“I was elated and surprised when I learned that my new short docu won, as it was an international online competition,” said Alcedo.

Chair of the Department of Dance in 91��ɫ’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), Alcedo has directed, written and produced three documentary films in the past year. Two of his other documentary films – A Will To Dream and Am I Being Selfish? – also won, respectively, Best Dance Feature Documentary and Best Inspirational Short Documentary at the Silk Road Film Awards Cannes in May. This same competition singled out They Call Me Dax as Best Dance Short Documentary.

The three films put a spotlight on issues of teenage pregnancy, illegal drugs, precarity of labour and inconsistent governmental support in poverty alleviation in the Philippines. They illustrate how dance, when partnered with grit and altruistic teaching, has the potential to navigate and even overcome these social, economic and political issues.

“As a dance ethnographer, I am passionate about putting an emphasis on dance’s ability to empower the marginalized. I want to illustrate that dance, as lived in the lives of its practitioners, is an incredible embodied form in understanding the complexities of race, class, ethnicity, gender, religious practices and diasporic/transnational identities,” said Alcedo. “As a Philippine studies scholar and a Filipino, I devote my energies and resources to fleshing out who Filipinos are, whether in the Philippines or in transnational elsewhere – from the point of view of dance, from their own dancing and choreographed bodies.”

Along the same vein of marginality as Dorothy’s story, Am I Being Selfish? focuses on the life of her fellow dancer, Jon-Jon Bides. Despite the resulting financial hardship, Jon-Jon insists on supporting his wife and two young sons by teaching ballet to poor children and at-risk youth, like Dorothy.

The feature-length documentary, A Will To Dream, anchors its narrative in the life of Luther Perez, a former ballet star in the Philippines and Dorothy and Jon-Jon’s mentor and adoptive father. To give underprivileged children and youth from squatters’ areas in Quezon City and Manila a shot in life, he surrendered his U.S. green card – and with it the promise of a better life abroad – to teach them dance.

To date, these films have garnered six official selections from film festivals and award-giving bodies such as the New 91��ɫ Independent Cinema Awards, International Shorts, Lift-Off Online Sessions and the Chicago Indie Film Awards.

Alcedo’s latest win at the Cannes Indies has caught the attention of three television stations – DZRH News of the ,  and  – that together have thus far garnered more than 28,000 views.

The three films build on Alcedo’s 20-minute documentary Dancing Manilenyos, which was an official selection at the  and received an Award of Merit from the 2019 Global Shorts Competition and an Award of Recognition from the .

These three recent films would not have been possible if not for the team that Alcedo has put together. Behind these works are cinematographer Alex Felipe, editor and colourist Alec Bell, and transcriber Paulo Alcedo – all 91��ɫ alumni. Additional cinematography is from John Marie Soberano and archival footage is from both Mark Gary and Denisa Reyes. Peter Alcedo Jr. did the musical scoring.

The pre-production, production and post-production of Alcedo’s films have received support from AMPD, the 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research, the government of Ontario’s Early Researcher Awards program, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's Research-Creation Grant.

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The film by Osgoode grad Chris Hope (JD ’04) offers a moving account of Japanese Canadian detention during the Second World War,��as seen through the eyes of his grandmother, Nancy Okura.�� Hope spent more than ten years working on the film, which he also produced. Osgoode alumnus Anwar Deeb (JD ’04) composed the film’s original music.

Right: Osgoode Hall Law School grad Chris Hope with his grandmother, Nancy Okura.

"Most people my age have the beginning of a pension," said Hope, whose day job is as director of business and legal affairs for Alliance Films Inc.�� "I have a film; a massive debt, and, thankfully, a very patient wife."

Hope was able to attract community support to raise about 25 per cent of the overall budget, which allowed him to complete the film by the April 1 gala date.�� The film is now ready for distribution and broadcast.

His goal is to screen the film in schools across Canada. "The Japanese Canadian Internment story is one in which Canadians are painfully under-versed,” he said. “Hopefully, by presenting it in the first person with my grandmother, it will resonate on a more personal level than the few paragraphs in a history textbook that most of us experienced, and probably quickly forgot."

Hope says the universal message contained in his film is that everyone needs to take the time to learn the history of those closest to them, and not hesitate in the sharing that history.

“By openly discussing such stories, we may collectively learn from our past, regardless of racial, cultural, religious or political boundaries,” he said. “Knowledge and familiarity with ‘the other’ is the enemy of discrimination, so it is critical that that knowledge is constantly nurtured and encouraged."

