The Guelph Festival of Moving Media is pleased to announce that Min Sook Lee, director of My Toxic Baby and Tiger Spirit will be in attendance for the screenings of both films.
On Saturday, November 7th, My Toxic Baby is screening at 1 pm at the Alma Gallery and Tiger Spirit is screening at the Norfolk Street United Church at 7 pm, followed by a question period with the director. My Toxic Baby will be followed by a panel discussion Raising A Green Baby which will include the Director as well as Guelph residents who participated in the film.
Born in Korea, Min Sook Lee came to Canada as a child and grew up to become a writer and award-winning documentary director/producer.
With a focus on social justice issues, her work includes BORDERLESS (2006), a docu-poem about the lives of undocumented workers in Canada.
Her 2005 HOGTOWN: THE POLITICS OF POLICING was awarded Best Feature-length Canadian Documentary at the 2005 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. Min Sook Lee’s first feature, EL CONTRATO, produced by the National Film Board, was a 2005 Gemini nominee for the Donald Brittain Social/Political Award. Broadcast on TVO, it won the Best Documentary Award from the 2003 Ibero American Film Festival.
In 2005, Min Sook was presented the Cesar E. Chavez Black Eagle Award for her contribution to building awareness of migrant workers’ rights in Canada
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MOVING AUDIO
Tune into an archived recording of Jan Hall's Halloween Royal City Rag where
the treats were festival organizers Rob Case and Dan Evans discussing the
festival, it's films, it's panels and it's participants.
This link http://131.104.85.70:85/mp3log/t1256990400.mp3 will take you
there. Click to listen, or right click to save the mp3. The interview begins
around 37 minutes in and continues for 25 plus minutes.
Jan also posted a nice page on the festival film The Reckoning including a
trailer
http://royalcityrag.ca/2009/10/29/the-reckoning-film-screening-and-social-justice-panel-discussion-november-8/
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GFOMM 2009 DRAWS ON INTANGIBLE ASSETS
The Guelph Festival of Moving Media will run for the seventh consecutive year in a variety of downtown Guelph venues, on the weekend of November 6 to 8, 2009. GFOMM features films and videos that offer a global perspective and provide a broader viewpoint on day-to-day events than normally covered in the news media. The 2009 festival includes dozens of documentaries, two collections of animated shorts for children, and three panel discussions. The festival is also honoured to host two visiting directors.
This year’s opening gala at Norfolk Street United Church on Friday November 6 at 7.30pm will feature the documentary "Intangible Asset Number 82". The film follows the journeys of an accomplished Australian jazz drummer to South Korea to find an elderly shaman drummer who is one of the country's "living treasures".
"The secret world of Korean shamanism melds with the spiritual side of modern jazz in this remarkable story," said Bill Barrett, GFOMM Selection Committee chair.
The shaman's drum brings us a unique sound heard for centuries in Korea, but very new to our ears. A jazz drummer who cracks the rhythmic code of the seemly discordant Korean music learns to jam with the ancient tradition. This is a story you won't want to miss" said Barrett.
GFOMM’s goal is to serve as a catalyst towards increasing community understanding of the world and its diversity. In the 1980s, GFOMM ran for seven consecutive years, drawing large audiences to its unique mix of international feature films and documentaries. After a 13-year hiatus, the festival was revived in 2003 by the Guelph International Resource Centre (girc.org), a 30 year-old non-profit, non-governmental organization that educates Canadians about global issues as well as their local links. The festival gratefully acknowledges the support of Ontario Arts Council.
Festival Headquarters are at 10 Carden Street, with opening hours from Thursday October 5 to Sunday October 8, from 12 to 6pm. Volunteers are still required for activities such as ticket-taking, postering, venue support, and more. Passes and tickets are on sale at Headquarters and Bookshelf Bookstore .
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A TRIO OF PANEL DISCUSSIONS
This year the Guelph Festival of Moving Media is pleased to announce that we will have three panel discussions.
1. Saturday, Nov. 7, 1pm. eBar Rip A Remix Manifesto NFB
Brett Gaylor
80 minutes
www.ripremix.com
Web activist Brett Gaylor’s documentary about copyright and remix culture features musician Greg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, whose live mash-ups of popular music create a wild and edgy dialogue between artists from all genres and eras. But are his practices of using pieces from previously recoded material legal? Is he proliferating a spirit of collaboration or are these infractions of creative integrity and violations of copyright? A probing investigation into how culture builds upon culture in the information age.
The film will be followed by a panel COPY RIGHT? with Scott McGovern, Programming Director of Ed Video Media Arts Centre.
