Interview: Jonathan Robbins, star of Out With Dad

Out with Jonathan Robbins

by Allan Tong

Jonathan Robbins is dad in Out With Dad, the most successful Canadian web series today with over 24 million viewers across all platforms, averaging more than 300,000 views per month online, and attracting over 35,000 Subscribers on YouTube. The numbers are all the more impressive when you considered that the show is almost entirely audience-funded. The drama is about about teenager Rose coming of age and coming out of the closet with the support of her single father. At this Sunday's week's Canadian Screen Awards, Out With Dad is up for Best Original Program or Series produced for Digital Media – Fiction. Jonathan is also the creator of Clutch, a crime/thriller web series.

Chino Kino chatted with Jonathan at the start of CSA week in Toronto:

2013 Festival du nouveau cinéma announces complete programming

This morning at a press conference at the Agora Hydro-Québec in UQAM’s Cœur des sciences, the Festival du nouveau cinéma announced its full programming for the 42nd annual edition. It promises to be another exciting year for what has fast become Montreal's preeminent film festival.

Among the works programmed this year is a web documentary I directed called Jazz Petite-Bourgogne (or Burgundy Jazz. It is presented in the FNC Lab section for "experimental, expanded and multidisciplinary cinematic forms at the crossroads of cinema, art and new technologies." Jazz Petite-Bourgogne explores the rich history of Montreal's jazz scene from the perspective of the black community in the neighbourhood called Little Burgundy or Petite-Bourgogne (formerly called St-Antoine or St-Henri).

The 42nd Festival du nouveau cinéma presents 273 films from October 9–20 at various venues around downtown Montreal.

Watch the interactive documentary Burgundy Jazz online for free

Today is the official opening day for the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, the world's largest jazz festival. To get into the spirit of things, check out the interactive documentary I directed called Burgundy Jazz that launched last week to great fanfare.

Burgundy Jazz is an exploration of the rich history of jazz in Montreal in the decades before the festival, with a focus on the black community that was centred in the area now called Petite-Bourgogne or Little Burgundy. You'll discover many new things about Montreal and jazz, and hear about personalities such as Oliver Jones, Nelson Symonds, the International Band, the Sealey Brothers, Charlie Biddle and of course Montreal's most celebrated jazz star Oscar Peterson.

Launch event for Burgundy Jazz, June 19

Tomorrow night, there will be a launch event for the interactive documentary Burgundy Jazz, a project I've been working on for the last two years (and why I haven't posted much in the last while).

Burgundy Jazz is about the rich history of jazz in Montreal from the perspective of the black community in Little Burgundy. It reaches back to Prohibition and earlier, and explores how Montreal became a jazz hotspot in the early years – how headquarters set up in Montreal by Grand Trunk Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway attracted black workers at a time when train travel was luxurious and being a porter was the best job available to blacks; and how the rejection of Prohibition in Quebec led to Montreal being the only major city in Canada or the U.S. to legally drink, which attracted tourists for drinking, dancing, gambling, prostitution – and jazz.

Golden Tomato Awards for 2012 – winners

The website Rotten Tomatoes announced the winners of their 14th annual Golden Tomato Awards today.

The number one movie in Wide Release was Ben Affleck's Argo with a rating of 96%. In Limited Release, the number one film was Jafar Panahi's This Is Not a Film which scored 99%. There were films that received higher ratings, but from fewer reviews which is taken into consideration with their rankings.

Call for submisisons: Crankyfest

Crankytown, an interactive site about periods that features videos, stories and poems from artists such as Feist, Emma Thompson, Jessica Paré and Karine Vanasse, has expanded to include Crankyfest – an online contest for videos about periods. The project was created by Canadian actors Liane Balaban and Vanessa Matsui, and costume designer Jenna Wright, who have partnered with iThentic, Playback’s Digital Company of the Year. The contest launches on January 17th with a submission deadline of March 1, 2013.

Inaugural Canadian Screen Awards – nominees

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (ACCT) is pleased to announce its new CANADIAN SCREEN AWARDS that recognize excellence in film, television and digital media productions.

