Now in its 17th year,  is the leading venue for the exhibition and promotion of short film in North America and is one of the world’s premier short film festivals. This year it presents 275 films from 36 countries and offers one of the largest prize packages for short film in the world. Along with public screenings, WSFF hosts a professional development symposium and the largest short film marketplace in North America.

Right: Director Scott Boyd (BFA ‘07) heard about a death-defying world record attempt by a dangerously cool-headed magician and decided to turn it into a short film of epic proportions. The result is the 2007 short film Escape Clause, which will be screened as part of the WSFF's tribute to the Department of Film

WSFF’s 91��ɫ Retrospective celebrates the department’s 40th anniversary and the outstanding creative talent it has nurtured over the years. The festival programmers  delved into the archives of 91��ɫ student productions to select a collection of films made in the past decade. Interspersed in the 76-minute program are a number of one-minute segments from The 40 Film, a specially curated collection of snippets spanning the department’s entire history.  (The 40 Film with an alumni preview downtown at the Camera Bar and a party on the Harry W. Arthurs Common at 91��ɫ’s Keele campus.)

“We’re very pleased to help 91��ɫ celebrate this milestone,” said WSFF director Eileen Arandiga. “What’s truly exciting about this program is the variety of shorts and the mature talent of these young filmmakers. There’s no denying it – 91��ɫ’s Film Department shines.”

“We’re delighted to cap our 40th anniversary celebrations with this retrospective at the Worldwide Short Film Fest,” said Professor Anmon Buchbinder, chair of the department. “The featured productions are an excellence representation of the remarkable work our students are doing.”

The retrospective comprises six shorts, all of which were nominees or winners at CineSiege, the department’s annual juried film showcase, in the year they were produced.

Current student Vu Van (Franco) Nguyen’s short fiction film Plants out of Sunlight (2010) makes its world premiere at WSFF. It tells the story of Mia, who works her fingers to the bone at a thankless factory job and longs for a better relationship with her son, who’s taken to staying out all night and sleeping all day.

Above: The character Mia in Vu Van (Franco) Nguyen's 2010 short fiction film Plants out of Sunlight

The WSFF retrospective is yet another feather in the cap of Hugh Gibson (BFA ‘04), who has enjoyed international festival success with his gritty drama Hogtown Blues (2004). The film portrays a Russian immigrant woman living in Toronto who tries to patch up her fractured relationship with her father, for the sake of her son. Hogtown Blues has been seen at more than 20 festivals, including Toronto, Montreal, Austin, Palm Springs, Brno and Bilbao, where it won the audience award.

Above: Vladimir Radian in a scene from Hogtown Blues

Luo Li (BFA ‘05, MFA ‘09), winner of  Toronto’s 2011 Images Festival Prize for his thesis feature Rivers and My Father, created the experimental short Fly in 2005 as an undergraduate student. The film weaves together ink, paintbrush and experimental filmmaking techniques to form an astute exploration of flight and calligraphy.

Left: A scene from the 2005 film Fly

Director Scott Boyd (BFA ‘07) heard about a death-defying world record attempt by a dangerously cool-headed magician and decided to turn it into a short film of epic proportions. Having screened at festivals across Canada and on television in the US, UK and Italy, his documentary Escape Clause (2007) receives its Toronto premiere at WSFF.

Tess Girard (BFA ‘05) created her hauntingly beautiful documentary Benediction (2005) as a homage to her recently deceased grandmother. The film has earned many accolades, including a showing at the Toronto International Film Festival and a special citation at TIFF’s Student Showcase as well as the prize for best overall production at the Canadian Student Film Festival in Montreal.

