser for the Blackwood Gallery’s upcoming project “18:Beckett”. Altogether, this evening will be a joyful bucket full of good clean fanaticism, crisis, language, culture, self-content, identity, utopia, mania and despair, condensed into the well known cultural technique of a gala show. Powernapping highly welcome.

www.monochrom.at/english

http://www.blackwoodgallery.ca

http://www.mercerunion.org

For further information please contact cvictor@utm.utoronto.ca or dave@mercerunion.org

PREVIEW: future graduates

Video screening in Kaneff building, across from Blackwood Gallery
Shown in conjunction with the third set of Graduating Exhibitions from the Art & Art History program

Opening: Wednesday April 19, 5:30 - 7:30
runs until Sunday May 7 during Blackwood Gallery hours

Videos selected by Ashley Andrews

PREVIEW: future graduates brings together a number of videos from students that are still continuing their studies at U of T. The work is chosen from both the Art & Art History Program and the Visual Studies Program at the St. George campus.

Video one (April 20-28)

1. taint. Donna Lee 3:25 min

2. Kali Yuga. Gintas Trillis 0:58 min

3. dream. Enya Hou 4:30 min

4. untitled. Darcie Kennedy 1:24 min



Video Two (April 30- May 7)

1. untitled (yellow). Olha Fihol 1:00 min

2. A foot’s existence. Patricia Tsastos & Melanie Bracey 1:07 min

3. Egg. Maurice Lam 1:00 min

4. untitled(red). Olha Fihol 1:00 min

The Darker Side of Black

On the Image Bar, CCIT Building, UTM
18 - 21 April, 2006


Directed by Issac Julien

Gangsta chic, violence and nihilism, the hard edge of Rap and Reggae increasingly dominates the image of black popular culture. This is an intelligent and provocative investigation of the complex issues raised by the genre, such as ritualized machismo, misogyny, homophobia, and gun glorification. Noted experts on black history, such as Cornel West of Princeton University, and Michael Manly, former prime minister of Jamaica, analyze the phenomenon and give insights into its development and meaning.

Filmed in dance halls, hip hop clubs, and using interviews and music video clips, The Darker Side of Black takes us to London, Jamaica and the USA. The film brings together diverse musicians as Buju Banton, Shabba Ranks, and Britain's Moni Love. It is a long overdue examination of the "darker" side of contemporary black music.

20 years old in the Middle East

On the Image Bar, CCIT Building, UTM
10 - 13 April, 2006

Filmed after the fall of Saddam Hussein, 20 YEARS OLD IN THE MIDDLE-EAST traverses the region - from Jordan to Syria, Iran, and Lebanon - to take the pulse of Arab and Iranian youth.

The film offers an opportunity for Western college students to truly understand the lives and attitudes of their Middle Eastern counterparts: how they're different, and how they're the same.
As America becomes more deeply embroiled in the region, 20 YEARS OLD IN THE MIDDLE-EAST offers an indispensable snapshot of the attitudes of a generation that desires liberty over extremism, but at the same time fears that American policies will lead them into ever more warfare, and which - above all - simply wants to pursue their dreams.

"This film should be required viewing for leaders and citizens alike in the Middle East because it not only captures - often with great sadness - the frustration and despair of the Middle East's youth but it also offers solutions to these problems, if we would only listen. It is significant that of all the young people interviewed in the film, it is a young woman who is the most passionate about implementing change. It is not so much an issue of whether she will realize this dream or not. More importantly, she has passion for that dream and she believes she can bring about change." - Arabic Women's eNews

"Recommended. Culled from interviews conducted just two months after the fall of Baghdad in May 2003, TWENTY YEARS OLD... offers a newsworthy picture of a youthful Middle East not all that familiar to Western audiences - and a shame it isn't. More moving than anything is the universal call for more freedom, greater freedom. Thus the effects of oppressive government weigh heavily on the idealistic young; all the more reason to make the film available to often complacent American undergraduates." - Educational Media Reviews Online

Old, incomplete post... its a photo of the image bar!

The Best of Ottawa 2005

On the Image Bar, CCIT building
April 3rd, 2006 - 11-4pm

The Best of Ottawa 2005 is a rare opportunity to see the best of the best in animation from Canada and around the world. The program features an exciting array of animated films from the 2005 Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF).

The program showcases animation in a variety of forms consisting of animated short films, TV series and commercials, music videos, internet shorts and more.