For more information, visit the website.

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The screening will take place��Wednesday, March 21 at 280N 91��ɫ Lanes, Keele campus. A light lunch will be served starting at 12:30pm with the film beginning at 1pm. It’s free and open to the entire 91��ɫ community.

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is an award-winning film that challenges viewers to re-examine how they think about race. The film follows youth leader and motivational speaker Anthony McLean as he runs a groundbreaking mentorship program for black teens in Brampton, the most demographically changing Canadian city. In doing so, McLean is forced to re-examine his own identity. The film deals with issues of racism, stereotyping, identity and what it really means to be “black” or “white”.

Following the screening of Colour Me, Sherien Barsoum, the film’s director, and McLean will lead the audience through a discussion, as well as answer questions about the film and its messages about diversity and identity.

International Day for the Elimination of Racism is observed annually on March 21, because it was on that date in South Africa in 1960 that police opened fire and killed 69 people as they were peacefully demonstrating against Apartheid.

For more information about the film, visit the website. To learn more about combatting racism, visit the ���ɱ�������ٱ�.

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The exhibition Will Munro: History, Glamour, Magic is about the history that Toronto artist based his work on and the history he was��–��his glam subjects and the glamorous one he was – and��the magic dimension of his last work. Munro, who was a DJ, music promoter, activist,��queer community catalyst, and visual artist, died in 2010 of cancer. He was just��35 years old.

To celebrate his legacy, the��AGYU opens a major retrospective exhibition this evening from 6 to 9pm with a celebration in the gallery space. All are welcome.��The exhibition continues until March 11.

Above: Will Munro: History, Magic, Glamour, installation view,��AGYU. Photograph by Cheryl O'Brien, courtesy��Art Gallery of 91��ɫ

Will Munro: History, Glamour, Magic ��concentrates on the multi-media work Munro produced after graduating from the Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCADU)��in 2000, from his first exhibition Boys Do First Aid (2000) to his last, Inside the Solar Temple of the Cosmic Leather Daddy (2010).

It also captures his various signature underwear work (his handcrafted underwear made from heavy metal concert T-shirts); the banners of legendary queer performers such as Klaus Nomi and Leigh Bowery; his stitching collaborations with West Side Stitches Couture Club, Jeremy Laing, and others (which includes the restaging of The Pavilion of Virginia Puff-Paint, his collaboration with Laing made for the AGYU in 2004); his experimental films; the multitude of hand-made silkscreen posters that accompanied his DJ’ing and music promotions at his nightclub venues Vazaleen, Peroxide, No T.O., and Moustache. The dynamic exhibition will be punctuated by a collection of never before seen ephemera and archival material that stitches together the many vibrant activities of this non-stop artist. The exhibition is generously sponsored by Salah Bachir and Jacob Yerex.

Above: Will Munro: History, Glamour, Magic, installation view, AGYU. Photograph by Michael Maranda,��courtesy��Art Gallery of 91��ɫ

In conjunction with Will Munro: History, Glamour, Magic, AGYU continues to celebrate the legacy of Toronto’s feminist and queer communities��with a series of collaborations, specifically commissioned projects and new alliances.

Get on the AGYU Performance Bus

Artist and DJ Syrus Marcus Ware turns the AGYU's Performance Bus into his memory of a circa 2001-2002 Friday night Vazaleen party that was hosted by Munro��and artists Miss Barbrafisch and Rawbrt at the Elmocambo. Tonight, gallery guests can ride to the AGYU for the opening reception on a free��performance bus departing OCADU at 6pm.

AGYU and the Feminist Art Gallery

An initiative between AGYU, Feminist Art Gallery (FAG) and The Power Plant, CInenova: All Hands on the Archive develops a dialogue between the work in the London-based feminist CInenova film and video collection and Toronto’s long-rooted feminist and queer histories as a means to access, activate and animate.Visit website for more information on the month-long project including: opening night screening on��Feb.��3 at The Department, 1389 Dundas Street West at 7pm that has been��curated by CInenova Working Group member Emma Hedditch; An Audience of Enablers Cannot Fail sessions at FAG 25 Seaforth Avenue, side gate, on Feb. 4, 11, 18, and 25; and the closing party featuring a commissioned performance by Sharlene Bamboat, and special screening curated by artists GB Jones, Alex McClelland, Leila Pourtavaf, and Lex Vaughn on March 4 in the Gladstone Hotel Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West) starting at 8pm.