“The CANADIAN SCREEN AWARDS are a true reflection of the multi-platform universe of today,” says Academy Chair Martin Katz. “News, sports and entertainment now come to us on screens of many sizes, with more to come. Through the CANADIAN SCREEN AWARDS, the Academy will celebrate our talent and our productions with our industry and the Canadian public in one major national CBC broadcast,” adds Katz.

Academy CEO Helga Stephenson says the new CANADIAN SCREEN AWARDS are a direct result of industry demand. “The industry has been asking for this change for some time. We opened up the conversation with our Members and other participating groups, consulted a report on the Academy prepared by the Schulich School of Business at York University and spoke with our broadcast and funding partners. As a result, the Board of Directors made the decision to merge the shows and a new chapter in the Academy’s history began,” says Stephenson.

Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) Awards – winners

The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) has announced the winners for the 16th annual OFCS Awards.

Ben Affleck's Argo came out on top with the win for Best Picture. It also captured Best Adapted Screenplay. The film is based on the story of a CIA operative who helped American hostages hiding with the Canadian Ambassador escape from Iran in 1980.

Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master also captured two awards. Anderson won Best Director, while Philip Seymour Hoffman won Best Supporting Actor. It had led the nominations.

2012 Online Film Critics Society Awards – nominations

Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master was the most nominated film for the 16th Annual Online Film Critics Society Awards nominations, earning a total of eight. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Anderson), Best Actor (Joaquin Phoenix), Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams), Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing and Best Cinematography.

Joining The Master in the Best Picture race Ben Affleck’s Argo, Leos Carax’s Holy Motors, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom and Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. The five films nominated for Best Picture had corresponding Best Director nominations.

Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s historical account of the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was the second most nominated film picking up six mentions including Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones), Best Supporting Actress (Sally Field), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography. Day-Lewis and Phoenix were nominated in Best Actor alongside John Hawkes in The Sessions, Denis Lavant in Holy Motors and Denzel Washington in Flight. The Best Actress nominees were Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty, Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, Emmanuelle Riva in Amour, Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild and Rachel Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea.

New York Film Critics Online 2012 awards – winners

Today, the New York Film Critics Online announced the winners for their 2012 NYFCO Awards.

Yet again, Zero Dark Thirty by Kathryn Bigelow proved to be the favourite of the critics' group. Her dramatization of the hunt for Osama bin Laden won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Steven Spielberg's historical drama Lincoln won two acting awards. Daniel Day-Lewis was named Best Actor while his castmate Tommy Lee Jones won Best Supporting Actor. This time, however, Sally Field missed on Best Supporting Actress in favour of Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables.

2012 Festival Les HTMlles, Nov 10-18

The women's artist-run centre Studio XX launches their 10th edition of the Festival Les HTMlles Festival féministe d'arts médiatiques + de culture numérique (Feminist festival of media arts + digital culture) tonight with an open house. The festival name HTMlles is a clever wordplay on "html" and the French word "elles."

The two floors of the 4001 Berri space will be animated by the festival partners and artists as part of an open house exhibition, Risky Business. There will be a launch of a special double issue of the electronic periodical .dpi, featuring a one-time-only print component at the occasion of the anniversary of The HTMlles. The evening also includes Oboro's Sound Saloon featuring Alexis O'Hara, art performances at the GIV, a projection/installation in CQAM’s window, and 360 degree photos by Time Code and Orangium. Finally, there will be a performance The Ultimate Company – Dominations, risques, profits by Franco-Belgian artist Valérie Cordy

2012 FITC Toronto, Apr 23–25

After a day of Sunday workshops, Monday April 23 marks the opening of FITC Toronto 2012, The Digital Technology Festival. FITC stands for Future, Innovation, Technology, Creativity and is a art, design and technology conference that takes place in cities around the world including Tokyo, Los Angeles and Amsterdam.

The conference includes workshops, lectures and panels, and offers over seventy guest speakers. Highlights include Through the Shredder: The Magic Behind Making Abstract 3D Portraits with Ayaka Ito and Randy Church; The Future of HTML5 Motion Design with Mark Anders; Kinect-Based MoCap for After Effects with Nick Fox-Gieg; and BLA BLA: Making a Film for Computer with Vincent Morisset.

Internet Film Critic Society Awards - winners

The winners have been announced for the 5th Annual Internet Film Critics Society Awards. Like the Online Film Critic Society Awards, The Tree of Life was the main winner though not so overwhelmingly. It was the only multiple winner, claiming Best Drama and Best Director for Terrence Malick.

