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Filmmaker Alan Zweig reflects on life and meaning in ’15 Reasons to Live’

August 6, 2013Uncategorized15 reasons to live, Alan Zweig, Canada, CIUT, documentary, film, Hot Docs, Interview, life, meaning, Ray Robertson, The Public, toronto, Vinylkevincaners Leave a comment

For those who know his work, Toronto filmmaker Alan Zweig isn’t exactly renowned for seeing the brighter side of life. Indeed, through his previous films such as Vinyl and I Curmudgeon, he has built a reputation for exploring life’s darker aspects, including his own personal struggles and vulnerabilities.

Toronto Director Alan Zweig

It might, then, come as a surprise to some to learn of his most recent film, 15 Reasons To Live, in which he instead turns his eye to what makes life worth living; the various facets of the human experience which make our time on this planet worth holding onto and cherishing.

The film was inspired by a book of essays of the same title Why Not: 15 reasons to live, by Alan’s friend Roy Robertson. As soon as he heard the title, knew he wanted to make a film based on idea.

Based on this inspiration, the film takes the viewer through a sequence of chapters, each one adapted to one of the fifteen themes in Ray Robertson’s collection of essays Adventure, Art, Intoxication. Rather than being an abstract meditation, in the film each point is illustrated by a portrait of a person and a particular experience they have had, which brings to life the theme in question.

The portraits are both poignant and revealing, and the end result is a heartening film of meditations on the nature of life and resilience that will leave you thinking long after you’ve left the theatre.

The film premiered at Hot Docs in May, and will be coming out to Canadian theatres this October. I sat down with Alan Zweig during Hot Docs in May for our interview.

To find out more visit www.15reasonstolive.com/

Filmmaker Matt Anderson, “Fall And Winter” – A survival guide for the 21st century

May 24, 2013UncategorizedCIUT, Climate Change, documentary, Documentary Film, environment, Fall & Winter, Fall And Winter, Hot Docs, Matt Anderson, Nature, SXSW, torontokevincaners One comment

At this years Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, I had the chance to catch the beautiful documentary Fall & Winter. The feature debut by Vancouver raised director Matt Anderson is a captivating journey into the complex web of unfolding global crises facing our modern civilization and the mindset and path that brought us here.

And although in many respects Fall and Winter could be called an environmental film, it’s not what you might expect. Rather than a barrage of facts and figures, or a focus on one specific environmental disaster or another, Fall & Winter is something much bigger.

Over four separate trips and 16000 miles Matt Anderson and his team traveled across American looking for answers, conducting interviews, and filming the breathtaking landscapes and devastating scenes of industrial ruin that they encountered along the way.

The result is both an intellectually powerful and visually stunning indictment of a civilization in peril. And the answers aren’t what you might except.

Rather than looking at the direct superficial cause of any one specific environmental catastrophe, Fall & Winter takes a much broader perspective, and peers into the psychological, historic and spiritual factors that lie at the heart of the looming environmental catastrophes we’re confronting. It’s not just a matter of oil spills or greenhouse gases, but a much more basic but profound question, of how we view ourselves as humans and imagine our relationship to the natural world.

As with any film confronting enormous problems, Fall and Winter has its share difficult messages, but this is not a story of despair. Rather it’s a call to reimagine how we live our lives and construct our societies. The film looks both to past wisdom as well as to a range of strategies being developed by committed groups and individuals all across America who are experimenting with new ways of living, from finding new uses for abandoned neighborhoods in Detroit to learning how to construct cobb houses in Oregon.

Filmmaker Matt Anderson

All the while Fall & Winter manages to not only be insightful and important, but an engaging joy to watch. It had its Canadian debut at Hot Docs earlier this month to sold out crowds and before that played at SXSW in Austin Texas. While he was in Toronto accompanying the film I took the chance to sit down with director Matt Anderson and speak with him about the film, the journey of making it, and about our changing relationship with the earth.

There are plans in the works to tour Fall And Winter around to various cities across America and (hopefully) Canada this summer. If it comes to a town near you, I highly recommend it. To find out more about the film and to keep up on news of upcoming screenings, check them out at http://www.fallwintermovie.com/

And, remember to make sure to subscribe to our Podcast!

