Monday, May 28, 2012

2012 DOC NOW Film Festival, May 28-June 1


Ryerson University's 2012 DOC NOW Documentary Media Festival began earlier this month with an exhibition of Rehab Nazzal's At Home, as part of the CONTACT Photography Festival. Tonight, the film festival portion of the festival begins at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

The opening screening will be Alternatives and features The Grass Is Always Greener by Arianne Persaud, Food for All by Marcelo Paolinelli, Brunswick St. by Halley Roback and Kevin Fraser's Analogue. Each film explores those with a different perspective on everyday topics.

The film screenings continue until Friday, June 1 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The following week, there will be additional screenings of each program on June 8 and 9 at the School of Image Arts building in room 304.

There will also be a panel discussion on Tuesday night at 7pm on Keeping up With Documentary: Exploring the Relationship Between Form and Value. The featured speakers will be Manfred Becker, Eric Geringas, Monika Berenyi, and Bruno Lessard. The Interim Chair of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) Katie McKenna will act as moderator for this discussion on the ways documentary is changing.

The 2012 DOC NOW Documentary Media Festival continues with exhibitions until June 29 and an additional exhibition in August.

http://docnow.ca/

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DOC NOW FILM SCHEDULE

Alternatives
TIFF Bell Lightbox May 28, 6 p.m - 9 p.m
350 King Street West
School of Image Arts June 8, 2 p.m - 8 p.m
IMA 304, 122 Bond Street
The Grass Is Always Greener, Arianne Persaud
Food for All, Marcelo Paolinelli
Brunswick St., Halley Roback
Analogue, Kevin Fraser

“When all think alike, then no one is thinking." — Walter Lippman

Societal progress occurs when people think, see and act outside the box, with an understanding of the past, and visions for the future. In offering different perspectives to the mainstream, we can begin to challenge norms that are pervasive in our society.

Alternatives presents different perspectives about everyday aspects of life including access to healthy food for people in Brazil, the resurgence of analogue production in a digital world, food consumption practices in Guyana and Canada, and the history of a group of young friends living and working together in the 1970s.

Bridging Worlds
TIFF Bell Lightbox May 30, 6 p.m - 9 p.m
350 King Street West
School of Image Arts June 8, 2 p.m - 8 p.m
IMA 304, 122 Bond Street
détente, Kieran Dick
Romano Drom: A Story of Youth, Kristyna Balaban
Hand in Leash, Ashley Simpson
Timnadine Songs, Caitlin M. Rodger

Bridge: a structure built to span physical obstacles for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle.

Looking across a river from afar only helps to maintain our illusion about the other side. To truly know others, we must build bridges and have the courage to cross. A bridge can sometimes serve as a path through power struggles and marginalization, solidifying a connection or even bringing together conflicting sides. It is this unification that allows acceptance amongst groups, forging a path beyond marginalization. The process of bridging becomes not only about difference but also about similarities between us.

Bridging Worlds presents this path toward unity through stories of the Roma among non-Roma in Eastern Europe, two young soldiers of opposing sides during World War II, a group of Amazigh youth in Morocco striving to overcome marginalization, and the kinship that can form between dog and human.

Unseen Lives
TIFF Bell Lightbox May 31, 6 p.m - 9 p.m
350 King Street West
School of Image Arts June 9, 11 a.m - 5 p.m
IMA 304, 122 Bond Street
Agency, Meredith Wright
Waiting for Waladi, Nancy Jibbe
Between Allah and Me (and Everyone Else), Kyoko Yokoma
As Far as the Eye Can See, Victoria Ptashnick

“My road is towards the creation of a fresh perception of the world. Thus I decipher in a new way the world unknown to you” — Dziga Vertov

Many stories remain untold. As filmmakers we use visual modes to reveal the hidden, the unspoken, and the forgotten, in order to seek understanding and new knowledge of the world around us. Women’s lives and bodies in the public sphere are often sensationalized and objectified; what gets lost are the personal voices and experiences of the women themselves.

Unseen Lives touches on the invisible lives of women, including the hidden consequences of infertility, neglected stories of missing native women, the darker face of the modelling world, and contentious choices surrounding the hijab in the Muslim world.

Performing Selves
TIFF Bell Lightbox June 1, 6 p.m - 9 p.m
350 King Street West
School of Image Arts June 9, 11 a.m - 5 p.m
IMA 304, 122 Bond Street
Drums and Feathers, David Martinez
Obskyura, Melissa Gordon
TREEPLANTERLAND, Alex Ternowetsky

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” — Thomas Merton

Creating art is a way of seeking identity. Performing Selves offers elements of self-representation, symbolism, philosophical meditation, transgression, and empowerment in these liberating explorations in search of the self through performance. The films take audiences on different journeys where the personal and the public are in constant dialogue.

Performing Selves explores distinct artistic and cultural environments, including traditional dances in ancient Mexican cultures, one burlesque performance artist’s passage of self-discovery through her art, and the adventures of a group of treeplanters in remote British Columbia.


Keeping up With Documentary: Exploring the Relationship Between Form and Value
May 29, Tuesday, 7 p.m
IMA 307, Ryerson University
Panelists:
Manfred Becker, filmmaker;
Eric Geringas, filmmaker;
Monika Berenyi, Master’s Candidate for the Documentary Media Program, Ryerson;
Bruno Lessard, Assistant Professor at the School of Image Arts, Ryerson

Moderated by Katie McKenna, Interim Chair of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC)

Once solely associated with film and photography, documentary has become a much broader category of artistic endeavour. Reality TV, docu-soaps, and gaming are transforming what it means to capture reality. Mobile devices, e-books, and websites are extending documentary’s reach onto new platforms and causing traditional storytelling techniques to evolve. Audience participation once meant a Q&A session with the director after a screening; now, it starts before a single frame is shot, with community building, crowdfunding, and other collaborative activities. Even print publications and advocacy organizations are getting into documentary production. What does it all mean?

Join us for a debate about the limits, the pulse, and the future of the documentary genre in the 21st century.

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