White Ribbon Campaign Canada has partnered with a group of youth from Serve!’s Experience This! program who have organized “Da Big Block Party” event at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto.

The event starts at 5pm this Friday, April 4th, and features musicians, spoken word artists and poets. This event seeks to raise awareness about eliminating violence against women.

The line up includes Canadian Idol finalist Kamilla Miller; spoken word artist Truth Is, who was the Up From the Roots’ 5th Annual Toronto International Poetry Slam finalist and Boonaa Mohammed, who has won numerous poetry slams around Toronto and is the 2007 CBC poetry face-off champion. Da Big Block Party will also feature folk musicians, hip- hop (“Stolen from Africa”), Reggae (Trinity Chris), drama and dance artists.

MuchMusic VJ Hannah Simone is also scheduled to appear.

This movie has been getting a lot of buzz lately and that usually means I probably won’t see it. But on the insistence of my most trusted movie critic friends I took the plunge.

Its hard to write about this film without spoiling some of its gentle power but I’ll try my best. The first thing I would say is don’t watch the trailer. As with most trailers it tries to sell a different idea of what this film is about. At its heart this is a movie about two things, two people and the music they share. Its kind of a musical but not in the cheesy way that musicals actually tell the story with song. The music scenes in Once just paint the emotional landscape and deepen our sense of the characters lives. It has to be said that if you hate the music you probably won’t like the movie that much. You can hear some of the music here…

But the most profound aspect of Once is the way it defies romantic cliches and portrays both main characters as complex, interesting human beings who you can actually imagine liking each other.

As Shameless has written before, this is a rare occurrence. I can’t actually remember seeing another film that has its love interests be so respectful and gentle with each other while they actually get to know each other in a genuine way. I can’t stand it when the “hottest” people in a movie meet and you immediately know that they are going to end up in bed together. Soon after this you watch the standard music montage that shows a couple walking on the beach, playing in the park, eating in a diner, etc, etc, blah blah. This is supposed to let you know that they now know each other well and like each other a lot. But you don’t really know why they like each other (especially because I usually don’t like either of them) or what they know about each other.

While you might think that watching two people actually be nice to each other might not make for interesting movie watching, I found Once to be an engaging and enjoyable film.

Understated, uncomplicated and satisfying without a Hollywood ending I would recommend this film to anyone who is tired of one-dimensional women and men playing out the same scenes again and again on screen.

Feminists on the Money

It’s not every day I see a $50 bill. But last week an ATM spat one out at me. I was extremely surprised to see the following three things…

1. A representation of the statue of the Famous Five that can be seen on the Olympic Plaza in Calgary, Alberta, and on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. The Famous Five are Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Louise McKinney. These women triumphed in the ‘Persons’ Case, one of the most famous cases in Canadian legal history.

2. In the bottom left corner of the back of the $50 note is a depiction of a newspaper headline that reads: “Women are Persons, Les femmes sont des personnes.” This journal tablet represents the newspaper headlines as they appeared on 18 October 1929, and is an enlargement of the newspaper held by Nellie McClung in the statue.

3. A picture of a medallion with the face of Thérèse Casgrain (1896-1981). Thérèse Casgrain from Montréal, is best known as the force behind various social reforms in Canada promoting justice and equality, and as the first woman to head a political party in Quebec (1951). In 1970, she was appointed to the Senate.

Has anybody noticed this before? It seems like a bit of a cheesy “Canadian Heritage” moment but at least its promoting awareness of the feminist struggles in Canadian history. Too bad its on such an inaccessible note.

Check out the Bank of Canada website to get a closer look.

I know I’ve mentioned this film before but now I’ve actually seen it! Yesterday I joined about 100 high school students, their teachers and a small number of other adults at the Revue for a screening of A Winter’s Tale followed by a Q + A with two of the film’s actors.

I had expected this film to be a poorly made but very well-intentioned piece of social commentary. What I actually experienced was an amazing piece of film-making. From the opening note of pounding, perfectly chosen music to the flawless acting, excellent script, powerful story and tight conclusion this film is a truly awesome piece of cinema. The Q + A session echoed some of the issues in the film; gender stereotypes, racial profiling, community responsibility, masculinity, drug dealing and more.

Filmed in Toronto’s Parkdale community A Winter’s Tale tells a simple story.

Shots ring out one winter night and a bullet meant for a local street dealer kills a ten-year-old boy.

In the downtown Toronto community of Parkdale, grief and suspicion hang heavily in the air, while the nightly patrons at Miss G’s Caribbean TakeAway resume their ritual of beer and banter.

But one of them, Gene Wright, cannot go on. He begs his friends for help. In a most unusual development, six Black men make a pact to form a support group in hopes of salvaging their broken spirits and redeeming their besieged community.

I highly encourage everyone to go see this film. To find out about showtimes and to see a trailer check out A Winters Tale.

I haven’t seen this story anywhere in the mainstream media…Any ideas as to why that is? From Pajamas Media:

Iranian Shoppers Riot Against Modesty Police

It happens every day on the streets of Tehran: a police squad grabbed a young woman for dressing immodestly. But this time, the young woman fought back, and a crowd defended her and attacked the police.