The winner for Best Comedy was Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Joe Cornish's Attack the Block was named The Best Horror or Science Fiction Film. Best Action Film went to Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive.

The prize for Best Experimental Film went to Evan Glodell's Bellflower. Curiously, Meek’s Cutoff was named Most Underrated Film, even though it commands a respectable 85% on both rottentomatoes.com and metacritic.com. It is, however, clearly under-appreciated since its audience ratings are much lower.

Online Film Critics Society Awards - winners

15th Annual Online Film Critics Society Awards

The Tree of Life, which led the Online Film Critics Society nominations with seven, was the big winner at the 15th Annual Online Film Critics Society Awards. The film took home the prize for Best Picture as well as trophies for Best Director (Terrence Malick), Best Supporting Actress (Jessica Chastain), Best Editing and Best Cinematography. No other film won more than one award.

The other three acting winners were Michael Fassbender winning Best Actor for his performance in Shame; Tilda Swinton's work in We Need to Talk About Kevin won the award for Best Actress; and Christopher Plummer received the Best Supporting Actor prize for his work in Beginners.

TIFF Nexus Women in Film, Games and New Media Day

TIFF presented the first ever TIFF Nexus conference on October 28 that explored locative media. Now they're back with their second conference that focuses on the women's market.

Presented in partnership with Women in Film & Television – Toronto (WIFT-T), Women in Film, Games and New Media is a one-day conference that explores gaming, digital media and film with an emphasis on creative opportunities and analysis of sectoral gaps.

The event will be hosted by Nora Young. She is the host and creator of Spark, a show about technology and culture that airs nationally on CBC Radio.

The featured speakers Leigh Alexander, game culture journalist and editor at large for Gamasutra; Kate Hartman, Assistant Professor at OCAD University; Mare Sheppard, President of Metanet Software; Kirsten Forbes, COO of Silicon Sisters Interactive; Heather Webb, Executive Director of WIFT-T; Caitlin Fisher, Associate Professor and Director of York University’s Augmented Reality Lab; Pearl Chen, Research & Technology Manager of the CFC Media Lab; Alex Leitch, Co-founder of Site3 coLaboratory; and Emma Westecott, Assistant Professor of Games Studies at OCAD.

Digifest, Toronto's Digital Media Festival, Oct 26-30

After a five year hiatus, Digifest returns with its 4th edition of their Toronto Digital Media Festival. For the event, the School of Design at George Brown College has partnered with the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, the Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFF), Applied Arts Inc., Meet The Media Guru (Italy), TOJam and various academic, cultural, media and venue partners.

For the next five days, you'll have a chance to attend various events and activities such as Innovation Days, Meet The Media Guru talks, the All Our Digital Futures conference, the Halloween Spooktacular, and the opening and closing parties. Free events include the Gaming Incubator Launch Party, The Applied Arts Annual Winners Exhibit, the First Person Show, the Link Exhibit, TOJam Arcade, and the Yonge-Dundas Square Funday Sunday.

The first-ever TIFF Nexus Innovation Day is an all-day event on Friday October 28 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. It will feature emerging technology talks and presentations, and they will present the results of the 2011 Gaming Peripherals Jam (where game developers and hardware hackers worked together) at an evening reception.

2011 Canadian Comedy Awards - winners

The 12th annual Canadian Comedy Awards took place tonight at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto as part of the Canadian Comedy Awards & Festival.

The prize for Best Film as voted by the public was Jacob Medjuck's Summerhood. Medjuck also won for Best Direction, Film. The other double-winner in film was Jacob Tierney's Good Neighbours. It won for Best Writing (Tierney) and Best Actor, Film (Jay Baruchel). Peepers had led with five nominations but was shut out.

In television, the only multiple winner was Less Than Kind. It won for Best Direction, Television Program or Series (James Dunnison), and Television Performance, Female (Brooke Palsson). The public's choice for Best TV Show was This Movie Sucks!

The Stand-Up awards for male and female went to Steve Patterson and Debra DiGiovanni respectively. Eric Andrews claimed the Stand-Up Newcomer award.

2011 Urban X Awards - winners

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