Daniel Garber talks with Seth and Peter Scriver about Endless Cookie
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photos by Jeff Harris.
It’s the 2010s in the Shamatawa First Nation in an isolated part of Northern Manitoba. Seth, who comes from Toronto’s Kensington Market, is visiting his half-brother Peter, so they can make a documentary together. But he’s armed with a voice recorder not a camera. Peter is telling stories about their 
histories on the reserve and in the big city — the images of the people involved will be added later. But that still doesn’t explain why the people we’re watching look like tube socks, rubber bands or giant cookies?
Endless Cookie is a brightly-coloured animated documentary that uses wild and grotesque illustrations and verite recorded 
voices to present an oral history of two very different parts of Canada: Shamatawa and Toronto. It focuses on the lives, histories, and stories, of the filmmakers Seth and Peter Scriver, their friends and families. It’s hilarious, visceral and chaotic, and not like anything you’ve ever seen before. Seth is a Toronto-based writer, sculptor, carpenter, comic book artist and 
animator, whose first film Asphalt Watches won best Canadian first feature at TIFF in 2013. Peter is a storyteller, writer and woodcarver, who has served as Chief and Magistrate of 
the Shamattawa First Nation in Northern Manitoba. He lived in Toronto as a teen. A skilled hunter and trapper, he now works as a Canadian Ranger while he raises his nine amazing kids. Their film, Endless Cookie, was the opening night feature at ImagineNative and won the Hot Docs Rogers Audience award for Best Canadian Doc.
Endless Cookie is now playing at the TIFF Lightbox.
I spoke with Peter and Seth Scriver in-person at CIUT 89.5 FM.
Daniel Garber talks with Damien Eagle Bear about #Skoden at ImagineNative!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s a few years back on the social networks. A new image appears, that of an older indigenous man posed with his fists raised as if for a fight. The meme catches people’s eyes and goes viral, appearing everywhere, accompanied by disrespectful slogans. Then, in a complete turn around, the meme is relaunched, this time accompanied by a puzzling indigenous expression: #Skoden, and becomes a symbol of native power, humour and identity. And a call to action… What is Skoden and who is the man in the meme?
#Skoden is the name of a new documentary about both internet memes and real people. It’s also a tribute to the late Pernell Bad Arm, the Blackfoot man depicted in the photo, by talking with his friends and relatives who remember him. #Skoden is written, directed and produced by award-winning documentary filmmaker Damien Eagle Bear, from the Kainai First Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Damien’s films are known both for their playful irreverence and the crucial cultural points they cover. Th e doc was filmed in Lethbridge Alberta and on the Blood Reserve of the traditional Blackfoot Territory. #Skoden had its world Premier at Hotdocs where it won the Earl A. Glick Emerging Canadian Filmmaker Award.
I spoke with Damien from Toronto via ZOOM.
#Skoden is screening at the ImagineNative film festival on June 4th, 2025.
Hate and Love. Films reviewed: Another Simple Favour, On Swift Horses PLUS more Hotdocs!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week I’m looking at two new movies, a dark comedy and a romantic drama. There’s a true-crime writer in search of a killer on the Isle of Capri, and a dishonourably discharged sailor looking for forbidden love in the casinos of Las Vegas.
But first… with Hotdocs continuing through the weekend, here are some more documentaries playing there that caught my fancy.
Endless Cookie (Peter and Seth Scriver) is a highly original animated film that uses bright colours and stylized characters — in the form of elastic bands, or peaches — to retell the stories of two half brothers, one from the Shamattawa First Nation in Northern Manitoba, the other from Toronto’s Kensington Market.
Coexistence, My Ass by Canadian filmmaker Amber Fares (Speed Sisters: Interview, 2015) looks at an Israeli stand-up comic who uses her tragic hilarity — in Hebrew, Arabic and English — as a scathing critique of her own country’s policies.
My Boyfriend the Fascist (Matthias Lintner) is an intimate, personal film about a leftist Italian filmmaker in South Tyrol and his virulently anti-communist Cuban-Italian lover who is drifting further and further to the extreme right.
Supernatural (Ventura Durall) is about an MD forced to deal with the legacy of his own dad, who was famous as a shaman, and a telepathic healer who still has a grateful followers including one woman who swears he saved her life.
And finally…
Ragnhild Ekner’s Ultras is a stunning, impressionistic look at the shared subculture of superfans at soccer clubs on four continents, including chants and Tifos, both elaborate synchronized formations in the stands and the creation of massive cloth banners that span a stadium and then disappear in just a few minutes.
All of these played at Hotdocs, including some with additional screenings this weekend.