The Best of Ottawa 2005 program features:

2005 OIAF Signal Film / Will Krause / USA / 0:50

The Curse of the Voodoo Child / Steven Woloshen / Canada / 3:30

Ichthys / Marek Skrobecki / Poland / 16:41

Phoenix Foundation 'Hitchcock' / Reuben Sutherland / United Kingdom / 3:30

_grau / Robert Seidel / Germany / 10:01

Chestnuts Icelolly / JJ Villard / USA / 7:30

City Paradise / Gaëlle Denis / United Kingdom / 5:58

Overtime / Oury Atlan, Thibault Berland & Damien Ferrié / France / 4:55

Fish Heads Fugue and Other Tales for Twilight / Lauren Indovina & Lindsey
Mayer-Beug / USA / 6:42

Die Toten Hosen 'Walkampf' / Andreas Hykade / Germany / 3:30

Morir de Amor / Gil Alkabetz / Germany / 12:40

At the Quinte Hotel / Bruce Alcock / Canada / 3:38

Blackwood Docs @ Noon

A series of documentaries and thought provoking films
All films are shown on the Image Bar, CCIT ground floor, UTM

BHOPAL: THE SEARCH FOR JUSTICE
(NFB, 2004, 52 min.)
Directed by Lindalee Tracey
March 31st at 12 noon playing all day

On December 2, 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India leaked poisonous methyl isocyanate gas killing fifteen thousand people. Bhopal was, and remains, the world’s worst chemical industry disaster. Twenty years later, survivors and their families are being re-victimized by the deliberate thwarting of scientific and medical studies concerning the disaster. Beautiful Bhopal, once known as the “City of Mosques” is a sad, disgraceful testament to the absence of environmental and human justice.

Bhopal: The Search for Justice straddles the intersection between science, politics and human rights. Exploring charges of corruption and greed, the film follows Raajkumar Keswani, the local journalist. Set against the rich visual tapestry of India, Keswani travels through the Indian bastiis where the poorest victims live, and to the offices of frustrated doctors and scientists. Finally he makes his first trip to North America in search of answers.

BIODEMOCRACY: MAKING A DIFFERENCE
(2002, 38 min)
Directed by Charles Kassatly
April 13th at 12 noon on repeat until 2pm

Filmed in 2002 at the Biojustice/Biodiversity conference & picnic organized in opposition to the Biotech industry event at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre, this documentary features experts from the Council of Canadians, Greenpeace, the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, Polaris Institute & Gene Action. Keynote Speaker, Dr. David Suzuki headlines the concerns of many attending when he says: "GMO's are everywhere in our food stream already - yet we have never given our consent to this perilous experiment!"

McLUHAN'S WAKE
(NFB, 2002, 94 min)
Directed by Kevin McMahon
April 20th at 12 noon and again at 2pm

Canadian media guru Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), now best remembered for cryptic phrases like "the medium is the message" and "the global village," comes in for a much-needed reassessment in Kevin McMahon's innovative documentary portrait. With narration from Laurie Anderson and contributions from educator Neil Postman and editor Lewis Lapham among others, this dazzling and accessible exploration of the man and his work illustrates why McLuhan's enigmatic and often misunderstood theories remain profoundly relevant in today's wired society.

In Feed @ Blackwood

ha ha ho ho hee hee ... this is pretty funny

come Wednesday, March 22nd 7:15pm

to see work by:

Robert Derr
Krista Davis
Jennifer Matotek
John Forget
Miriam Jordan
Emily Grove & Jyoti Solanki
Alison Kobayashi
Sarah Dicks
Reed Barrow
Benjamin Bellas
Justin Cooper
Clinton King


WHAT: In Feed @ Blackwood: film and video screening
WHEN: 7:15 pm, Wednesday, March 22, 2006
WHERE: Image Bar and MiST room # 0150, CCIT building on the ground floor, University of Toronto at Mississauga
COST: FREE to all with Free parking after 7pm
WHO: Co-presented with the Mississauga Art Council's Community of Young Artists

World in Flux

Films that chronicle the destructive impact of the modern world on the environment

On the Image Bar














In conjunction with the Blackwood Gallery’s exhibition EQUINOX

On view March 20th – April 3rd, 2pm to 12pm the following day, Monday to Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday



TURNING DOWN THE HEAT
Narrated by David Suzuki
The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, which warms the atmosphere, leading to increased floods, droughts and hurricanes. Turning Down The Heat addresses the crisis of global warming and offers renewable energy sources and energy conservation as economically viable solutions to climate change.

