This and That Blog
Addicted to History’s Expedition Africa game
This and That BlogThis isn’t the first time I have become utterly obsessed with a multiplatform game – the first was Discovery’s Shark Week game, Sharkrunners. That one claimed a lot of my spare time a few months back when I wrote a story on gaming and non-fiction TV. Now up is the Expedition game that is part [...]
Blood Trail: when “damaged goods” photograph damaged places
This and That BlogI interviewed filmmaker Richard Parry a few months ago while working on a realscreen story about war reporting. At the time, he mentioned that he was editing a film about a friend of his that he’d known for ages who’d also started visiting, and reporting from, war-torn countries as a young, eager man with a [...]
Religulous: Jesus can be funny after all
This and That BlogI knew, sitting in a TIFF press screening for the Bill Maher and Larry Charles doc Religulous, that I was surrounded by a bunch of bitter journalists. How could I tell, you ask? It’s because out of all of the public and press screenings I attended during the fest, this was the only time the crowd didn’t clap when [...]
Sea Point Days: turbulence continues in South Africa
This and That BlogAt first glance, Cape Town’s Sea Point Promenade looks like your typical public chill-out spot. (Well, minus the fact that it’s gorgeous and so close to the Atlantic that it nearly spills into it; I’m more accustomed to Toronto parks littered with broken picnic tables and empty dime bags – but maybe I’m not visiting [...]
Witch Hunt: when bad things happen to innocent people
This and That BlogDuring a stretch of severe ‘cowboy policing’ in Bakersfield, California in the ’80s, several citizens were falsely imprisoned for molesting children — mostly their own. The overzealous Kern County District Attorney wanted to clamp down on those who abused children, and he didn’t let a pesky little thing like innocence get in his way. Long [...]
American Swing: gettin’ down and dirty
This and That BlogI went to Friday’s TIFF screening of American Swing because, let’s be honest, the topic of the sexual revolution in the States holds a certain amount of intrigue. Call me naive (hey, I was only a toddler at the time), but I associate the ’70s swingers’ movement with that scene in Spike Lee’s Summer of [...]
Plea from one exec to others: Get over yourselves
This and That BlogI recently interviewed a high-ranking exec at a major US cablecaster and his positive, down-to-earth attitude about his job really impressed me. The television and film industry does have its share of ego-saturated execs – have you ever been privy to discussions about the wording of titles? It can get plain nasty. But, thankfully, for [...]
The big, bad Internet isn’t so scary after all
This and That BlogRemember the days when you had to fax something to someone to get a reply? Or perhaps even make your way over to the post office? You should — it wasn’t all that long ago. Back when email was only beginning to seep its way into mainstream culture, I recall asking my mother, who was [...]
Another trial to keep an eye on
This and That BlogWith former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic now in The Hague awaiting trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for his part in the war in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, I’m reminded of Milosevic on Trial, which I saw at the most recent Hot Docs. The film, directed by Michael Christoffersen, covered [...]
Stop playing games
This and That BlogI recently read some news about a Canadian movie theater chain that got under my skin. The company announced its plans to rent downtime at 29 of its theaters across the country to video gamers looking for the thrill of playing their Xbox 360 games on the big screen. (I’ll withhold any comment on how [...]
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Factual Entertainment Forum 2011 - Sophie Tweed-Simmons at the Realscreen Factual Entertainment Forum in Santa Monica.