Don't Forget! Screening Tomorrow!

Just a reminder we are screening the documentary, Bottled Life - The Truth About Nestle's Business With Water tomorrow in part with the UWSA's Grass Routes Sustainability festival  and Cinema Politica at the University of Winnipeg.
It takes place at Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall Wednesday, March 6th at 2:30 pm. Hope to see you all there!

Cinema Politica & Grass Routes presents Bottled Life

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg  Students' Association (UWSA), in partnership with the Grass Routes Sustainability Festival, present the film Bottled Life - The Truth About Nestlé's Business With Water at Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Wednesday, March 6 at 2:30 pm.

Directed by Urs Schnell (CH-US, 2012) , Bottled Life investigates Nestlé's destructive business practices concerning water commodification.

Do you know how to turn ordinary water into a billion-dollar business? In Switzerland there's a company which has developed the art to perfection - Nestlé. This company dominates the global business in bottled water.

Swiss journalist Res Gehringer has investigated this money-making phenomena. Nestlé refused to cooperate on the pretext  that it was "the wrong film at the wrong time". So Gehringer went on a journey of exploration, researching the story in the USA, Nigeria and Pakistan. His journey into the world of bottled water reveals the schemes and strategies of the most powerful food and beverage company on our planet. 

Please join us after the film for a discussion.

Bottled Life is also presented as part of Cinema Politica's network-wide "Back the Tap" campaign and Bottled Water Free Day.

All screenings will be open to all audiences - everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome.

Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at the University of Winnipeg. 

Gallery 1C03  and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative. 

Cinema Politica tomorrow - United in Anger

Cinema Politica at the University of Winnipeg is presenting another film screening tomorrow, this one in cooperation with  the UWSA LGBT* Centre and Genderfest Winnipeg. We'll be showing United in Anger: A History of Act Up  at Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Friday, February 8th at 6:00 p.m.

Directed by veteran celebrated film maker Jim Hubbard (US, 2012), United in Anger: A History of Act Up is a unique feature-length documentary that combines startling archival footage that puts the audience on the ground with the activists and the remarkably insightful interviews from the ACT UP Oral History Project to explore ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) from a grassroots perspective – how a small group of men and women of all races and classes, came together to change the world and save each other’s lives.

The film takes the viewer through the planning and execution of a half dozen exhilarating major actions including Seize Control of the FDA, Stop the Church, and Day of Desperation, with a timeline of many of the other zaps and actions that forced the U.S. government and mainstream media to deal with the AIDS crisis. United in Anger reveals the group’s complex culture – meetings, affinity groups, and approaches to civil disobedience mingle with profound grief, sexiness, and the incredible energy of ACT UP.

Please join us after the film for a panel discussion and art presentation of 'Poster Virus' works. The aim of the event is to examine dominant biomedical approaches towards HIV prevention priorities, and allow for a discourse regarding ‘expert truths’ and their relation to real lived experiences of those affected by HIV.  Panelists include Jessica Whitbread (Canadian Treatment Action Council) and Gina McKay (Nine Circles Community Health Centre).

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome.

Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg. Parking.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Image: Scene from United in Anger.

Next Cinema Politica Screening - Myths for Profit

Cinema Politica at the University of Winnipeg's next screening will be the film  Myths for Profit: Canada's Role in Industries of War and Peace, to be shown in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Friday, February 1 at 3:30 p.m.

Directed by Montréal-based media maker and social justice organizer Amy Miller, Myths for Profit (Canada, 2009) was selected for screening by the University of Winnipeg Part-time / Mature Students’ Centre.

This film is a dramatic, exposé documentary which explores 'Canada’s role in Industries of War and Peace’. Through diverse interviews and case studies this documentary unveils the specific interests and profits that are made by certain corporations, individuals and agencies within Canada. By examining these myths we seek to find out what are the possible motives that hide behind these stories, and if there are certain people who stand to gain and maintain these misconceptions. Only by breaking down these myths can we hope to understand how these systems of power operate, and help empower people across Canada to change them.