Another Small Favour
Dir: Paul Feig
It’s summer in Connecticut, and Stephanie, a writer and single mom (Anna Kendrick), is sending her son off to camp. Which gives her time to promote her latest book, “The Faceless Blonde” a true-crime saga of adultery, deceit and murder. She knows the story better than anyone since she’s the one who lived through it all (barely) and helped the police catch the murderess and lock her up.
So imagine her surprise when she receives a fancy invitation to a wedding on the Isle of Capri. It includes a private jet, a luxury hotel suite and a seat at the head table as Maid of Honour. What’s the catch? The bride is Emily (Blake Lively) the very same convicted killer who tried to murder her! Somehow, Emily’s out of prison and betrothed to a fabulously wealthy and powerful man.
Naturally, Stephanie is suspicious. How could she trust the woman who tried to kill her? But in the end, she decides to go — and film it all for her popular vlog. The location is lavish… but also dangerous, with a notorious cliff where many had met their maker. Guests include Sean (Henry Golding) Emily’s bitter ex-husband; Linda (Allison Janney), Emily’s conniving aunt and Margaret (Elizabeth Perkins), her batty mother; 
Dante (Michele Morrone), her handsome brooding fiancé; and Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci) Dante’s acid-tongued matriarch. The danger comes from the fact that Dante’s family are connected to the mob, and almost everyone at the party holds a deadly grudge toward at least someone else. Poor Stephanie is left fending off the eye-daggers that everyone is sending her way, but even so, some of the main characters are being killed, one by one. Who is behind these murders? What is their motive? And can Stephanie make it out of there alive?
Another Simple Favour is a dark comedy/thriller about killers killing other killers at a wedding. Apparently it’s a sequel to a similar movie that came out in 2018, but I can’t compare it to that since I never saw it. I can compare it to other high-budget movies made especially for streaming sites (This one is premiering on Prime). It shares their characteristics: famous directors, top stars, exotic locales, racy dialogue and designer costumes. Thing is, Another Simple Favour is a comedy but 2/3 of the jokes fall flat, and a mystery but highly contrived. The writing and directing are both mediocre at best. The characters are simplistic and just so-so, including a whole bunch I didn’t bother mentioning because they have no obvious role other than that they were in the original film. Blake Lively’s Emily tosses the C-word like party favours at a wedding. Her character just doesn’t seem believable. Henry Golding is irritating, and Elizabeth Perkins is embarrassingly bad. Happily, Allison Janney is fun and Anna Kendrick is truly delightful. And, yes, it’s crap but it’s fun crap, and it kept me interested even though I knew it was bad. If I had bought a ticket to Another Simple Favour in a theatre, I’d feel ripped-off, but since it’s a TV movie on a streaming site, it left me feeling mildly entertained.
On Swift Horses
Dir: Daniel Minahan
It’s the 1950s in San Diego after the Korean War. Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) are a newly-married couple who moved west from Kansas to seek their fortune. While Lee is infatuated with his new wife, Muriel is more reserved. He wants to move into a new house in a suburban development, but she is reticent to leave the city… until she meets Sandra (Sasha Calle) a woman whose house borders the new development. She’s single, independent and mysterious, someone Muriel can spend time with. But they’re both waiting for Lee’s younger brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) to show up, and kick in his share of the mortgage. The problem is while Lee is an ordinary grunt, his brother is tall, dark and handsome with huge ambitions. He’s not like us, Lee says.
Indeed, he has moved to Nevada to make big bucks in Vegas as a card shark. But he soon realizes since you can’t beat a casino, so you may as well join them. They place him in the unfinished rafters immediately above the game tables where he looks down through holes to spot card counters and cheaters. There he meets Henry (Diego Calva) a Mexican who shares his duties. It’s hot up there so they strip down to white singlets. Soon they’re sharing an apartment and then a bed; secretly, of course. Is this love?
Meanwhile, back in San Diego, Muriel overhears regulars at 
the diner she works at, discussing sure-fire horses to bet on. She makes to he tracks to try her luck. And with some newfound earnings she feels confident enough to pay a visit to Sandra down the road. Is this just a fling? Or the real thing? Will Julius ever join them in San Diego? And what would Lee do if he ever discovered both his brother and his wife are flirting with same-sex partners?
On Swift Horses is a romantic drama about love in repressive 1950s America. It recreates the era with detailed period sets and music set against paintbrush desert sunsets. It’s passionate and erotic with a novelistic scope (based on the book by Shannon Pufahl). The main characters both find themselves doing illicit and mildly illegal things — gambling — to support their highly illegal actions — same sex relationships. Though never explicit, somehow Edgar-Jones as Muriel spitting an olive pit into Sandra’s open hand, or 
dancing to music in Sandra’s living room in her underwear seems much more sexualized than her having obligatory coitus with her husband. Likewise Elordi as Julius exudes sexual desire in every scene. While the film does verges on the sentimental with its gushing music and tragic near misses, by the end, you’ll be siding with the characters and hoping their love will be eternal.