Canadian Children’s Performer Fred Penner – Making a positive difference in the life of a child

May 13, 2013Uncategorizedarts funding, Canada, Canadian, CBC, CBC TV, CIUT, Culture, Down's Syndrome, Fred Penner, Fred Penner's Place, Interview, Intro, Kevin Caners, kids, Music, Musician, politics, Raffi, television, The Cat Came Back, toronto, TV, Winnipeg, Word Birdkevincaners Leave a comment

Well if you’re like me, and belong to a certain generation of Canadians, who grew up in the 80s and 90s, there’s a good chance that hearing the name Fred Penner triggers a series of fond memories from childhood. That’s because Fred Penner was the man behind Fred Penner’s place, a popular children’s television show that ran on CBC from 1985 to 1997.

Over the course of almost 1000 episodes, Fred Penner entertained his young viewers with stories, music, and words (you might remember the famous “Word Bird”) and in the process influenced an entire generation of young Canadians.

Fred Penner with The Cat Came Back

Fred Penner grew up in Winnipeg, and from a young age developed a love for music. But it was through playing songs for his younger sister Suzy, who was born with Down’s Syndrome, that he came to see music as a way to connect and make a positive difference in the life of children.

After graduating after from the University of Winnipeg, he started performing and touring around Canada both as a solo musician and as a member of various groups and acts. But it was in 1979 when he recorded His first LP of songs for children, The Cat Came Back that his career really took off. The album became hugely popular, and went on to sell more than 150,000 copies in Canada alone.

The success got him noticed by popular childhood musician Raffi, who invited Penner to tour with him around North America. And after a few years of performing both with Raffi and as a solo artist to ever increasing audiences, Penner was approached by the CBC and asked if he would be interested in developing a children’s show based around his musical performances.

And so Fred Penner’s place born, and it quickly became one of the most popular and beloved children’s shows on TV. His warmth and his obvious love for music endeared Fred Penner to a generation. And although the show was abruptly cancelled by CBC 1997, Penner never stopped believing in the importance of what he was doing, and continued performing and positively connecting with young people right up to the present.

He’s recipient of the Order of Canada and multiple Juno Awards. And when he’s not busy performing, he’s actively involved with numerous children organizations and causes. I can only imagine how thoroughly impressed my 5 year old self would be that I had the great pleasure of meeting and speaking with Fred Penner in person!

Fred Penner with Kevin Caners

Humanitarian Jean Vanier on Becoming Human and Documentary Filmmaker Liz Marshall tackles Animal Rights in Ghosts In Our Machine

March 24, 2013Uncategorizedanimal rights, animals, Becoming Human, Canada, CBC, documentary, Documentary Film, film, Film Festival, filmmaker, Finding Peace, France, Hot Docs, Humanitarian, Interview, Jean Vanier, L'arche, Liz Marshall, Massey Lecture, Philosopher, Philosophy, social justice, The Ghosts In Our Machine, The Public, toronto, vegan, veganism, vegetarianismkevincaners Leave a comment

First up on today’s show, famed Canadian philosopher, author and humanitarian, Jean Vanier, on spirituality, community, and on the philosophy of becoming human. He is the founder of L’arche, a series of supportive community with branches around the world, where those with developmental disabilities and those who come to assist them, share life together in welcoming and friendly settings that are integrated into local neighbourhoods.

To find out more about L’arche you can visit them here

Philosopher and Humanitarian Jean Vanier

And in the second half of the program, I speak with award-winning documentary filmmaker Liz Marshall on her upcoming film The Ghosts in our Machine, in which she turns her lens to how we treat animals in our modern industrial society.

Documentary Filmmaker Liz Marshall

The Ghosts in our Machine will be premiering at the 2013 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival in Toronto this May.

The Ghosts in our Machine, the upcoming documentary by Liz Marshal explores how we treat animals

To find out more about the film and to keep abreast of upcoming screenings, visit www.theghostsinourmachine.com

David Miller Former Mayor of Toronto on Sustainability and the Future of Cities

March 24, 2013UncategorizedCity Hall, Climate Change, David Miller, environment, Harvard, Interview, Mayor of Toronto, Policy, Sustainability, toronto, Transit, TTCkevincaners Leave a comment

Well it can almost be hard to believe it now, but before “Gravy Train” Rob Ford took the helm at city hall, Toronto had a decidedly different mayor in David Miller. One who spearheaded many transit and environmental initiatves while he was in office.