According to the film’s website, Myths for Profit considers the following:
MYTH 1) ‘Canada is a peacekeeping nation’
MYTH 2) ‘Canada’s military purpose is defence’
MYTH 3) ‘Canada’s aid is helping people around the world’

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome.

Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg. Parking.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Image: Scene from Myths for Profit.

Cinema Politica screening tonight - "Reel Injun"

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and The University of Winnipeg Students’Association (UWSA) present the film Reel Injun (Canada, 2009). Directed by Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond, Reel Injun has won three Gemini Awards and a Peabody Award. It has been selected for screening by The University of Winnipeg Aboriginal Students' Council.

Synopsis:

Hollywood has made over 4000 films about Native people; over 100 years of movies defining how Indians art seen by the world.

Reel Injun takes an entertaining and insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through the history of cinema.

Travelling through the heartland of America, Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond looks at how the myth of “the Injun” has influenced the world’s understanding — and misunderstanding — of Natives.

With candid interviews with directors, writers, actors and activists, including Clint Eastwood, Jim Jarmusch, Robbie Robertson, Sacheen Littlefeather, John Trudell and Russell Means, clips from hundreds of classic and recent films, including Stagecoach, Little Big Man, The Outlaw Josey Wales, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Atanarjuat the Fast Runner, Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema’s depiction of Native people from the silent film era to today.

Please stay for a discussion after the film.

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome. 

Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg. Click here for campus and parking maps.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Gallery 1C03 & UWSA to screen "To the Tar Sands"

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA) present the film To the Tar Sands in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Thursday, November 8 at 6:30 p.m.

Directed by Emmy award winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Jodie Martinson, To the Tar Sands (Canada, 2008) was selected for screening by the UWSA Bike Lab.

The film follows a group of nineteen young environmentalists as they cycle over 1,300 kilometres northbound across Alberta to witness the impacts of Alberta’s tar sands boom firsthand. They talk to farmers, moms and dads, an urban planner, oil industry workers, the chief of a First Nations community and others along the way asking “How has the tar sands boom affected you?” As the kilometres click away, they excavate into their own complicity with Alberta’s rush to develop the tar sands.

Produced on a shoestring budget off of the back of a bicycle, To the Tar Sands screened to a sold-out crowd at the Calgary International Film Festival and was officially selected for the DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver.

Please stay for a panel discussion after the film on “Activism, Cycling and Empowerment”, facilitated by Liz Williams of The University of Winnipeg Campus Sustainability Office. Panelists include David Dorning (Coordinator, UWSA Bike Lab), Andrée Forest (Volunteer, UWSA Bike Lab and Ice Rider), Alana Lajoie-O’Malley (Manager, Campus Sustainability Office), and Anika Terton (Public Education and Outreach Coordinator, Climate Change Connection).

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome.

Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg. Click here for campus and parking maps.

Gallery 1C03and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Image: Scene from To the Tar Sands.

3 events!

Gallery 1C03 is pleased to partner in the presentation of 3 great events coming your way soon!

EVENT 1 - TONIGHT

Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA) as Cinema Politica UWinnipeg present the film Dive! Living off America’s Waste in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Tuesday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m. For more info, see this post.


EVENT 2 - TOMORROW NIGHT

Gallery 1C03 has partnered with Migrating Landscapes and the Winnipeg Art Gallery to present "National Jury Forum: Reflecting on Migration & Identity" on Wednesday, March 14 at 8:00 p.m. at the University of Winnipeg's Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall. Tickets are $10 or $5 for students. To register, email your name and phone number to migratinglandscapesjury@gmail.com. Tickets must be reserved in advance. Maximum two tickets per reservation. Payment will be made at the door (cash only). Background info can be found here.


EVENT 3 - MARCH 22

Gallery 1C03 & Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre present a panel discussion related to the exhibition Chris Reid: I like to believe I am telling the truth.

Featured panelists include Dr. Pauline Greenhill, Dr. Svitlana Kukharenko and Dr. Mavis Reimer.