On Swift Horses is now playing; check your local listings. and Another Simple Favour is streaming on Prime
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Lena MacDonald about Betrayal at Hotdocs
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s 1981 in Liberia, West Africa. Cindor Reeves is a young man in a small town. But when his sister marries strongman Charles Taylor, his life totally changes. He moves from his humble home into a mansion in Monrovia the capital. He gains wealth, glamour and a father-figure to learn from. Taylor teaches him right from wrong. So he us crushed when he discovers his idol is actually a corrupt politician, amassing great wealth by exploiting everything from rubber plantations to blood diamonds. And when Taylor begins a campaign of mass killings, transnational wars armed with child soldiers, blood diamonds, international weapon deals and even collusion with Al Qaeda, Cindor decides it’s time to act. He 
presents his findings to an international court intending to stop the violence. But this places him in great physical danger. Is Cindor blowing a whistle… or betraying his own family?
Betrayal is a new documentary that follows the unusual case of Cindor Reeves and Charles Taylor over decades on the world stage. It’s narrated by the film’s subject himself, supplemented by talking heads in the form of journalists, lawyers and public figures. The documentary is illustrated with amazing period news footage and background materials. It’s directed by prize-winning Toronto-based filmmaker Lena Macdonald, who appeared on this show a decade ago about he first documentary feature, the highly-personal Mom and Me. (Full disclosure, I worked with Lena on an early stage of Betrayal, and am blown away by the final version.)
I spoke with Lena MacDonald in person at CIUT.
Betrayal is having its world premiere at Hotdocs on Tuesday April 29th, 2025.
Two Couples and a Single Mom. Films reviewed: The Wedding Banquet, The Courageous PLUS Hotdocs!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Hot Docs Toronto’s International Documentary Film Festival, is back with a vengeance, next week after last year’s misadventure in potential ruin. The world breathes a sigh of relief! And there are tons of great films to see, many having their world premieres at the festival. And as aways, rush tickets for daytime shows are available for free for students and seniors. So this week, I’m talking about some of the docs I’m looking forward tov watching. And after that, two new movies, one from the US and another from France. There’s a romcom involving two couples and one fake marriage; and a drama about a struggling single mom and her three young kids.
New films at Hotdocs!
Here are some brief description of upcoming docs that look interesting:
Ai Weiwei’s Turandot is a record of the noted Chinese artist and activist’s production in Rome of Puccini’s opera set in a mythical China, and somehow combines ancient themes with modern politics.
Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance by Winnipeg director Noam Gonick is a comprehensive look at the history of queer politics in Canada from the 1960s to the present, focusing on Pride parades as a catalyst for liberation movements.
Virginial Tangvald directs Ghosts of the Sea about a life spent aboard her famous father’s sailing boat, and the dark secrets her family keeps.
Life After is director Reid Davenport’s examination of Medically Assisted Dying from the point of view of devalued, disabled persons, unwillingly pushed toward death to relieve their very real suffering caused by the absence of necessary care.
Spare My Bones, Coyote! (Jonah Malak) is about a volunteer couple who for years have scouted the desert borderlands to rescue migrants lost and dying in the extreme heat and cold.
Deaf President Now! (Nyle DiMarco, Davis Guggenheim) is about a 1988 student strike at a DC University for the deaf when they hired a hearing president. The protests inspired a generation of disability rights activists.
Sasha Wortzel’s River of Grass looks at the unique ecosystem of the Everglades.
The Dating Game (Violet Du Feng) looks at the crazy lengths unmarried men in China are going through these days to try to land a wife.
Heightened Scrutiny (Sam Feder) looks at ACLU attorney Chase Strangio preparing his landmark case on trans rights before the Supreme Court.
Unwelcomed (Sebastián González and Amílcar Infante) a Chilean film about the violent reaction to migrants who fled Venezuela to seek refuge there.
Shifting Baselines (Julien Elie) is about a small Texan town dominated by gigantic, 50-storey tall rocket ships that are part of the new space race.
These are just a few of the films playing at Hotdocs.