People, Power, Magic

In this AGYU “in-reach” project, Toronto artist John Caffery engages queer and trans youth through a direct dialogue with��Munro’s ideas and artwork.��Caffery was close to the source as a friend and collaborator in the West Side Stitches Couture Club and, like Munro,��his practice moves across multiple communities and media, locating his aesthetics and politics in textiles, film, and music (his band is Kids on TV).

This collective, multi-disciplinary program features��Caffery working with many members of Munro’s army of lovers – frequent collaborators and friends – including artists Scott Miller Berry, Lorraine Hewitt (aka Coco La Crème), Luis Jacob, Jeremy Laing, and Zavisha, as well as the Toronto Kiki Ballroom Alliance, the recipients of the first annual Spirit of Will Munro Award. People, Power, Magic is dedicated to creating real opportunities for self-expression in order to provide a space for outcasts and freaks to thrive without fear. Program presented in collaboration with Supporting Our Youth (SOY).

The Art Gallery of 91��ɫ is a university-affiliated public non-profit contemporary art gallery supported by 91��ɫ, The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, and��its membership.

The AGYU is located in the Accolade East Building, 4700 Keele Street Toronto. Gallery hours are: Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm; Wednesday, 10am to��8pm; Sunday from noon–5pm; and closed Saturday. AGYU promotes LGBT positive spaces and experiences and all events are free and open to everyone.

For more information, visit the website.

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The trip, which began Jan. 1, continues until Jan. 18.��A team of senior academic and administrative staff will visit Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai, with stops at notable universities, fine arts training centres and cultural institutions.

“We already have a well-established program of international participation, but we’re always looking to expand our outreach and involvement,” said Barbara Sellers-Young (left), dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, who is leading the delegation.

Studio and theory courses with a South Asian focus are a standard part of the curriculum in 91��ɫ’s Departments of Dance, Film, Music and Visual Arts. Special projects in recent years include Theatre @ 91��ɫ’s premiere of a modern adaptation of Kalidasa’s Shakuntala written and directed by then graduate student Charles Roy, who took the play on to its first Canadian professional production and to the Cultural Olympics at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The Faculty of Fine Arts has several times hosted DanceIntense Canada, in partnership with Sampradaya Dance Creations, headed by alumna Lata Pada (MA ’96), a recipient of the Order of Canada and India’s Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award.

A number of distinguished artist-scholars of Indian heritage hold professorships in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts. They include internationally acclaimed master percussionist , who co-founded 91��ɫ’s groundbreaking South Indian music studies program 40 years ago; jazz musician, composer, recording and touring artist ; award-winning documentary filmmaker ; and adjunct professor, choreographer and dancer , who is credited with bringing classical Indian dance ��into the cultural mainstream in Canada.

Underpinning these artistic and academic connections are both longstanding and recent linkages between 91��ɫ and educational institutions in India.

91��ɫ has agreements in place with the University of Madras and Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, and the team from the Faculty of Fine Arts will be visiting both institutions to explore opportunities to build on these relationships. 91��ɫ’s Schulich School of Business maintains a Satellite Centre partnered with the Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad, IIM Bangalore and the Indian School of Business. It also runs the Schulich MBA in India program in partnership with the Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, and is opening its own campus in Hyderabad in 2013. The renowned A.J.K. Mass Communications Research Centre at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University was originally set up in collaboration with 91��ɫ, and Faculty of Fine Arts film professors were among the first generation of teachers there.

This solid foundation of existing connections makes India a natural choice for a concerted exploratory visit by 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts.

“Our main objective is to promote research collaboration and expand student learning opportunities, with a focus on exchange opportunities for international scholars and students to mutually enhance the academic and research culture in each organization,” said Sellers-Young.

She is joined on the trip by Sheila Embleton, distinguished research professor of linguistics, a lead architect of 91��ɫ’s India Strategy who has served as 91��ɫ’s representative at the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute for the past decade; Design Professor Michael Longford, associate dean of Graduate Studies��& Research in the Faculty of Fine Arts; Film Professor Ali Kazimi; and Ina Agastra, international relations and development officer in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Click to view a trip itinerary and biographies of the 91��ɫ delegation.����

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, which will take place throughout downtown��Toronto, features the work of more than 500 local, national and international artists��

Theatre Professor Shawn Kerwin collaborated with Laurel McDonald to create "", an “art-app” for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The app is one of five interactive installations featured in Technological Displacement, a production of the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab, at the Bata Shoe Museum on Bloor Street.