Two films from the QATSI trilogy: Koyaanisqatsi and Naqoyqatsi
Directed by Godfrey Reggio

KOYAANISQATSI
The title is a Hopi Indian word meaning "life out of balance." Created between 1975 and, the film is an apocalyptic vision of the collision of two different worlds -- urban life and technology versus the environment. The musical score was composed by Philip Glass.

NAQOYQATSI
Naqoyqatsi chronicles the most significant event of the last five thousand years: the transition from the natural milieu, old nature, to the "new" nature, the technological milieu. Technology is the big force and like oxygen it is always there, a necessity that we cannot live without. Because its appetite is seemly infinite, it is consuming the finite world of nature.

RAINBOW WARRIOR: THE BOAT AND THE BOMB
A documentary that explores the French Government terrorist bombing of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior.

THE GREAT WARMING: AGE OF UNCERTAINTY
The Age of Uncertainty looks at the legacy of climate change and the consequences of a "business as usual" scenario. In the end, no one knows exactly what The Great Warming will bring in the decades to come -- but it has already delivered a powerful warning - Earth's temperature is rising at the fastest rate in recorded history, and our climate is changing.


The Image Bar is conceived of as an audio-visual venue to raise critical contemporary cultural issues concerning mass media, cultural identity, current affairs, and matters of heart and mind in the context of university life.

Programming is subject to change. For up-to-date info and scheduling contact the Gallery at 905.828.3789

Tests and Precedents: Early Experiments in Film and Emergent Media

On the Image Bar March 13th – 16th, 2006, 2pm - 5pm
The Blackwood presents a selection of compilations that bring together seminal films and media experiments. Includes works by Edison, Porter, the Lumiere brothers, Georges Melies, Emil Cohl, Stuart Blackton, Michael Snow, the Brothers Quay and many other pioneer moving image makers.

SIGN UP NOW! New Media Workshops @ Blackwood

SPECIAL PRICE FOR STUDENTS
- sign yourself up with a friend and pay $30/EACH

The Blackwood Gallery is expanding its programming to include an exciting series of new media workshops in March 2006 at the CCIT building, UTM.

The workshops are aimed at newcomers to new media and those who wish to further their skills in areas such as animation, video recording and editing, audio production and performance art.


MARCH SCHEDULE:

Schedule and Application Form

ANIMATION WORKSHOPS

TITLE: Animate with Digital Software

INSTRUCTOR: Riaz Mehmood

DESCRIPTION: Learn the ins and outs of digital animation using computer software such as Photoshop & Flash. You’ll be introduced to the main terms and technical aspects of the medium in order to create your own masterpiece.

TIME & DATE: Monday, March 13th 10am – 2pm (5 hours)
LOCATION: Room CC 3160 - MAC Lab in CCIT building, University of Toronto at Mississauga
MAX. # OF STUDENTS: 10
FEE: $40


TITLE: Cut Paste Scan Play

INSTRUCTOR: Suvi Kuisma

DESCRIPTION: Create a frame by frame animated collage using a scanner to capture and combine bits and pieces of images, text, textures and small objects. Final projects will be burned to DVD for you to bring home. Please bring interesting or sentimental items to be scanned.

TIME & DATE: Tuesday, March 14th 10am – 3pm (5 hours)
LOCATION: Room CC 3160 - MAC Lab in CCIT building, University of Toronto at Mississauga
MAX. # OF STUDENTS: 10
FEE: $40
STUDENTS SHOULD BRING: Collage materials (magazines, books, images, text, textures, fabric pieces, small objects, etc.)



AUDIO WORKSHOP

TITLE: Sound as art, Art Audio Assembly

INSTRUCTOR: John Kuisma

DESCRIPTION: Using basic audio recording software and editing techniques you will produce short audio art compositions. Your sound creation will be burned on to CD to take home.

DATE & TIME: Friday, March 17th 2006 10am – 3pm (5 hours)
LOCATION: Room CC 2130 - MAC Lab in CCIT building, University of Toronto at Mississauga
MAX. # OF STUDENTS: 10
FEE: $40


PERFORMANCE AND SCULPTURE WORKSHOP

TITLE: Socially Engaged Art: What is it exactly…..?!

INSTRUCTOR: Tej Ajji

DESCRIPTION: Explore new art practices that are based in performance and are socially engaged. You will be introduced to contemporary art and ideas that push the conventional notions of what art is. You will also work with the instructor to create unique and fresh works of art.