The Wedding Banquet
Co-Wri/Dir: Andrew Ahn
It’s present-day Seattle. Min (Han Gi-Chan) is a man in his twenties from South Korea. He was raised by very rich grandparents, who now expect him to take over the family business. But he doesn’t want to. Min’s an artist who cuts up colourful silk kimonos as his medium. And he’s in love with a guy named Chris (Bowen Yang) and wants to marry him. If his grand-parents ever find out, he’ll be written out of the will. And he’s in the US on a limited visa — he needs a green card. Meanwhile, Angela (Kelly Marie Tran), a science geek who does experiments with worms is in love with Lee, a social worker (Lily Gladstone). They want kids, and artificial insemination is proving to be very expensive. What’s the connection? Chris is good friends with Angela and Min thinks he can pull the wool over his grandparents’s eyes if he “marries” Angela and sends them the video. He gets a green 
card, she gets a baby, it’s as easy as pie. Not so fast. Granny (Youn Yuh-jung) is already on a flight from Seoul sending the four of them on a frantic clean up. Can they de-gayify Min and Chris’s home? Can Angela pass as straight? And what will this new wrinkle do to both those couples’ relationships?
The Wedding Banquet is a cute, screwball social comedy. Not uproarious, roll-on-the-floor comedy, but lots of quirky characters and unexpected plot twists. It’s adapted from Ang Lee’s movie of the same name in 1993, but quickly veers on a different path from 30 years ago. The original focused on a clash pf cultures involving a White and Taiwanese couple and the prevailing anti-gay taboos of that generation. In this version, Homophobia is alluded to but kept off screen, and the multi-ethnic humour comes from clueless Asian Americans navigating their way through the vagaries of a traditional 
Korean Wedding.The main actors don’t just play gay, they are gay. The cast is very impressive. Lily Gladstone was nominated for an Oscar for Killers of the Flower Moon, Youn Yuh-jung who plays Min’s grandmother, won one for Minari, and the legendary Joan Chen has a great cameo as Angela’s mom. Bowen Yang plays against type, while Kelly Marie Tran of Star Wars fame is endearingly awkward as Angela.
So while not terribly challenging, The Wedding Banquet presents a modern take on gay-asian relationships that is both endearing and gently funny.
The Courageous
Co-Wri/Dir: Jasmin Gordon
It’s a small town in northeastern France. Jule (Ophélia Kolb) is a single mom with three young kids in public school. Claire (Jasmine Kalisz Saurer) is the take-charge older sister. Loïc (Paul Besnier) is friendly, shy, and possibly on the spectrum; and Sami (Arthur Devaux) the youngest is prone to running around and getting in trouble. But one day the kids find themselves in a roadside diner with no mom. Their car is still in the parking lot, but she’s nowhere to be seen. So they take a long walk beside a highway back to their apartment. She shows up the next morning, but with no explanation. Instead she drives them to see what she says is their new home. It’s out of the way, and a bit run down, but much more spacious than their cramped apartment. But mom forces the kids to take cover and climb out the back door when strangers appear at the front.
You see, Mom isn’t completely honest with her kids. She has very little income, is way behind rent, and can barely find enough money to buy then basic food and clothes. And yet she struggles to provide them with normal kid lives: toys, sports and going to birthday parties. But her ventures with petty theft and shoplifting haven’t worked out well. She has an 
ankle bracelet to prove it. But their dream home is still up for sale. Can Jule come up with the down payment in time? Or will the law and the system catch up with her?
The Courageous is an amazing family drama about a mother who goes to great lengths to keep her family together. It’s told as a slice of life — starting in the middle and finishing before an obvious end. If you’re looking for an easy-to-watch, crowd-pleaser, you won’t find it here, but the bittersweet story-telling, endearing characters and shocking incidents make it much more satisfying.
Beautiful movie!
The Courageous and The Wedding Banquet opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Hotdocs runs from Thursday Apr 24, 2025 – Sun, May 4.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
A coup, a cult and a cry. Films reviewed: The Penguin Lessons, AUM: the cult at the end of the world, Bob Trevino Likes It
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
In these times of extreme uncertainty, many people feel there’s something missing in their lives but they’re not sure what. Some turn to new religions for spiritual fulfillment, others to pets they can love, or to chosen families to replace their inadequate biological ones.
So this week, I’m looking at three new movies, two dramas and a documentary about people trying to replace something missing. There’s an English teacher in Argentina who talks to a penguin, a caregiver in Kentucky looking for a replacement dad, and a religious cult in Japan trying to bring about the end of the world.