At approximately 7 pm on Saturday, February 23, the Ershad patrol, modesty police assigned to enforce clothing regulations, accosted and attempted to arrest a young woman at Goldis Shopping Mall…the woman fought back. A young man - it is unclear whether he was accompanying her - came to her defense and joined her in fighting the police. In an attempt to subdue - and humiliate him - the police grabbed the young man and threw him into the garbage can nearby.

That was when the large crowd, predominately made up of young people, rose up against the police and attempted to liberate the young woman themselves. Faced with a full-blown riot - complete with angry crowds with garbage cans being set on fire - the frightened police jumped into the van and fled the scene…

In a report on the event that appeared the Iran Press Service web site, student web sites are quoted as saying “to disperse the angry mob, heavy police and anti-riot units that arrived fired into the air but were met with a crowd of more than 300 people, now changing slogans against the regime and its leaders, mostly Ayatollah Ali Khameni and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, chanting “We don’t want dictatorship,” “We don’t want emergency and martial law.”…

Read the whole story by Ardeshir Arian here.

Has anyone heard of Bill C-484? Its a sneaky bugger. Basically the bill is using the high profile murder of several pregnant Canadian women last year to bolster the anti-choice movement. The bill aims to give the unborn legal protection from violence.

At first I found this very confusing. Of course I don’t think a fetus should be exposed to murderous violence. That’s obvious. But the reality is that in the 30+ states south of our border where this law exists it has most often been used to prosecute women who have sought out abortions. The law is not a genuine attempt to reduce or redress violence against women and the unborn. Its a way of eroding laws protecting a women’s right to choose.

You can find out more about the bill here and sign a petition protesting this bill here.

What!? Free Movie!? I can’t believe it.

But it’s true. For tomorrow night’s screening of A Winter Tale at the Revue the admission is free. This looks like an amazing film and a profound tool to start meaningful discussions about youth violence:

SCREENINGS FOR FEBRUARY & MARCH 2008
February 13th to 28th @ The Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles (Toronto)
February 29th to March 6th @ Rainbow Cinemas (Woodbine Mall)

A Winter Tale tells the story of a black men’s support group that forms at a Caribbean Takeaway restaurant in Parkdale, after a ten-year-old boy is killed by a stray bullet. The film is followed by a one-hour discussion with members of the cast to engage youth and young adults on violence, the impact it has in their schools and communities, as well as the media’s handling of such events.

Visit: AWinterTale.ca to view the film’s trailer.

masc is a magazine providing space for young men between the ages of 15-22yrs old to express themselves and their realities. masc magazine presents positive, alternative examples of masculinity and is a catalyst for discussion, particularly around ideas of gender, stereotypes, sexuality and health. masc magazine supports and challenges young men to be better, more whole human beings.

MASC magazine update - Please forward to anyone you think would be interested.

Mark your calendars, MASC magazine is having a gathering/fundraiser/party……

When: Friday, February 22, 7pm – late
Where: The Gift Shop: 1550 Queen Street West (Just west of Jameson….right next to Mitzie’s Sister)
Cost: $10-$20 sliding scale

Back in November about 20 of us gathered at Tinto’s café to explore the idea of a new magazine for young men called MASC. The idea is to develop a mag that not only reflects the diversity of young men but stirs in some self-reflection and new-directions.

It’s a gathering because we want to see and hear from people who share our excitement about this magazine.

It’s a fundraiser because we want to start spending money and making this all happen.

It’s a party because a party is never a bad idea when you’ve got 100 cool people together on a Friday night.

A small organizing team recently met to map out this event. Here’s what they came up with and how they need your help.

From 7pm to late, the evening will be a combination of participation and performances. The event has 4 areas in need of more planning and HERE’S WHERE YOU CAN HELP:

(more inside…)

I’m a lucky guy. As part of my job this week I was creating a workshop for teens about images of masculinity in the media. Someone I know from the school board asked me if I’d seen Byron Hurt’s documentary, “Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes” because they now had a copy if I wanted to check it out. Well…I’ve been wanting to see this film since I first heard about it a couple of years ago.

If you have any interest in masculinity, music, hip hop, life as we know it, you should see this film. I was blown away.
Byron Hurt has been educating around gender and masculinity for years but was always sticking up for hip hop music because he loved it so much. At some point he started to feel like a hypocrite for speaking out against sexism but still listening to and supporting artists who spout hateful lyrics. He decided to make this film to explore issues of masculinity, homophobia, violence, and sexism in the musical genre he loves most.

With amazing access to hip hops biggest music producers and some of its biggests stars, as well as academics and activists he tackles these issues head on without being preachy or self-righteous. I was nervous that this film might support, what I see as, racist attacks against hip hop but Hurt addresses this and clearly shows how much of the messaging in music is driven by the industry and money rather than black American culture.

In a society where sexism is almost never addressed in the mainstream, and even more rarely examined in relation to homophobia and race, this film is a must-see and a must-share.