It would seem that a fluffy and mostly-white army has descend on the Metro Toronto Zoo as of late! First, we met our most a-dork-able polar bear cub, Hudson. The little guy is growing in leaps and bounds, and never fails to entertain with his adolescent antics. Hudson had my heart from the word…
Author: marajade29sm
Toronto Library’s Writer In Residence Program
One of the many wonderful things about the Toronto Public Library system is their Writer In Residence program. I’d never heard of it until a friend pointed me in that direction last year, just in time to get an except of Carving The Light submitted to the woman who was the WIR that time,…
My Name Is Faith – Tiffany Sudela-Junker, USA
“The years before five last the rest of their lives”, or so the saying goes. But what happens when the years before five are spent in an environment of neglect, abuse and unsafe conditions? Can a child so broken in their formative years that they are unable to trust, relate to those around them,…
The Killing – Day 19 – Openings
Okay. Please bear with me – my brain is still going a mile a minute after this episode, and I know I’ve missed things and that I’ll be forgetting things – or even getting them wrong. But let’s just jump in and see what we come up with, shall we? Terry – bless. Dude…
The Boxing Girls of Kabul – Ariel J. Nasr, Canada
The Olympic Stadium in Afghanistan, once a grim execution ground for women under the Taliban rule, is now home to a boxing coach and the ragtag group of determined young women he has been training. Their passion for the sport is immediately evident in their enthusiastic attempts to learn everything their coach can teach…
An Affair Of The Heart – Sylvia Caminer, USA
Documenting the past few decades of an icon like Rick Springfield can’t be an easy task. Adding in stories and impressions from the legions of adoring fans he has amassed over the years could seem nearly impossible to an outsider looking in. What director Sylvia Caminer has done with An Affair Of The Heart, however,…
Finding Truelove – Sam Kuhn, USA
After finding an old high school yearbook at a Value Village, four friends become intrigued with the members of that school’s senior class. Judging the hairstyles and attire of the late 80’s, Michael, Clay, Sam and Andrew spend the next few years choosing their favourite girls and guys from the grad photos, making some…
Women With Cows – Peter Gerdehag, Sweden
This Swedish documentary introduces us to elderly sisters, Britt and Inger. The pair own roughly a dozen cows on the run-down dairy farm where they grew up. Older sister Britt lives and works there even still, loving the time she spends with her animals, despite the toll years of milking have taken on her…
Outing – Sebastian Meise and Thomas Reider, Austria
We open on a scene from a family home movie – a cute little boy and his young brother mugging for the camera as their mother films and their father looks on. It’s as normal and immediately endearing as any home movie can be. Flash forward in time and that same little boy now…
Oma & Bella – Alexa Karolinski, Germany/USA
Oma & Bella points a camera into the lives of two Holocaust survivors who remained in Germany after WWII. Living together now in Berlin, their friendship has survived several decades, and has an enviable strength due to their shared memories and love of cooking. For both women, food – and the preparation of food…
The Mind Reels 