From our new issue: @docorg.bsky.social's @jvcarrington.bsky.social takes over the Policy Matters column and reflects on the implications of looming CRTC decisions and a changing landscape for creatives povmagazine.com/doc-fights-f...

Important❗️ DOC Signs Open Letter on Canada’s Digital Sovereignty DOC has joined civil society organizations across the country in urging the federal government to stand up to foreign tech giants and protect Canada’s digital future. 🔗Read more here: docorg.ca/advocacy/doc...

At Sheffield, leaders from the Documentary Organization of Canada, International Documentary Association, and Documentary Film Council form international advocacy alliance. povmagazine.com/doc-ida-and-...

On Deck at Hot Docs Cinema - Student protest doc THE ENCAMPMENTS via For Viola, Citizen Minutes for Doors Open, Miyazaki's CASTLE IN THE SKY, Hitchcock's THE BIRDS, band doc BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN, Toronto After Dark founder Adam Lopez remembered with STAR TREK II: WRATH OF KHAN. #toRep

Free tickets to For Viola’s Toronto premiere presentation of THE ENCAMPMENTS are now available. Join us on Friday, May 23 at 7PM for our screening and filmmaker Q&A. hotdocs.ca/whats-on/fil...

Speaking of, For Viola proudly presents the Toronto premiere of THE ENCAMPMENTS on May 23! This will be a FREE community screening and folks can pre-register now to have the first opportunity to book tickets when they go live: docs.google.com/forms/d/1R7b... Sign up and please spread the word! 🙏🏽

In Queer as Punk, members of the Malaysian LGBTQ punk band Shh…Diam! offer anthems for queer rights. @bgos923.bsky.social reviews #HotDocs25 povmagazine.com/queer-as-pun...

The intense world of soccer fandom receives a captivating portrait in #Ultras as love for the game unites ardent fans to extremes #HotDocs25 povmagazine.com/ultras-revie...

Any one of the "11,000 global members with diverse viewpoints" who cannot condemn the physical assault of a filmmaker does not belong in the Academy. This is a woefully insufficient response, literally worse than silence.

Hamdan Ballal recorded a video for our February community screening of NO OTHER LAND in Toronto, lamenting increasing settler violence, including four attacks on his own home.

One of the co-directors of NO OTHER LAND, Hamdan Ballal was beaten by Israeli settlers and seized by Israeli soldiers from the ambulance Ballal called, per co-director Yuval Abraham. No one knows where Ballal is. (Ballal is second from right in the below photo.)

Florida mayor backtracks on threats to cinema for screening No Other Land www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Wish there was a also a concerted effort among Canadian free speech advocates to seek accountability from TVO with respect to its suppression of RUSSIANS AT WAR…

For Toronto folks! Tomorrow’s free screening has gone rush but any empty seats will be made available 15 minutes before show time! It’s a big cinema (650 seats) so I want to say chances are decent! 🤞🏽

Literally no one asked for this. But as the humble curator of the For Viola series, I feel compelled to shout out four truly phenomenal films that will be hitting Toronto cinemas in the very near future.

ICYMI: Free Toronto Community Screening - NO OTHER LAND - FEB 7 🍉 For Viola is grateful to present one of 2024’s essential films, which remains without North American distribution despite being one of the year’s most celebrated docs, including a special citation from @torontofilmcritics.bsky.social

Toronto encore Feb. 7 at Hot Docs' For Viola series if you want to show there's an audience for No Other Land! hotdocs.ca/whats-on/fil...

fyi!

You should see this.

Truly one of the best essays I’ve read in a while on how Netflix and the streaming model have changed film and television for the worse. Netflix sold investors, reporters, and the public a fantasy that’s not only eroding the film business, but doing its part to degrade film as a cultural medium.

TORONTO! A little reminder that our For Viola presentation of SEEKING MAVIS BEACON happens this Friday at 7pm. Filmmakers will in attendance and the tickets are FREE! Get yours at: hotdocs.ca/whats-on/fil...

NO OTHER LAND leads the winners at this year's IDA Awards with three wins including Best Documentary Feature povmagazine.com/no-other-lan...

We’ve now had over 200 tickets booked for the Toronto community screening of SEEKING MAVIS BEACON! Still plenty of balcony seating tho! Come through!

Next up at Hot Docs Cinema, FREE screening and Q&A of Jazmin Jones’ SEEKING MAVIS BEACON. hotdocs.ca/whats-on/fil... Donate if you can to keep this vital screening series, For Viola, going. The team works hard af.

There is no #cybermonday discount on tickets to SEEKING MAVIS BEACON at the Hot Docs Cinema on December 13 because the tickets are already free. hotdocs.ca/whats-on/fil...

Attn: #Toronto art / culture / #film folks! The #ForViola community screening series returns to the #HotDocs Cinema on December 13 with a FREE presentation of the fantastically creative and very fun SEEKING MAVIS BEACON! Plus! A Q&A with director Jazmin Jones and collaborator Olivia McKayla Ross.

The full transcript of my interview with Anastasia Trofimova, director of Russians At War — plus, a bit of background on today's Canadaland episode with @parismarx.bsky.social www.bugeyedandshameless.com/p/russians-a...

A documentary from a Russian filmmaker is being denounced as pro-Kremlin propaganda. The truth isn't quite so simple: www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

for the Toronto Star, i reviewed the controversial (and great) documentary Russians at War, which is having its delayed TIFF screenings tomorrow

Better late than never. Having previously run an unfortunate op-ed by a writer who *had not seen* the film, the Globe here finally provides an informed (and hugely positive) take on RUSSIANS AT WAR. Shame on TVO for capitulating. Ironically, it's Russia that benefits from the film's suppression.

Ok, RUSSIANS AT WAR. It's profoundly bizarre to see *opponents of Russia* calling for the suppression of a film that portrays the Russian military as pathetically dysfunctional. Like the author of this op-ed, the vast majority of those calling the film Russian propaganda *have not seen the film.*

Having departed Hot Docs just over a year ago, I can say Soraya is enormously perceptive as to the causes of the collapse. A shame it’s taken such dire circumstances to invite wider scrutiny, but this piece is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand Toronto’s arts crisis.

Perhaps the most important and so-far exclusive detail in POV’s account: where some framings have invited the perception that the outgoing Artistic Director “joined” the departing programmers in stepping down, this clarifies that the programmers resigned en masse in *protest* of the AD’s leadership.

Some excellent work from POV here, reporting out some of the whys that are otherwise so hard to come by at the moment.

Showing up to protest specific programming is one thing, threatening violence is another. Unjustifiable. And thoroughly counterproductive.

“For me, this is not a film about the past,” Mr. Glazer told The Guardian. “It’s trying to be about now, and about us and our similarity to the perpetrators, not our similarity to the victims.” Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2024/03/08/o...

With the humanitarian crisis in Gaza now in its fourth month, REMC is troubled by accounts of censorious and punitive actions taken toward Canadian journalists, artists, and cultural workers who have reported on or responded to the conflict. Read our full statement: www.re-mc.org/statement011...

I wrote some words for Charles Officer.

This essay by a Palestinian attorney, which the Harvard Law Review banned, is just amazing

Unsure Toronto's bsky userbase warrants plugging a local event—but why not? On Aug 12, join us for a 🆓 film clash for the ages, featuring the Canadian cinema premiere of Steve McQueen's LOVERS ROCK! *Limited* 🎟️ available—but likely not for long! https://hotdocs.ca/whats-on/films/fv-patty-vs-party

Oof. Of course @cbcpitchbot.bsky.social is on Bluesky before the actual CBC.