Arts & Culture

Project Pitch narrative feature entry – Cracked

With the Forest City Film Festival returning for its tenth year this weekend, the city is brimming with creative talent. The festival is bringing back Project Pitch, a pitch competition where filmmakers can submit pitches for a chance to win support and funding. Project Pitch’s narrative feature film competition champions projects that hope to produce Canadian-made feature-length films, with at least 50 per cent of filming taking place right here in London. The winner of the narrative feature competition will win a $60,000 prize package to support their production. One pitch that I’m looking forward to learning more about is…

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Project Pitch short film entry – Grape Expectations

With the Forest City Film Festival returning for its tenth year this weekend, the city is brimming with creative talent. The festival is bringing back Project Pitch, a pitch competition where filmmakers can submit pitches for a chance to win support and funding. In the short film category, winners will receive $17,000 in production funding. This year, London-based director Brad Spencer and screenwriter Mary Ann Dixon will be pitching their short, Grape Expectations. In Grape Expectations we follow a recently terminated business executive, Claire, seeking to reinvent herself by purchasing a run-down winery. I spoke with the creative duo on…

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Project Pitch documentary entry – 100 Days to Showtime

With the Forest City Film Festival returning for its tenth year this weekend, the city is brimming with creative talent. The festival is bringing back Project Pitch, a pitch competition where filmmakers can submit pitches for a chance to win support and funding. Project Pitch’s documentary feature film competition champions projects that share remarkable stories across Ontario, with many taking place right here in London. 100 Days to Showtime, one documentary in the pitch competition, shares the legacy of the High School Project, a mentorship program for high school students at London’s Grand Theatre.  I spoke with producer Kristina Esposito,…

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Project Pitch documentary entry: Airside All Access

With the Forest City Film Festival returning for its tenth year this weekend, the city brimming with creative talent sharing their work. The festival is bringing back Project Pitch, a pitch competition where filmmakers can submit pitches for a chance to win support and funding. Project Pitch’s documentary feature film competition champions projects that share the remarkable stories happening across Ontario, with many taking place right here in London. Airside All Access, one documentary in the pitch competition, tells the story behind London’s internationally-recognized airshow. I spoke to director Mark Drewe, founder of London based production company Mosaic Mind Pictures,…

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Project Pitch short film entry – How to Make a Baby

With the Forest City Film Festival returning for its tenth year this weekend, this weekend the city brimming with creative talent sharing their work. The festival is bringing back Project Pitch, a pitch competition where filmmakers can submit pitches for a chance to win support and funding. In the short film category, winners will receive $17,000 in production funding. Taylor Mendonça, London resident and instructor in the faculty of information and media studies at Western University, will be pitching her London-set short film — How to Make a Baby. Tentatively shooting in London’s Old South, the script follows a lesbian…

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The Voice of Hind Rajab delicately captures pure despair

On January 29, 2024, Red Crescent (also known as Red Cross) volunteers in Gaza received a call from a family trapped in a car under Israeli military fire. Moments later, only five-year-old Hind Rajab remained on the line, begging to be rescued. As paramedics had been killed in the area days earlier, the Red Crescent was forced to navigate a maze of military and governmental approvals before a rescue attempt could even be considered. Hind stayed on the call, scared and alone, as dispatchers tried to help. The Voice of Hind Rajab is an expertly dramatized retelling of the tragic…

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Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk still (Courtesy of TIFF Media Library)

Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk struggles to balance humility amidst the raw display of human connection

Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk was one of the only films at the Toronto International Film Festival that I was actively disappointed by. It is hard to find space for criticism of such a documentary given the tragedy of its main subject, Fatma Hassouna, a 25-year old Palestinian photographer who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on her family home. The ache I felt in watching someone so full of life and so clearly optimistic for her future in the wake of terrible indiscriminate violence perpetuated by a rogue state is more than palpable.  Director Sepideh Farsi’s…

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Artists Against Artwashing calls out Scotiabank investments in Israeli military tech at TIFF

On September 6, a paper mache head of Scotiabank’s portfolio manager David Fingold was paraded in front of the Scotiabank theatre during TIFF rush hour. The grand mache-Fingold had marionette hands carrying a large cheque with red paint dripping from the top, signed for $300,000,000 USD  addressed to Israel. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) demonstration, organized by the No Arms in the Arts coalition, drew crowds of festival-goers to stop and take photographs, as well as a hefty police presence. “We are protesting Scotiabank’s stake in Elbit Systems,” said demonstrator Mitra Fakrashrafi, in an interview with Antler River Media.…

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The republic, the regime and you: Eagles of the Republic Review

Propaganda is everywhere. Whether it’s promoting social values, or uplifting (or disparaging) political figures, there are oceans of propaganda curated to shape how we see and interact with the world around us. Dangerous as it is, no one is immune to propaganda — and a world of trouble exists for those who might be forced to create it.  In the third film of his Cairo-set film series, Swedish-Egyptian director Tarek Saleh takes on the world of Egyptian propaganda films, with a daring peek into the life of actors under the current el-Sisi regime in Egypt. The film, which premiered at…

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Heartbreak after heartbreak intensifies in Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake

The President’s Cake joins my list of child-starring international features that I stand firmly behind.  The film captures what it is like to live under an authoritarian regime through the innocence of a young girl, as she struggles to do what the regime asks of her — bake a cake for Saddam Hussein’s birthday. Set in 1990s Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s rule, Hasan Hadi’s directorial debut follows nine-year-old Lamia (played by Baneen Ahmed Nayyef), a schoolgirl living in poverty in the Iraqi marshes under the care of her grandmother, whom she calls Bibi (played by Waheed Thabet) as the two…

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