��

Above: Professor Shawn Kerwin has developed a new art-app for the BlackBerry PlayBook. It will debut at Nuit Blanche.

"Alone Together" uses poetic wordplay and expressive videos to remind us that we can always reframe our relationships. Kerwin developed the piece during her five-month residency at the CFC Media Lab earlier this year.

Technological Displacement is one of the 38 projects in Zone A, whose overarching theme, Restaging the Encounter, attempts to capture the fleeting moment when the political become poetic.

Another project in Zone A is by 91��ɫ visual arts��alumna and multimedia artist (BA ‘73), located in Barbara Ann Scott Park at the heart of College Park. The work transforms a memorable phrase from Canada's national anthem into a giant haiku poem, made from flowers and cut wood floating in a water-filled pond.

Left: True Patriot Love by visual arts��grad Chrysanne Stathacos

The theme of Zone B is The Future of the Present. The works on view in this sector use new technologies to form a vocabulary for a non-pictorial art.

Visual arts grad (MFA ‘96) and her collaborator Lance Winn are contributing , a multimedia work that addresses the nature of surveillance, mechanization and control. Installed at Ryerson University’s loading dock on Gerrard Street, Projektor resembles a prison tower, with a roaming spotlight video projection that exposes a barren prison yard and a prisoner who attempts to escape the light.

Collaborators since 2002, Jones and Winn share a common interest in the mechanisms of reproduction and the impact they have on representation. Their work focuses on the edges of the two-dimensional image and a desire to see beyond the limits of the frame.

Also in Zone B is , an installation at 62 Bond Street by film alumnus (BFA Spec. Hons. ‘02). ��Reibling argues that the dolly shot (where the movie camera glides along rails) is the most revered, powerful and evocative moment in the making of a film.�� To create 12 Hour Dolly, a film crew will set up a circular dolly track and shoot film continuously for 12 hours straight. Located in the centre of the track is a makeshift stage with a single stool.�� One by one, spectators are invited to sit centre-stage and participate in the making of the film, which will be streamed live onto an adjacent wall.

Right: Dylan Reibling's take on the dolly shot took 12 hours to film

Reibling is an award-winning filmmaker whose work, exploring the mechanics of narrative,��ranges from stop-motion animation and drama to interactive prototypes.

Two other 91��ɫ film alumni, (MFA ‘11) and (MA ‘09) co-created , a sound, video and interactive performance installation in the form of a "silent disco" on the P1 floor of The Atrium on Bay’s underground parking lot.��The work grew from the artists’ desire to explore the troubling policies entrenched in national and territorial border politics, and to question access and mobility within those borders. Participants are invited to listen with headphones to musical tracks��with lyrics referencing the text inside passports, and to watch related video projections.��

Bamboat��is a film and video artist whose work centres around aspects of diasporas, critiques of nationalism, and the ways in which the queer body relates to sites of mobility.�� Mitchell is a documentary filmmaker and media artist whose work explores performativity, memory, statehood, space and architecture.

Left: Border Sounds is a sound, video and interactive performance installation by two 91��ɫ film alumni

Maria Coates, a graduate student in art history and curatorial studies, is interning with the curator of Zone C, 91��ɫ art history alumnus Nicholas Brown (MA ‘08), who comes to Nuit Blanche after a two-year stint as curator of Toronto’s Red Bull 381 Projects.

Brown’s theme for Zone C is You had to go looking for it. Convening in the wake of the recent civil unrest around the G20 meeting in the city, the project invites the masses to transform and occupy Toronto's financial district. Artists will open up the area as a place of otherworldly encounter, ambivalent assembly and enthusiastic competition, inverting and misusing the symbolic language of corporate capitalism.

Coates, whose research centres on contemporary Latin American art, is working on , an installation by Mexican-born, Los Angeles-based artist Camilo Ontiveros. The project is a large-scale vigil that invites audience members to light a candle in commemoration of the lost lives of migrant workers in Ontario. It reaches out to individual passersby as well as organizations that represent the interests of labour, including United Food and Commercial Workers Canada and the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts.

“What attracts��me to Camilo's project in the context of this international, corporate-sponsored, city-run festival is how it offers a space for pause and reflection in honour of something that we tend to overlook,” said Coates.