Right: A scene from the doucmentary Benediction (2005)

The School (2003), co-directed by Matthew Miller (BFA ‘03) and Ezra Krybus (BFA ’03), is a darkly comedic fable that asks: “Is it death which gives meaning to life, or is it life which gives meaning to death?” - Edgar Gibson’s elementary school class finds out the hard way. The School was the jury’s selection for outstanding achievement at CineSiege 2003 and went on to become a hit on the international festival circuit. It has screened at more than 25 fests worldwide and won numerous awards, including best Canadian short at the Atlantic Film Festival and the gold plaque for best student narrative at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Above: Students participating in a classroom experiment that involves planting beans in a scene from the dark fable The School

The 91��ɫ Retrospective unspools Friday, June 1at 4:15 pm at the ROM, 100 Queen's Park. The cinema is accessed by the south entrance. Tickets are available , at the WSFF box office in Cumberland Terrace, 2 Bloor St. West (entrance on Cumberland between Bay and Yonge, 10am to 6pm), or at the door one hour before the screening. Tickets are free, in person, for students with ID.

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

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The (YRDSB) has awarded Murphy, director of 91��ɫ’s (ABEL) on applied research program in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, an Outstanding Service Award.

Under Murphy’s leadership, ABEL’s team has worked with teachers in more over 100 YRDSB schools to help them better understand and integrate technology’s research impacts into their curriculum. Any teacher in 91��ɫ Region’s public district can become part of ABEL; the program is also active in the Toronto, Simcoe County and Upper Grand District School Boards.

Right: Janet Murphy

“We work with teachers from kindergarten to Grade 12 across disciplines to help them  to best use technology to support their curriculum goals in the classroom,” said Murphy, who received her award on April 25 at the YRDSB’s annual Awards Evening.

This support includes extending the reach of university research and expertise into high school classrooms. For example, , an interactive learning event led by the Faculty of Science & Engineering in May, was made accessible to schools across 91��ɫ Region through the ABEL program. Through the effective use of video conferencing, collaborative technologies and streamed on-demand video, the ABEL platform distributed the event’s science content, making it available for classroom use.

ABEL also provides technical support and facilitation to support and enhance YRDSB teachers’ professional learning through a blended learning program. Leveraging interactive technologies, ABEL delivers professional learning to the classroom or school in a variety of online formats, including real-time and/or asynchronous transmission.

“The advantage to ABEL’s approach is that it allows teachers to engage in their individual learning at a time and place convenient to them, apply their learning and then re-visit the archived session as needed. This collaborative approach allows participants to gain feedback from the group about what worked and what didn’t, and continuously improve their practice,” says Murphy. “For example, 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education recently ran a session on teaching mathematics that was streamed live and archived to ensure teachers wanting the latest numeracy pedagogy had flexible ways to access the material.”

Outstanding Service Awards reflect the YRDSB’s commitment to quality, service and teamwork. The recipients – who may include individuals, teams or departments – provide extraordinary service that has had a positive impact on the school board’s efforts to achieve its mission and goals.

Typically, those recognized have introduced positive change, significant and permanent improvements to the organization, and/or positively influenced individuals or teams around them to make great contributions.

“Janet received the Outstanding Service Award for her ongoing leadership, vision and commitment to mobilizing new knowledge for 21st-century system change,” said John Steh, manager of Leadership Development, YRDSB. “Her team’s approach has led to new organizational structures and system change, and is an excellent example of social innovation initiated by the District’s participation in the ABEL program.”

”Janet’s recognition reflects her strong leadership and the success of the entire ABEL team. ABEL’s niche is staying ahead of the technology curve in making 91��ɫ’s research in ICT, pedagogy and digital media accessible to the education community from kindergarten through to Grade 12,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “Through the partnership with ABEL, the YRDSB has continually demonstrated their commitment to seeking out best pedagogical practices while ensuring teachers have access to the latest professional development. For 91��ɫ, ABEL provides an institutional platform to move the latest research out to schools while helping to attract the best high school students to programs.”