David Miller, former mayor of Toronto

So this week on The Public a full hour conversation with former mayor of Toronto David Miller – on growing up with his single mom in England and Ontario, his days as a student at both the University of Toronto and Harvard, his jump into politics and time at city hall, as well as his ongoing work on finding ways to make our cities truly sustainable for the future.

Remember, for the entire archive of our interviews subscribe to our podcast or visit us in iTunes

Lindsay Zier-Vogel on “Love Lettering” and Folk Musician Jeremy Fisher

March 22, 2013UncategorizedBiking, Canada, Folk, Folk Music, Jeremy Fisher, Juno, Lindsay Zier-Vogel, Love Lettering, Love Lettering Project, Mint Juleps, Project, torontokevincaners Leave a comment

Lindsay Zeir-Vogal of The Love Lettering Project

Lindsay Zier-Vogel is the creator of the very heart-warming community art initiative The Love Lettering Project.

The project is now in its 8th year, and for much of it, she alone undertook this mission to spread love. She would write love poems about the things big and small she most appreciated and enjoyed about Toronto, seal these handcrafted poems in airmail envelopes, and then place them anonymously around the city to be discovered by strangers.

This year she decided to expanded the project, and encourage other to also express their love for Toronto. So all summer long she’s been setting up booths around the city and inviting passers by to stop, take a minute to reflect about those things that they most love and appreciate about about the city, and write their own notes of affection.

Folk Musician Jeremy Fisher

Also on this show, Juno nominated folk musician Jeremy Fisher joined me to discuss his brand new (and wonderfully catchy) fifth album Mint Juleps.

It was such a pleasure to talk to Jeremy since even aside from his musical talents he is an impressively creative and adventurous person. To just give you one example, he’s biked across Canada touring and performing along the way on no less than three occasions.

He is also quite the talented film and video artist. He started out experimenting making stop-animation music videos for his own songs (such as this video for his hit song Cigarette). But soon he found himself enjoying the process so much that he now creates music videos for other artists such as Imaginary Cities and Hannah Georgas.

Here is a video of Jeremy performing an acoustic version of his song Built To Last off of Mint Juleps.

Public Intellectual John Ralston Saul on Citizenship and Democracy and “The Unconscious Civilization”

March 22, 2013Uncategorized1995, Canada, canadian politics, CBC, Citizenship, Corporatism, democracy, first nations, Globalism, Governal General, Interview, John Ralston Saul, Massey Lectures, On Equilibrium, Petro Canada, Philosopher, Philosophy, Society, toronto, Unconscious Civilization, Voltaire's Bastards, writing, youngkevincaners Leave a comment

John Ralston Saul is perhaps Canada’s best known public intellectual. He is the author of many groundbreaking works on matters of society and politics from On Equilibrium to Voltaire’s Bastards, and the book version of his 1995 CBC Massey Lecture The Unconscious Civilization received the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction.

Canadian writer and political thinker John Ralston Saul

In this episode of The Public, a full hour conversation with John Ralston Saul, on corporatism, reclaiming a sense of citizenship and his early days as a writer.

To hear other episodes of The Public, subscribe to the podcast or visit us in iTunes

Activist and Feminist Judy Rebick: On Occupy, Historic Social Movements, and Becoming A Radical

March 20, 2013UncategorizedActivist, Canada, Candian Politics, CBC radio, CIUT, democracy, Feminism, feminist, Interview, Judy Rebick, Kevin Caners, maple spring, media, Occupy Movement, Occupy This, politics, Q, Q media panel, Rabble, Rabble.ca, Radio, reproductive rights, Stephen Harper, The Public, toronto, women's rightskevincaners Leave a comment

Activist, author, and media commentator Judy Rebick

For the very first episode of The Public, a full hour interview with writer, political commentator and Q media panel member Judy Rebick.

Judy has been one of the leading progressive voices in Canada for years. She has been involved with many issues from social justice and labour rights to woman’s rights. She also is the founder of Rabble.ca, the progressive online news magazine.

She has recently published an ebook called Occupy This! which looks at the Occupy movement in a historical perspective. I spoke to Judy speaks about Occupy, the Quebec student protest movement, the state of democracy in Canada, as well as about her early transformative years traveling around the world from India to Iran, and how she started getting involved in political action.

Her new e-book Occupy This is available from Penguin Canada here.

To get each new episode, subscribe to The Public’s podcast or visit us in iTunes