Coates appreciates the opportunity to intern with Brown – a relationship brokered by Art History Graduate Program Director Anna Hudson. “It’s been great to work with a recent grad whom I could relate to through discussions of contemporary art and what’s entailed in becoming a curator in Toronto. Nick has been a great mentor in guiding me through the process and leaving room for me to perform in a meaningful way,” she said.

Also in Zone C are a performance installation by visual art alumnus (MFA ‘10) and Tibi Tibi Neuspiel, and by John Notten, a visual arts and education graduate (BEd ’87, BFA ‘87).

Right: The Tie Break is a performative re-enactment of the most riveting episode in the history of tennis

Pugen, whose work has been featured in publications such as Artforum and Adbusters, is a recipient of the K.M Hunter Award for Interdisciplinary Art. His collaborative piece, The Tie Break, is a performative re-enactment of the “most riveting episode in the … history [of tennis]” (ESPN): the legendary fourth set tie-break at the 1980 Wimbledon men’s singles finals between Björn Borg and John McEnroe. The matches will take place hourly at 25 minutes after the hour at Commerce Court, North Plaza on King Street.

���dzٳٱ��’s Intensity invites the audience to explore the presentation centre for a luxury condominium development, but delivers a vast and sprawling tent city.��As in the 2002 eviction of Toronto’s waterfront tent city, viewers are forced to move out of their temporary tent homes every few minutes. Installed in the Arnell Plaza of the Bay-Adelaide Centre, this all-night drama echoes the realities of makeshift communities around the world that rise up in the wake of human tragedy.

Left: John Notten's Intensity delivers a vast and sprawling tent city. Viewers must move out of their temporary homes every few minutes in a re-enactment of the 2002 eviction of residents from Toronto's waterfront tent city.

Toronto’s sixth annual Nuit Blanche kicks off at 6:59pm on Saturday, Oct. 1 and runs to daybreak on Sunday, Oct. 2.

With 134 installations, the celebration covers the city’s entire downtown area, from Roncesvalles Avenue in the west all the way to the Distillery Historic District in the east, and from Bloor Street to the Lake Shore. Admission to all events is free.

Photos courtesy��of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

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The AGYU invites you to "surge out there" as it joins with Raqs Media Collective: technological poets for an India in transition, to present their newest exhibit ��Surjection.

Of the current generation of Indian artists, the from New Delhi (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta) are among the best known and most widely exposed in the west – and certainly the most media conscious. Having started as documentary filmmakers, over the past��20 years they have evolved a sophisticated, and sometimes performative, practice that combines film, media, audio and text, all of which draw upon philosophy and political theory, in installations of an unresolved poetics.

Right: Members of the Raqs Media Collective, from left, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Jeebesh Bagchi and Monica Narula

The Raqs Media Collective exhibition, Surjection, opens with a free public reception tonight, from 6 to 9pm at the Art Gallery of 91��ɫ. The��artists will be at the reception.

The collective describes their��AGYU exhibition this way:��“Raqs Media Collective delights in transposing the plenitude of the incalculable onto the fabric of the ordinary. By counting to infinity, sensing animation in stillness and speaking in the language of silence, Raqs will breathe numbers, figures, proverbs and stories into the galleries of the Art Gallery of 91��ɫ.”

In this exhibition of entirely new work, the artists start with traces that are minimal but that contain great amplitude within them, such as the palm print of Raj Konai – the ancestral trace (from 1859) of the entire history of forensic identification – that hovers over the exhibition. Now animated, this image of a counting hand initiates a series of moves that the viewer animates through the exhibition. At the same time, the viewer witnesses other evolutions in video projection where stillness itself slowly is animated. Surjection begins outside, in AGYU Vitrines and occupies both galleries.

The elements of the exhibition are in a surjective relationship to each other. “Surjection” is a mathematical concept devised by the Bourbaki Group, whereby the elements of one set are applied, transposed, or mapped onto those of another set. Surjection continues until Sunday, Dec. 4.����

Surject yourself onto the Performance Bus

It’s an entirely different experience of numbers and letters on the Bingo Dilemma Bus. The game starts tonight at 6pm sharp when��the Performance Bus departs the Ontario College of Art & Design University campus at��100 McCaul St.. Riders��gather the clues to the game on the way to the Raqs Media Collective exhibition opening at the��AGYU. Artist and game host��Oliver Husain will be on the bus calling out the game clues. Performance Bus returns downtown at 9pm.