DATE & TIME: Thursday, Mach 16th 2006 10am – 3pm (5 hours)
LOCATION: Room CC 2130 - MAC Lab in CCIT building, University of Toronto at Mississauga
MAX. # OF STUDENTS: 10
FEE: $40


To apply contact:

Claire Eckert
Program and Outreach Coordinator of Film, Video and New Media
T: 905.828.3789 Fax: 905-569-4262
E: claireeckert@hotmail.com
http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/services/gallery/

Natalie of Wood by Shawn Cappelle

Monday, March 13th – Thursday, March 16th, 2006 12 – 2pm
On the Image Bar, CCIT ground floor, UTM

Natalie of Wood
Director: Shawn Chappelle (Canada, 2001, 2 min, video)

A remix of old Hollywood images comments on the film industry's notorious and persistent appetite to stereotype Indian people. Who is speaking for whom in this short work, and what is being said? Are the old images just re-presented or is the artist critically looking at self in the context of whiteness and the subjugation of Indian people?

The Image Bar is conceived of as an audio-visual venue to raise critical contemporary cultural issues concerning mass media, cultural identity, current affairs, and matters of heart and mind in the context of university life.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Blackwood Gallery: 905.828.3789 www.utm.utoronto.ca/services/gallery/

KHALID by Will Kwan and Marcella Rafaniello

as part of Image Bar Rotation

On view on the Image Bar 6-10, March, 2006, 11am – 5pm
CCIT ground floor, University of Toronto at Mississauga


KHALID
By Will Kwan and Marcella Rafaniello

KHALID is a two channel installation focusing on a Moroccan teenager, Khalid and his guitar. The artists met Khalid in the north Italy, where the teenager arrived without documents and is currently living in a detention centre for minors. In the main video, Khalid plays a guitar he made using an old olive oil canister and some scrap wood. The second video displays footage of an interview where the young Moroccan explains the conditions under which he created his instrument. The two videos are excerpts from a larger installation involving footage shot in Sarajevo, Berlin, Los Angeles, Napoli, and Turin, where the artists took Khalid's guitar and asked professional guitarists in these cities to create compositions with the instrument. This "interaction" is meant to highlight the discrepancy between the mobility of objects/culture and the mobility of bodies.

Will Kwan is an artist and writer born in Hong Kong currently residing in Maastricht, Holland. He received his BA from the University of Toronto (Scarborough, 2002) and MFA from Columbia University (2004). He has presented work at the Venice Biennale (2003) and the PS1 in New York (2005). Will is short listed for the 2006 Sobey Prize.For more information: http://www.willkwanprojects.org/

Marcella Rafaniello is an architect from Avellino, Italy currently living and working in Biella, an industrial city near Turin. She is currently developing an exhibition about games and society for Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella.

Will Kwan in conversation with Tej Ajji
Please join us at the Image Bar on Wednesday, March 8th at 12 noon for a public discussion and Q& A. Tej Ajji, a fourth year Art and Art History student, will speak with Will Kwan about his artistic practice.

Image Bar Rotation is an ongoing program of new media artworks by local and international artists. The Image Bar, located in CCIT building ground floor, UTM, is conceived of as an audio-visual venue to raise critical contemporary cultural issues concerning mass media, cultural identity, current affairs, and matters of heart and mind in the context of university life. If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Blackwood Gallery: www.utm.utoronto.ca/services/gallery/

(image from artist talk)

Evenings on the Image Bar

March 6th – 10th 5pm to 11am, & 11th -12th all weekend: The Documentary Channel

The DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL is Canada’s television destination for film-lovers, passion-seekers and those hungry for fresh ideas and perspectives. From Academy Award-winning features to cutting-edge independent films, The Documentary Channel is home to the most innovative, engrossing, edgy and entertaining documentaries and films from Canada and around the world. The Documentary Channel is a partnership of Corus Entertainment, the National Film Board and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

For schedule visit: www.documentarychannel.ca

Blackwood Docs @ Noon, March 2006

A series of documentaries and thought provoking films
All films are shown on the Image Bar, CCIT ground floor, UTM

THE TAKE
Directed by Avi Lewis with Naomi Klein
Friday, March 3rd 12 noon and again at 2pm

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head. In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.

