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91��ɫ's film school rated best of world's top 10

fmaquito — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

International students can benefit tremendously from a film education in North America, Europe or Asia, wrote AsianCorrespondent.com Dec. 5, in a story about the world’s top film schools. If and when they return to their home countries, they may employ the skills learned in building their native film industries. Below we have listed 10 of the top film schools around the world for international students:

[1.] 91��ɫ, Canada

91��ɫ’s Department of Film [Faculty of Fine Arts] is Canada’s first, largest and most comprehensive university-based film school. Film programs are taught by 40 award-winning filmmakers and prominent scholars, all active in their field. Students benefit from comprehensive, professional training that blends theory and practice in a free-thinking and creative environment. Five hundred-plus students work in modern learning, production and screening facilities in Toronto, one of the world’s leading film capitals. 91��ɫ offers a mix of graduate and undergraduate programs covering a range of topics. Students explore everything from the role that film and television play in society to genre-specific topics such as the vampire in cinema or crime film.

Asian students with international filmmaking aspirations have a couple of major avenues to choose from. They can give into the Hollywood paradigm and study in LA, where they will be encouraged to conform to the system and join the filmmaking masses. Opposite this, they can seek out smaller, counter-cultural schools that put a priority on the modern film as work of art.

For those intent on pursuing the latter, a school like 91��ɫ is an excellent option. Based in Toronto in Canada, it offers all of the advantages of a North American education without cornering aspiring filmmakers in the Hollywood mindset.

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

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Professor B.W. Powe: Celebrating the legacy of Marshall McLuhan

fmaquito — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Two events this year have thrust B.W. Powe into the public realm once again: the publication of his novella, These Shadows Remain: A Fable, and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marshall McLuhan.

By far, the most consuming for Powe are McLuhan 100 activities. The 91��ɫ English professor was a student of the communications visionary, wrote his dissertation on McLuhan and Northrop Frye and continues to be inspired by these two giants of Canadian literary cultural theory. He helped plan Toronto’s celebration of McLuhan’s centenary and kicked it off in January with an on-stage conversation with Douglas Coupland at 91��ɫ’s Founders College about the Gen X author’s new biography of McLuhan.

Right: B.W. Powe. Photo by Patrick Vannen

Since then, Powe has spoken to audiences in Barcelona, Naples and Bologna and has been interviewed for stories in The New 91��ɫ Times and the Toronto Star. In April, he gave the keynote address on McLuhan and Frye at the international Frye Festival in Moncton. In June, he talked about McLuhan at Moses Znaimer's ideacity. This November, he will be speaking at the McLuhan 100 conference at the University of Toronto.

“McLuhan 100 extends through Europe to a remarkable degree,” says Powe. McLuhan famously coined “the medium is the message” and “global village” and his speculations about the impact of television and electronic media still resonate today. “European intellectuals regard his communications theory as just as revolutionary as deconstructionism and postmodernism were in the sixties, seventies and eighties.”

(BA '77, PhD '09), a poet, novelist and essayist based in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, has written extensively about McLuhan and is currently at work on another book, Apocalypse and Alchemy: Visions of Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye, distilling his dissertation for a broader audience.

Those who invite him to give talks do it as much for his scholarship as for his insider's perspective. As a master’s student in English at the University of Toronto in the early 1980s, Powe was one of only six members in the last class McLuhan ever gave. He went on to write his dissertation on McLuhan and Frye, and his pursuits as novelist, poet, essayist and lecturer remain deeply influenced by the media visionary. “I have a witnessing aspect to my work,” says Powe, who is also a friend of the McLuhan family. “It’s part of why people ask me to talk.”

Meanwhile, he has been promoting , his 11th book, released this spring by Guernica Editions. A fable about cartoon characters who want to step off the screen into the real world, it hints at McLuhanesque themes.

In a promo blurb, Marshall Soules, a former English and media studies professor at Vancouver Island University, called it “a caring and inspiring story that reflects directly on our confusion over fantasy and reality.” Author Charles Foran said he is haunted by the book. Its form is fascinating and "likewise, its themes, or preoccupations, with how we've been so altered, chemically, spiritually, by those toons, those simulations.... An enigmatic, striking piece of writing, one I shall return to."

On sabbatical this year, poet Powe – whose The Unsaid Passing was shortlisted for the Relit prize – also plans to complete another collection of poems. And he has started writing Opening Time, a book of nonfiction in which he explores neuroromanticism and speculates about a new kind of consciousness emerging in the 21st century.

“I would regard all of my work as a footnote to McLuhan,” admits Powe. “He has brought a source of energy and inspiration to my life.”

By Martha Tancock, YFile contributing writer, Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Schulich Professor Robert Kozinets on Oprah's marketing legacy

fmaquito — Tue, 24 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

With The Oprah Winfrey Show poised to air its final segment on Wednesday, the Toronto Star examines the :

[One of them is] Marketing Maven: Authors, small business owners and President Barack Obama can attest to "The Oprah Effect". The term was coined to describe how sales of everything, from pyjamas to the classic novel Anna Karenina, skyrocket after her endorsement. Winfrey’s imprimatur is credited both with helping to sell 30 million books since the launch of her in 1996 and electing the first black president.Conversely, she was sued by the cattle ranchers because they claimed that her comments about never eating another burger during a segment about mad cow disease lost them $11 million in business.

“There’s never been a product placement or a PR phenomenon like Oprah before and we may not see her kind again,” said , professor of marketing at the Schulich School of Business.