Thursday, March 22 at 7:00 p.m. Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall (3rd floor of Centennial Hall) The University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue Free Admission NOTE: Gallery 1C03 will be open to the public immediately prior to the panel on March 22 from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.

The exhibition I like to believe I am telling the truth includes large-scale pastel drawings, quirky re-interpretations of Ukrainian Easter eggs and multi-media sculptural installations that incorporate recycled and found objects. Through these diverse media, artist Chris Reid invents lush visual narratives containing a sundry cast of characters – from folkloric symbols of her Ukrainian heritage and her husband’s African heritage such as Baba Yaga buildings and Anansi the spider to idiosyncratic anthropomorphic cats, dolls, bunnies and bread – that play out their actions in surreal prairie landscapes and unsettling domestic environments.

Three academics have been invited to share their current research as it relates to themes in the exhibition. Dr. Pauline Greenhill, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at The University of Winnipeg, will present “That’s Not Folklore! (A)Musings on Art and Tradition” which includes a discussion of how Raymond Williams’ ideas of archaic, residual and emergent traditions focus an understanding of processes linking folklore and art. For her presentation "Folklore Characters as Perceived by People, Art and the Media", Joint Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Manitoba’s Department of German and Slavic Studies and Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies Dr. Svitlana Kukharenko will deliver an overview of anthropomorphism in Ukrainian folklore. She will also speak to representations of Baba Yaga and Koshchey in Russian high art and Soviet cinema. Dr. Mavis Reimer is Canada Research Chair in Young People's Texts and Cultures, and Professor of English at The University of Winnipeg. In "No Place Like Home: Some Thoughts about Unhoming in Contemporary Culture", Dr. Reimer will talk about the ways in which the ideas of place, the relationships and the feelings associated with "home" are disrupted in contemporary culture. She will focus on the ways in which the work by Chris Reid can be read beside a group of Canadian narratives for young people that represent and encode such unhomings. Following the presentations, audience members are encouraged to engage in a question and answer dialogue with the panelists.

The exhibition I like to believe I am telling the truth continues at Gallery 1C03 & Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre until April 14. Regular Gallery 1C03 hours are Monday – Friday: 12:00 – 4:00 p.m.; Saturday: 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Regular hours at Oseredok are Monday – Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Gallery 1C03 is closed April 6 and Oseredok is closed April 6 and April 13. Admission to both venues is free and all are welcome!

Gallery 1C03 and Oseredok gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from The University of Winnipeg, Manitoba Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and the Wasyl Topolnicky Memorial Foundation Inc. for this project.

Image: Chris Reid, Screaming Bread Flees Grain Elevator, 2010, hard pastel on paper, 50” x 60”. Courtesy of the artist.

Next Cinema Politica Screening - Dive!

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA) present the film Dive! Living off America’s Waste in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Tuesday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m.

Directed by Jeremy Seifert, Dive! Living off America’s Waste (United States, 2010) was selected by UWSA EcoPIA (Ecological Peoples in Action) and is presented in conjunction with second annual Grass Routes Sustainability Festival on campus. The film has received 21 awards in festivals worldwide.

Dive! follows director Jeremy Seifert and his friends as they dumpster dive behind several grocery stores in the Los Angeles area to demonstrate the massive amount of food that is wasted each year in America. After showing that much of the food found in dumpsters is perfectly edible, Seifert confronts the managers of the stores to question why they don't donate more of it to local food banks, especially in light of the 1996 US Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, which protects them from liability for such donations. The legality and ethics of dumpster diving are discussed when the stores begin locking up their dumpsters. Finally, Seifert considers waste created by individual consumers when they throw out food that is only partly bad or just past its expiration date.

From the film’s website:

Facts About Food Waste

“The kind of society that would waste this much food is one that doesn't value the earth or the products it produces. It's in our own personal detriment to continue the process.”
-Dr. Timothy Jones

Every year in America 96 billion pounds of food is thrown away.

One half of all food prepared in the US and Europe never gets eaten.