About the ABEL Program at 91��ɫ

Launched with funding support from , Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network, to a consortium led by Shapson, ABEL has nearly 10 years of experience helping teachers to make better use of technology. Through public and private sector partnerships and networks, ABEL has gained national recognition as a research-based authority and leader on the effective use of existing and emerging information communication technologies (ICT) within new models of teaching, learning, training and collaboration.

ABEL’s combination of networks, partnerships and research focus drive institutional transformation and create new opportunities:

• Facilitates community outreach for researchers interested in working with public school boards.
• Demonstrates the value of inter-institutional and jurisdictional collaboration by providing research and outreach platforms.
• Leads the effective use of technology in teaching, training and learning environments.
• Provides a platform for applied research, along with expertise into the effective use of interactive and collaborative technologies.

ABEL’s partners include the , the Ministry of Education’s , the (including more than 10 school boards), , the , the , the , the and many others.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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To do this, Mukherjee-Reed, director of South Asian studies at 91��ɫ, became a core member of the Tagore Anniversary Celebrations Committee Toronto (TACCT), which will organize a series of events throughout the year to celebrate Tagore. The first is a tribute to Tagore in conjunction with the ’s (ROM) 3rd annual South Asia Heritage Day tomorrow. Mukherjee-Reed will deliver an introduction to Tagore at the ROM theatre.

“Our primary objective is to bring Tagore's work and his worldview into the mainstream, particularly in North America,” says Mukherjee-Reed. “His brilliant work and his profound philosophical worldviews based on equality, humanism and justice have much to offer to us today.”

Right: A photo of Rabindranath Tagore taken during his visit to Canada. Photo by John Vanderpant, Library and Archives Canada.

In addition to poetry, Tagore wrote novels, short stories, essays and plays, and composed music and became a painter in his late sixties. He was also a leading social philosopher and fought for equality and justice for all, striving to build ties beyond borders of race, class, caste, ethnicity and culture. “He had a profound influence on the making of modern India,” says Mukherjee-Reed. His ideas of de-colonization, local self-reliance and autonomy, and a cooperative way of life deeply inspired India’s anti-colonial struggle. His views have influenced Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mukherjee-Reed says as she watches the events in Egypt and Libya, she is reminded of Tagore's words. “No matter how mighty a power is and how much artillery it has at its disposal, if there is a collective will to challenge its illegitimacy, it eventually cannot endure." These thoughts permeate the vast repertoire of poetry and music that became household chants during India’s struggle for independence. "Tagore saw colonialism as one major impediment to equality, but also feared that nationalist, elitist visions of progress would be equally problematic,” she says.

Tagore had great faith in the power of youth and those who would challenge established norms. “One of our aims is to engage the young with Tagore’s ideas,” says Mukherjee-Reed. “Unleashing the creativity inherent in people, particularly the young, was something Tagore strongly advocated.”

Left: Ananya Mukherjee-Reed

His strong belief in the power of education saw him establish two universities in India. “We have a lot to learn from Tagore’s ideas of education,” says Mukherjee-Reed. The first, he named Visva-Bharati, a Sanskrit name meaning "where the whole world forms its one single nest". It brought scholars, artists and students from every part of the world together to create a community, and even touched the lives of ordinary people.

“Tagore’s objective was to break with the traditional model of the university where the elite pursued knowledge for its own sake. It was no accident that Visva-Bharati was located in a village and not in a city, not amidst the urban, British-schooled affluent classes,” says Mukherjee-Reed.

“Very close to Visva-Bharati, Tagore established the Institute of Rural Reconstruction, yet another university designed specifically to serve the rural economy. The predicament of rural India was at the heart of Tagore’s work. His views on this remain very salient in today’s India where the benefits of ‘development’ still elude millions of its citizens.”

For more information or to hear Mukherjee-Reed’s discussion about Tagore on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air and CHRY Radio, visit the website.

For more information about the performances, live music, children’s activities and poetry readings during South Asia Heritage Day tomorrow at the ROM, visit the ’s website.

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

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