Math too tough for you? Go back to school with��AGYU @ Art Toronto

The AGYU tricks or treats fair patrons with one of its specially commissioned installations featuring Toronto novelist Derek McCormack and Toronto artist Ian Phillips. The haunted schoolhouse is the outcome of an�� four-year project supported by the AGYU of H.A.M.S. (Holiday Arts Mail-Order School), which is a correspondence course (for the 1936-1937 school year) devoted to the holiday arts. Hallowe’enologists will be on hand to take your questions and offer demonstrations. Alumni are welcome.����

Virtually AGYU

The surjective relations continue online with the�� as independent Toronto curator Su-Ying Lee visits the studio of New 91��ɫ-based artist Alexandre Singh, whom she met in Paris this past summer while travelling in Europe. on her travels through Europe.����

Writing from the ash-filled Grimsvötn sky, Toronto artist counts down the rest of her days in Iceland as she��writes about��contemporary art and generous helpings of never-ending splendour, mind-blowing sunsets, migratory birds, half-shorn sheep, geothermal pools and more.��

For more information, visit the AGYU website.

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The new directors are Professor Colin Coates, director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies (RCCS); Professor Laurence Harris, director of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR); Professor Christina Kraenzle, director of the Canadian Centre for German��& European Studies (CCGES); Professor David Mutimer, director of the Centre for International��& Security Studies (YCISS); and Professor Lisa Philipps, director of the Centre for Public Policy & Law (YCPPL).����

“On behalf of the 91��ɫ research community, I would like to congratulate Professors Coates, Harris, Kraenzle, Mutimer and Philipps on their appointments,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation.��“Their leadership expertise will be essential to further strengthening the unique and exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research, collaborations and partnerships at 91��ɫ’s research centres and institutes.”

Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair in Cultural Landscapes, is also professor in the Canadian Studies program at Glendon College and president of the Canadian Studies Network-Réseau d’études canadiennes.��His research examines political culture in New France and the history of Canadian utopias.��He also conducts research in the area of environmental history, and is an executive member��of the��Network in Canadian History & Environment – Nouvelle initiative canadienne en histoire de l’environnement, funded by��the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Coates has co-edited and authored several books including, Introduction aux études canadiennes: histoires, identités et cultures (with Professor Geoffrey Ewen, Glendon) and Visions: the Canadian History Modules Project (with Professor Marcel Martel, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies,��along with four colleagues from other universities), Majesty in Canada: Essays on the Role of Royalty among others.��Coates won the Lionel Groulx-Yves Saint-Germain Foundation’s prize for Heroines and History – Representations of Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord (co-authored with Cecilia Morgan of OISE).

Laurence Harris (right)��is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, a member of the graduate programs in Kinesiology��& Health Science and in Biology, and has served as chair of the Psychology Department. He is the director the Multisensory Integration Laboratory at 91��ɫ, which investigates how information from visual, auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile senses is combined by the brain to create our perception of body and space. Applications of his research include the design of virtual environments and improving perception in situations where sensory information is impoverished, such as in the unusual environments of underwater or in space, in ageing or in clinical conditions such as partial blindness or Parkinson’s disease.��Recently, Harris��ran an��experiment on the International Space Station looking at astronauts’ perception of orientation. He is the author of��more than��100 scientific articles and has edited nine books on topics pertaining to vision including Vision in 3D Environments, Cortical Mechanisms of Vision, Seeing Spatial Form, and Levels of Perception. ��He is editor-in-chief of the journal Seeing and Perceiving: a journal of multisensory science.

Christina Kraenzle (left) is a professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures��& Linguistics (DLLL) in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.��She has served as a CCGES affiliate since 2004 and been a member of the centre’s executive committee since 2005 through her role as the coordinator of the German Studies Program within DLLL.��Kraenzle’s research explores modern German literature, film and culture, with a focus on transnational cultural production, migration, travel and globalization. Her recent publications include Mapping Channels Between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian Cross-Cultural Relations (with Jörg Esleben and Sukanya Kulkarni, 2008) as well as articles in The German Quarterly, German Life and Letters, Transit: A Journal of Travel, Migration and Multiculturalism in the German-Speaking World, and the volume Searching for Sebald: Photography after W. G. Sebald.