“But the most remarkable part of her legacy is not the economic impact, which everyone knows; it’s the fact that she’s managed to maintain the public trust and have a widespread image of integrity. Considering the amount of product placement on her show, she didn’t ever give the impression that she was a sellout. She managed her image extremely well.”

. . .

With Winfrey only committed to appearing in about 70 hours of programming on [her new network] OWN in 2011, it remains to seen if a behind-the-scenes-role will be the best use of her expertise and energy.

Kozinets remembers Winfrey from his stint at Chicago’s Kellogg School of Management, where she taught a Dynamics of Leadership course with beau Stedman Graham in the late ’90s.

“It was a very popular class,” he recalled. “She brought in Henry Kissinger, Coretta Scott King and Jeff Bezos as guests. But she got tired of it, because she didn’t want to do her own grading and the dean insisted she grade her own papers.”

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

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Professor Alison Halsall joins Red Riding Hood popcorn panel

fmaquito — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

The National Post’s included , adjunct professor of English literature at 91��ɫ [Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies]. She has published articles on “South Park” and Harry Potter, and is working on a study of the Victorian legacy in graphic novels:

“ has all the marks of [Catherine] Hardwicke as a director [said Halsall]: sprawling soft-focus tree sequences, slow-motion dream sequences, the fetishization of extreme angst among teens (those exchanges between Peter and Henry are just too funny), and her man-candy shots.

…. I agree that it had no irony, and therein lies the missed opportunity of the film.

…. I enjoyed Julie Christie – the linking of the grandmother with the wolf for much of the film was one of the more intriguing details. Too bad they didn't pursue this. Unfortunately, Red Riding Hood neither rethinks nor revises the fairy tale. It was gory, but if it wanted to produce a gory version of the tale, it could have been even more gory!

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

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Professor Jody Berland to lecture on cultures of militarization December 8

fmaquito — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Humanities Professor Jody Berland will take a critical look at how militarization has become so common in society that it is now seen as the norm. Berland's lecture, “Cultures of Militarization”, takes place today from 4 in the Vanier Senior Common Room, 010 Vanier College. All are welcome.

The lecture's title and topic are borrowed from , which Berland co-edited with Ryerson Professor Blake Fitzpatrick of the Documentary Media Program. Her work explores how military culture now has such a hold on society that many people cannot remember a time when the military was not a constant presence in their lives.

Right: Jody Berland

This military presence appears either physically or more abstractly through art and society as a whole. As Berland noted in an interview, “While civilian deaths and acts of torture have remained invisible and secret, it’s impossible to miss the images of invasion and imprisonment that circulate the world on the Internet, on TV and in video games.” Her presentation will begin by exploring recent events during the G20 summit in Toronto and then move to a broader examination of militarism in Canadian society.

Cultures of Militarization is a collection of essays penned by 22 international scholars and artists who have each contributed their own perspectives and experiences. Each of the contributions jointly identifies how a military culture brings devastation to communities and individuals.

Berland's lecture is part of the "Canada: Like You’ve Never Heard it Before” Speakers Series, which features open lectures delivered by 91��ɫ faculty. Produced by the Canadian Studies Program and the Students for Canadian Studies Club, the series has an interdisciplinary focus and promotes undergraduate research and study of Canada.

The series is co-sponsored by Vanier College, Winters College, New College, Stong College, Calumet College, Founders College and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

Submitted by Alison Sanelli, a second-year humanities student; republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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91��ɫ-based journal and book examine militarization of everyday life

fmaquito — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:00:00 +0000

A special double issue of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies – also being published as a book – examines the role that militarization plays in our lives and its effects on civic culture.

“Cultures of Militarization,” edited by (right), professor in 91��ɫ’s Department of Humanities, and Blake Fitzpatrick, professor in the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University, features contributions from 22 international scholars and artists.

Drawing on a rich array of research sites and interdisciplinary resources, the authors explore how human relations, social policies and cultural values come to be defined by military interests, and how such interests might be freshly understood. They delve into the notion that the culture of war is both hidden and widespread, reaching deep into civic culture and affecting government, families, media, entertainment, public policy and personal beliefs.

Berland cites the recent WikiLeaks exposé of classified US military documents as evidence of the hidden aspects of war. “It is interesting to note that US military operatives face military proceedings not for atrocities or misinformation, but for participating in leakages of classified documents,” Berland says. “And while civilian deaths and acts of torture have remained invisible and secret, it's impossible to miss the images of invasion and imprisonment that circulate the world on the Internet, on TV and in video games.”

Berland cites other prominent examples: the Pentagon's classified budget for research and acquisition of information development has increased 78 per cent since 2001, totaling $34 billion in 2009. “Our own military spends $9 billion on F-35 fighter planes while remaining silent on questions regarding their technical and military justification,” she says.

Berland notes that this widespread increase in militarization does not only affect war zones. In the community of Glace Bay, N.S., a debate rages about the naming of a new school after Jimmy MacNeil, a Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan in June 2010. From coast to coast, yellow ribbons adorn trees and lampposts, while in Ontario, Highway 401 is now known as the Highway of Heroes.

“Here in Toronto, we saw it play out in the streets during the G20 summit. Military culture is everywhere. Ultimately, we are all living the consequences of global militarization,” Berland says.

TOPIA subscribers will receive the special double issue; the book is available through . It will be formally launched at the Gladstone Hotel’s Melody Bar on Dec. 6, from 6 to 8pm. All are welcome.

For more information, visit the TOPIA website.

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

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