Arts & Culture

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…

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

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.…

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

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…

Read MoreThe republic, the regime and you: Eagles of the Republic Review

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…

Read MoreHeartbreak after heartbreak intensifies in Hasan Hadi’s The President’s Cake

“The film of my life”: In conversation with Sink’s Zain Duraie, Clara Khoury, and Mohammed Nizar

Antler River Media’s Emmanuel Akanbi sat down with the director of Sink (2025), Zain Duraie, and the two leading actors Clara Khoury and Mohammad Nizar for an interview. It takes a lot of heart, insight, and a delicate touch to bring together a film such as Sink, but speaking with director Zain Duraie and leads Clara Khoury and Mohammad Nizar — who played a mother (Nadia) and son (Basil) struggling hand in hand through the heavy fog of mental illness — it was clear the cast and crew, forged into family through the film, had these qualities in spades.  Fitting…

Read More“The film of my life”: In conversation with Sink’s Zain Duraie, Clara Khoury, and Mohammed Nizar

“To be yourself, in a way, is to be generous”: In conversation with Spanish director Ulises Porra, director of Under the Same Sun

Discussions of freedom really ought to start with the first slave rebellions in the world, and as such they need to start in Haiti. There is a whole world of stories to explore regarding the Haitian revolution, how it began, the inspiration it became for other colonized states, the fight against the French-imposed tax to be free. But an interesting story, and one I frankly have never before considered, is the change in the relationship between the formerly French-controlled Haiti and the then-Spanish colony of the Dominican Republic. The two states shared the island of Hispaniola, and following independence, the…

Read More“To be yourself, in a way, is to be generous”: In conversation with Spanish director Ulises Porra, director of Under the Same Sun

In conversation with Seemab Gul on her debut feature Ghost School

Though education faces its own battles in London and province-wide with respect to government funding and democratic community involvement in schools, millions of children around the world hope for the day just one school reopens. Seemab Gul’s debut feature film Ghost School (2025) explores the reality of one such child. The film recently had its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival. The film explores the phenomenon of “ghost schools” as they take place in some parts of South and Central Asia, referring to schools that are operational on paper, but in reality are half built, empty, or…

Read MoreIn conversation with Seemab Gul on her debut feature Ghost School

“Live for what they died for”: Srebrenica and Gaza genocide documentaries move London community

“I went to Bosnia not expecting to necessarily see Gaza, but everywhere I looked in Bosnia, there was Gaza. I think maybe some of the people that feel closest to Gaza in the world today are in Bosnia,” says Palestinian community member Nabil Sultan of his visit to Bosnia, sharing his reflections on the documentary Survivors of Srebrenica screened at London Public Library on the evening of August 29th. “You see it on the streets, in the graffiti, in the keffiyehs people wear. Even in Srebrenica they have the keffiyehs — the families of the victims who were going to…

Read More“Live for what they died for”: Srebrenica and Gaza genocide documentaries move London community

“Caring about humanity is the most punk rock thing of all”: Propagandhi, Thunder Queens & MVLL CRIMES at London Music Hall

What is there to do in London, Ontario, on a Thursday night in September as another school year is beginning? Quite a lot, actually, but on this particular night I made the choice to stop thinking so hard about Canada’s current neoliberal hellscape and to go to a punk show instead. Was this a total vacation from thinking about politics? Not at all, because this was a Propagandhi show. The Manitoba group formed in 1986, and by 1996 they had developed such a reputation for explaining their songs between sets that they joked about it in an album title. Less…

Read More“Caring about humanity is the most punk rock thing of all”: Propagandhi, Thunder Queens & MVLL CRIMES at London Music Hall

Can’t we all be free Under The Same Sun?

Historical fictions breathe the stories of the old world. The ability to tell a story of how something might have come to be, a story which likely has been told for centuries is a wonder to behold. We’ve been telling stories forever, we’ve been writing them for a blip in that time, and we’ve been filming them for the tiniest fraction of that blip — leaving an infinite amount of time to film stories we’ve never seen. Spanish writer/director Ulises Porra’s Under The Same Sun is one such historical fiction that tells a beautiful story of how something came to…

Read MoreCan’t we all be free Under The Same Sun?