David Mutimer (right), a professor in the Department of Political Science, is also the founding editor of Critical Studies on Security and the editor of The Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs.�� He has been a member of YCISS since 1987 and has previously served as its deputy director.��Mutimer was also��a visiting professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as a principal research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the UK.��Mutimer’s research considers issues of contemporary international security through lenses provided by critical social theory and explores the reproduction of security in and through popular culture.��His research has focused on various aspects of weapons production and control, and more recently on the politics of the global war on terror, and of the regional wars around the world which are being fought by Canada and its allies.��Mutimer is presently leading a SSHRC-funded international research project on arms export controls.��His recent published work includes journal articles in Studies in Social Justice, The Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Contemporary Security Policy among others.

Lisa Philipps (left) has been a faculty member��at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1996.��Prior to that, she held appointments in the faculties of law at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, and has held visiting professorships at Melbourne Law School, University College London and the University of Toronto among other institutions.��She served as associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations at Osgoode from 2009 to 2011.��Philipps' research focuses on tax law, budgets and feminist legal studies.��She has published widely on topics, including��fiscal transparency, income splitting, gender��budgeting, the distributional impact of tax cuts, the tax treatment of unpaid work, charitable tax incentives and more. Most recently she published two co-edited books on Tax Expenditures: State of the Art and Challenging Gender Inequality in Tax Policy Making: Comparative Perspectives.����

In all, 91��ɫ��lists 29 research centres and institutes.

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“It’s a dream come true,” says Virmani, the writer and star of the new Masala-flavoured hockey movie Breakaway, which gets its world premiere tonight [Sept. 10] at 9pm at the Elgin.��

Virmani plays Rajveer Singh, a Sikh-Canadian with a slight identity crisis who defies both his father’s traditional Indian rules and hockey norms by forming his own South Asian team. “It’s about our values as Canadians,” boasts Virmani, who not too long ago was an actor struggling for work.��

After graduating from 91��ɫ with a bachelor’s degree in business & society, Virmani took lessons at the Lee Strasberg Institute of Theatre and Film in New 91��ɫ City. Returning to Toronto, he found there weren’t too many roles waiting for him. “I was auditioning and reading for scripts and nothing was connecting to me.”��

That’s when he decided to create his own opportunity by pulling a Matt Damon (or a Ben Affleck, take your pick). Like the Good Will Hunting scribes, Virmani wrote his own role by conceiving his own movie. For inspiration, Virmani drew on his life – from his love of hockey to the generational, cultural and identity issues that trouble most young South Asian Canadians.

Fortunately, getting the movie made wasn’t too difficult for Virmani, who practically grew up in the film industry. Not only is his father, Ajay Virmani, a producer on Deepa Mehta’s Bollywood/Hollywood and Water, but Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar is a close family friend. “Akshay is like my older brother,” Virmani says. “He is somebody that I have grown up with.”��

With his father, Kumar and even comedian Russell Peters (another family friend) all on board as producers, Virmani had no trouble populating his movie with actors like Rob Lowe and Camilla Belle (whom the writer conveniently cast as his romantic interest) and musicians like Drake and Ludacris. That’s some major company for Virmani’s first stroll down the red carpet.����

And if Breakaway does well, it certainly won’t be his last.����

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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And as the film world continues its rapid transition from traditional 2 D celluloid film to 3 D digital, a weekend conference at the TIFF Bell Lightbox is aimed at boosting the Toronto film community’s chances of capitalizing on the next wave in film – 3-D, wrote the :

The [] conference is co-sponsored by 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts and the 3-D Film Innovation Consortium (3D FLIC), a group of GTA-based film companies.

Ali Kazimi, professor in the University’s film department, said the three-day event will bring together an “eclectic mix” of filmmakers, artists, academics and theorists. “It’s a truly interdisciplinary event. We believe it’s not just a first in Canada, we believe it’s the first time anywhere in the world that these...fairly disparate groups of people have been brought together to discuss the future of 3-D cinema,” Kazimi said.

“I think this is going to be a very special event for the city. Our project has really put Toronto on the map because with this incredible sharing of knowledge,” he added.

Until the debut of Avatar in December, 2009, there was little interest in 3-D as a new frontier in film, Kazimi said. “Now everybody is jumping on the bandwagon. As a filmmaker, I feel it’s a very exciting time because when used properly, 3-D offers a whole new language for filmmakers,” Kazimi said.

The conference and 3D FLIC also involve psychology and computer science researchers within the . The centre's conference on runs June 15-18, allowing researchers to attend both events.

For more background on the Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D Conference, see its or this .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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