2. Saturday, Nov. 7, 1 pm. Alma Gallery My Toxic Baby
Min Sook Lee
46 minutes
2009
www.mytoxicbaby.com/
As a new mother fallen head over heels in love with daughter Song Ji, Director Min Sook Lee scouts out the nursery only to find lotions, wipes, toys, and plastic bottles heaped everywhere, brimming with compounds and chemicals she can barely pronounce. In a tone that prefers personal essay to prescriptive screed, “My Toxic Baby” is her search for safe, sane and affordable ways to raise a child in a world embedded with toxic threats. Watch for appearances by Guelph residents Arlene, Pete, and Meadow!
My Toxic Baby will be followed by a panel discussion Raising A Green Baby which will include the Director as well as Guelph residents who participated in the film.
3. Sunday, Nov. 8, 1 pm. Alma Gallery The Reckoning
Pamela Yates
95 minutes
2009
Mature Content, Violent Themes
www.thereckoningfilm.com/
In 1998 world leaders created a tiny court in The Hague to prosecute those accused of committing genocide and war crimes. The International Criminal Court was founded on the principle that there can be no continued peace without justice. Investigating this mandate, “The Reckoning” crosses four continents to tell the story of dynamic, frustrated ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo as he and his team tackle international justice (without a police force) by putting Congolese warlords on trial, shaking up the Colombian justice system, and charging Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with genocide in Darfur. There are two compelling dramas here-the prosecution of unspeakable crimes, and the ICC’s struggle for recognition and membership.
“The film is about accountability. It's about bringing the perpetrators of the worst crimes happening in the world to justice.”
--filmmaker Pamela Yates
The Reckoning will be followed with a panel discussion on the imperative for grassroots community involvement and the role of national trials in ending impunity, and bringing those responsible for torture, genocide and other atrocities to justice. Meet Jayne Stoyles, Executive Director of Canadian International Justice (www.ccij.ca), and find out what is happening right now and how you can get involved.
"Enormous progress has been made over the past 15 years to begin holding individuals accountable for massive human rights abuses in courts of law around the world. This panel will discuss these historic developments, including the role Canada has played and the relevance of these issues from the perspective of survivors of atrocities living in Canada. Panelists will then describe what more needs to be done, including how you can be involved in a nation-wide network of interested Canadians making a contribution to international justice through initiatives in their own communities."
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GFOMM 2009 HOSTS SPECIAL GUESTS
The Guelph Festival of Moving Media will run for the seventh consecutive year in a variety of downtown Guelph venues, on the weekend of November 6 to 8, 2009. GFOMM features films and videos that offer a global perspective and provide a broader viewpoint on day-to-day events than normally covered in the news media. The 2009 festival includes dozens of documentaries, two collections of animated shorts for children, and three panel discussions.
This year's festival boasts an impressive array of special guests including documentary directors, professors, lawyers, journalists, a priest and a crew of canoeists. Directors Min Sook Lee ("Toxic Baby" & "Tiger Dreams") and Samir Mallal (Nollywood Babylon) will both be available at their screenings to answer questions. Min Sook will also participate in a "Raising a Green Baby" panel discussion at the Alma Gallery after the screening of "Toxic Baby". Father Jim Profit of Guelph’s Ignatius Farm will offer gift buying tips after the screening of "What Would Jesus Buy?" The Canadian premier of "The Reckoning", which looks at the work of the International Criminal Court, will be followed by a panel discussion with lawyers involved in supporting the work of the ICC. Copyrights or Lefts? will be the question explored by an academic, a librarian and an artist after the screening of "RIP: A Remix Manifesto". A Canadian journalist with experience in Burma will provide context to the documentary "Burma VJ".
The festival welcomes the academic activist member of the Canadian based Pugwash movement, Ernie Regehr. The movement has been credited with being a major back-room factor in limiting nuclear weapons during the cold war and beyond. His comments will follow "The Strangest Dream" which tells the little known history of Pugwash. And finally, the Guelph Canoe Club will provide comments and paddling tips after "Finding Farley" which is as much about the beauty and challenges of wilderness canoeing as it is about iconic Canadian writer Farley Mowat.
GFOMM’s goal is to serve as a catalyst towards increasing community understanding of the world and its diversity. In the 1980s, GFOMM ran for seven consecutive years, drawing large audiences to its unique mix of international feature films and documentaries. After a 13-year hiatus, the festival was revived in 2003 by the Guelph International Resource Centre (girc.org), a 30 year-old non-profit, non-governmental organization that educates Canadians about global issues as well as their local links. The festival gratefully acknowledges the support of Ontario Arts Council.
Festival Headquarters are at 10 Carden Street, with opening hours from Thursday October 5 to Sunday October 8, from 12 to 6pm. See the festival’s website guelphfestivalofmovingmedia.ca for complete information.
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