The US Department of Agriculture estimated in 1996 that recovering just 5 percent of the food that is wasted could feed four million people a day; recovering 25 percent would feed 20 million people. Today we recover less than 2.5 percent.

Please stay for discussion after the film with Quincy Brandt from EcoPIA.

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome. Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Image: Scene from Dive! by Jeremy Seifert.

TONIGHT: Girl Inside

Gallery 1C03 and UWSA, as Cinema Politica at the University of Winnipeg, present a FREE screening of the film Girl Inside. For more information, check this post.

Gallery 1C03 & the University of Winnipeg Students' Association to screen Girl Inside

WINNIPEG MB, February 2nd, 2012 –

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA) present the film:

Girl Inside
Directed by Maya Gallus
Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall
Wednesday, February 15 at 6:30 p.m.

Directed by award-winning film maker Maya Gallus, Girl Inside (Canada, 2007) was selected by the LGBT* Centre and is presented in conjunction with Gender Week on campus. The film received a Gemini Award in 2008 for Best Direction in a Documentary Program.

Following 26-year-old Madison during a crucial three years of her transition from male to female, Girl Inside is a beautiful film that tracks her emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey of self-discovery that is as important as – if not more than – the physical journey of hormones and surgery. Sharing the spotlight is Vivien, Madison’s glamorous 80-year-old grandmother, who has taken on the job of advising her on all things feminine. While Vivien's attempts to school Madison in old-fashioned codes of fashion and behavior are often hilarious, the juxtaposition of two vastly different experiences of womanhood, from very different generations, raises profound issues about the nature of gender, femininity and sexuality. Sometimes funny, sometimes painful, this heartwarming coming of age story is both an intimate portrait and a thoughtful exploration of what it means to be a woman.

From the film’s website:

“Quietly fierce and deeply intelligent, Madison's story is enlightening without being preachy, and Madison is a fantastically open and candid subject.” Now Magazine

“A subtle and in-depth portrayal…Shot over three years in direct cinema style and beautifully structured.”
Lynn Fernie, DOXA

“GIRL INSIDE gives a frank glimpse into that last bastion of LGBTG-dom to be embraced by the mainstream: the trans-gendered.” Eye Weekly

Please stay for discussion after the film with Wade Nelson, faculty member of the Department of Rhetoric, Writing and Communications at The University of Winnipeg.

For more information about Girl Inside, visit: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/girl-inside.
For more information about the Cinema Politica network, please visit www.cinemapolitica.org.

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome. Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Image: Scene from Girl Inside by Maya Gallus.

Gallery 1C03's Partnership with Cinema Politica Celebrated for its Support of Independent Political Film on Campus!

Check it out in this week's issue of The Uniter.

Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg Students' Association to screen Exit Through the Gift Shop with Panel Discussion to Follow

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and the University of Winnipeg Students' Association (UWSA) will present the film Exit Through the Gift Shop in Room 2M70 on Thursday, October 6 at 7:00 p.m.

Directed by internationally-renowned street artist Banksy, Exit Through the Gift Shop (UK, 2010) is presented in conjunction with Freestyle V, a week long festival organized by the UWSA where inner city youth, community members and students are invited to learn and create in a highly structured (and artistically driven) programming environment at The University of Winnipeg.
From the film's website:

"This is the inside story of Street Art - a brutal and revealing account of what happens when fame, money and vandalism collide. Exit Through the Gift Shop follows an eccentric shop-keeper turned amateur film-maker as he attempts to capture many of the world's most infamous vandals on camera, only to have a British stencil artist named Banksy turn the camcorder back on its owner with wildly unexpected results."

"One of the most provocative films about art ever made, Exit Through the Gift Shop is a fascinating study of low-level criminality, comradeship and incompetence. By turns shocking, hilarious and absurd, this is an enthralling modern-day fairy-tale... with bolt cutters."