CONTINUOUS JOURNEY
Directed by Ali Kazimi
Friday, March 10th 12 noon and again at 2pm

Continuous Journey is an inquiry into the largely ignored history of Canada's exclusion of the South Asians by a little known immigration policy called the Continuous Journey Regulation of 1908. Unlike the Chinese and the Japanese, people from British India were excluded by a regulation that appeared fair, but in reality, was an effective way of keeping people from India out of Canada until 1948. As a direct result, only a half-mile from Canadian shores, the Komagata Maru was surrounded by immigration boats and the passengers were held in communicado virtual prisoners on the ship. Thus began a dramatic stand-off which would escalate over the course of two months, becoming one of the most infamous incidents in Canadian history.

A PLACE CALLED CHIAPAS
Directed by Nettie Wild
Friday, March 17th 12 noon and again at 2pm

On January 1, 1994, the Zapatista National Liberation Army, made up of impoverished Mayan Indians from the state of Chiapas, took over five towns and 500 ranches in southern Mexico. The Government deployed its troops, and at least 145 people died in the ensuing battle. Fighting for indigenous Mexicans to regain control over their lives and the land, the Zapatista Army, led by the charismatic, guerilla poet Subcommandante Marcos, started sending their message to the world via the Internet. The result was what The New York Times called "the world's first post-modern revolution." Filmmaker Nettie Wild travelled to the jungle canyons of southern Mexico to film the elusive and fragile life of the uprising. Her camera effectively and movingly captures the human dimensions behind this war of symbols.

Democracy Now!

IMAGE BAR
Blackwood Gallery

February 1st to March 6th, Monday – Thursday evening: Democracy Now! on the Image Bar

As part of If it’s Too Bad to Be True, It Could Be DISINFORMATION, the Blackwood Gallery will show broadcasts from the award-winning, American, independent and alternative media provider, Democracy Now!

Democracy Now's daily program, the War and Peace Report, provides access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S. corporate-sponsored media. This includes independent and international journalists, ordinary people from around the world who are directly affected by U.S. foreign policy, grassroots leaders and peace activists, artists, academics and independent analysts. In addition, the War and Peace Report hosts debates between people who substantially disagree, such as debates between White House spokespeople and grassroots activists. Democracy Now! airs on over 350 stations in North America. It is also available as a podcast and on the internet.

1 – 2 February, 2006:
The War and Peace Report:
The daily War and Peace Report is streamed directly from the internet to the Image Bar.

6 – 9 February, & AGAIN, 28 Feb to 6 March, 2006:
From The War and Peace Trilogy:

Independent Media In A Time of War
Part scathing critique, part call to action, "Independent Media In A Time Of War" is a hard-hitting new documentary by the Hudson Mohawk Independent Media Center. This film is composed of a speech given by Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! illustrated by clips of mainstream media juxtaposed with rare footage from independent reporters in Iraq. The documentary argues that dialogue is vital to a healthy democracy. "Independent media has a crucial responsibility to go to where the silence is," says Amy Goodman, "to represent the diverse voices of people engaged in dissent." She makes a compelling argument that the commercial news media have failed to represent the "true face of war."

Voices Against War: F15 NYC
Chronicles the experiences of "ordinary" people on the streets of Manhattan as they joined millions around the globe in "The World Says No To War" protests.

Women’s Fast For Peace
With the invasion of Iraq looming, more than 125 women in upstate New York fasted to create a culture of peace rather than of war.

13 – 16 February, 2006:
Arundhati Roy: Public Power in the Age of Empire:
Famed Indian author and activist Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, India in 1959. She studied architecture in New Delhi, where she now lives, and has worked as a film designer, actor, and screenplay writer in India. Her first novel, The God of Small Things, won the 1997 Booker Prize, Britain's most prestigious literary award. It has sold six million copies and has been translated into over 20 languages worldwide. She is also the author of several non-fiction books: The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile, The Cost of Living, Power Politics and An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire. She gave an address on war, resistance and the presidency to the American Sociological Association in San Francisco on August 16, 2004. We give you her entire speech, followed by Q&A with the audience. 90 min

20 – 23 February, 2006:
Michael Moore at the Democratic National Convention:
Everywhere Michael Moore went in Boston, massive crowds followed him. On Tuesday, July 28, 2004, more than 2,000 people lined up in Cambridge to hear Michael Moore speak at a forum with Howard Dean. Only 500 or so were able to get in. Democracy Now! broadcasted both his speech inside and the impromptu speech he gave outside to the overflow crowd. 90 min.