Please stay for discussion after the film with panelists Cliff Eyland, local artist, curator and art writer; Stefano Grande, Executive Director of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ; Pat Lazo, Artistic Director of Graffiti Art Programming; and local artist Brent. Facilitated by UWSA Outreach and Special Projects Coordinator Ted Turner.

For more information about Exit Through the Gift Shop, visit: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/exit-through-gift-shop
For more information about the Cinema Politica network, please visit http://www.cinemapolitica.org/

All screenings will be open to all audiences - everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome. Room 2M70 is located on the second floor of Manitoba Hall at The University of Winnipeg.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible to participate in this network. We are gateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Image: Scene from Exit Through the Gift Shop by Banksy.

Gallery 1C03, the University of Winnipeg Students' Association and the Politics Students' Society to screen Please Vote for Me.

In partnership with The University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA), Gallery 1C03 is pleased to be part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica as the first Manitoba chapter. Together we will continue to screen several socially and politically resonant films over the course of the 2011/12 academic year.

Our first offering, Please Vote for Me, was selected by the University of Winnipeg Politics Students’ Society to be shown in advance of our provincial election. The screening will take place in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall on Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00 p.m.

Is democracy a universal value that suits human nature? Do elections inevitably lead to manipulation? Please Vote for Me, directed by Weijun Chen (China, 2007), is a portrait of a society and a town seen through a school, its children and its families. Wuhan is a city about the size of London located in central China. It is here that director Weijun Chen has conducted an experiment in democracy. A Grade 3 class at Evergreen Primary School has their first encounter with democracy by holding an election to select a Class Monitor. Eight-year-olds compete against each other for the coveted position, abetted and egged on by teachers and doting parents. Elections in China take place only within the Communist Party, but recently millions of Chinese voted in their version of Pop Idol. The purpose of Weijun Chen's experiment is to determine how democracy would be received if it came to China. Please Vote for Me is one of ten films selected as part of the Why Democracy? project, which saw interpretations of democracy by 10 film makers from around the world broadcast on 42 television networks in October, 2007, to audiences of more than 300 million people in nearly every country in the world.

Please stay for discussion after the film screening facilitated by Dr. Allen Mills, Professor, Department of Politics, The University of Winnipeg.

For more information about Please Vote for Me, visit: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/screening/uofw/please-vote-me.
For more information about the Cinema Politica network, please visit www.cinemapolitica.org.

All screenings will be open to all audiences – everyone is welcome. Admission is free, but donations to offset the costs of screening the film are welcome. Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall is located on the third floor of Centennial Hall at The University of Winnipeg.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.

Image: Scene from Please Vote for Me by Weijun Chen.

Cinema Politica: Reel Bad Arabs

Together as part of the international documentary screening network Cinema Politica, Gallery 1C03 and The University of Winnipeg Students’ Association (UWSA) are pleased to present the film Reel Bad Arabs at

Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall (Third Floor, University of Winnipeg) on Thursday, March 17 at 7 p.m.

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

Sut Jhally / USA / 2006 / 60 min

This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists"--along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today.

Shaheen shows how the persistence of these images over time has served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab culture, in the process reinforcing a narrow view of individual Arabs and the effects of specific US domestic and international policies on their lives. By inspiring critical thinking about the social, political, and basic human consequences of leaving these Hollywood caricatures unexamined, the film challenges viewers to recognize the urgent need for counter-narratives that do justice to the diversity and humanity of Arab people and the reality and richness of Arab history and culture.

Reel Bad Arabs was selected for screening by The University of Winnipeg Muslim Students Association. Discussion following the film will be facilitated by Shahina Siddiqui, Executive Director of Islamic Social Services.

For more information about Reel Bad Arabs please visit: http://www.cinemapolitica.org/node/2094 For more information about the Cinema Politica Network please visit: www.cinemapolitica.org.

All are welcome to this free event! Donations will be accepted in order to facilitate future Cinema Politica events at The University of Winnipeg.

Gallery 1C03 and the UWSA wish to thank Cinema Politica for making it possible for us to participate in this network. We are always grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for generously supporting this initiative.