The Penguin Lessons
Dir: Peter Cattaneo
(Based on a true story)
It’s March, 1976 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tom Michell (Steve Coogan) is a newly-hired English teacher at a boys’ prep school for rich kids. It’s run by the strictly by-the-book Headmaster Buckle (Jonathan Pryce). No pets and no politics. Divorced, middle-aged and jaded, Michell cares little about morals. He describes himself as like Hemingway but without money and who never wrote anything. The boys in his class are spoiled and unruly; they don’t listen to a word he says. But bombs and rifles can be heard even within the walls of this elite academy. There’s a US-backed coup d’etat going on out there to install a military dictatorship! When the school closes for a week, Michell and fellow-teacher Tapio, a hapless Finn (Björn Gustafsson) head out to the Punta del Este in Uruguay to sit out the coup. But a romantic seaside stroll with a woman Michell meets turns — much to his chagrin — into a mission to save a flock of birds caught in an oil spill. They clean a penguin’s feathers, but by morning, the woman’s gone, and the penguin won’t leave him alone. He reluctantly takes him back to the school, in the hopes of donating him to a zoo. But the school kids adore him, and actually start to pay attention as long as the bird is around. But all is not well. Plainclothes police are disappearing anyone who disagrees with the government, including the beautiful but opinionated Sofia (Vivian El 
Jaber), the school’s cleaning woman.
Can a little penguin bring peace to the school and pull them all together? What will happen if Headmaster catches him with the bird? And will Michell ever stick his neck out to challenge the status quo?
The Penguin Lessons is a touching, cute, nostalgic and easily digestible story set during a dark and sinister era. Director Cattaneo brought us similar English crowd-pleasers like The Full Monty. And I’ll see anything with Steve Coogan in it. This movie is full all the cliched crowd pleasers: kids, animals, history, and a wise-cracking cynic who might have a soul. But I don’t care. That penguin is just soooo cute.
OK, I admit it, I’ve been played, I’m a sucker of a critic who fell for a bird… but so will you.
I liked this movie.
AUM: The Cult at the End of the World
Wri/Dir: Ben Braun, Chiaki Yanagimoto
It’s March, 1995 in Tokyo when something unexpected and terrifying happens. Someone lets loose poison gas at Kasumigaseki station, where three train lines converge. 5,800 people are injured and 13 of them killed. And this is a planned attack, not an accident. Who is responsible and why did they do it?
Decades early, a child named Chizuo is born into a post-WWII family with visual disabilities. Years later he opens a yoga school to attract paying customers. Somewhere along the way, it changes first into a religious sect, and later into a bonafide cult with tens of thousands of members. The group is called Aum Shinrikyo, and they set up headquarters on the banks of the sacred Mt Fuji. Their guru, now known as Shoko Asahara, with long hair and beard and flowing pink robes, convinces his worshippers that he is a god with supernatural powers. 
Popular music and anime videos extolling Asahara attract lots of favourable media attention, and detached young Japanese join in droves to experience miracles like levitation. These followers drink his bathwater or take tiny transfusions of his blood, even as he drains their bank accounts dry. Others have wires attached to their brains. Only bland food is permitted, no sex, no free-thinking. The cult expands internationally, migrating to Moscow once the Soviet Union falls, converting countless Russians to their cause. And while they’re there, they get ahold of military-grade artillery, chemical and biological weapons which they ship back to Japan. And eventually this leads to the horrific Sarin gas killings, in Tokyo and Matsumoto.
AUM: The Cult at the End of the World is an extensive, shocking and at terrifying documentary about this bizarre and dangerous cult. It covers the story throughout Asahara’s life and beyond, using period footage and new talking-head interviews. It goes right to the source — its victims, innocent people wrongly blamed for Aum’s crimes, journalists who follow the story, and advocates who — long before the sarin attacks — were trying to free friends and relatives from their clutches. Perhaps most chilling of all are the interviews with Joyu the high-ranked Aum Shinrikyo member who was allegedly behind some of its most heinous chemicals weapons.
I found this documentary extremely engrossing and well researched, narrated in the form of an oral history by those most affected by these atrocities. I couldn’t stop watching this one. I wonder why there have been loads of movies about the Manson Family, but relatively few on Aum Shinrikyo. This one helps fill that gap.
Bob Trevino Likes It
Wri/Dir: Tracie Laymon
(Based on a true story)
It’s present-day northern Kentucky. Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira) is young woman who works as a caregiver for Dapne (Laureen “Lolo” Spencer) a woman with a degenerative condition. Lily has no friends, and
her boyfriend dumped her using texts. Robert Trevino, her dad (French Stewart) is a flippantly cruel and self-centred man-boy responsible for most of Lily’s neuroses. He blames her for ruining his life (her mom died as an addict when she was a child). But things hit rock-bottom when her dad cuts off all communication with her. In a desperate search on Facebook to see what he’s up to, she ends up “liking” a different Bob Trevino. This Bob (John Leguizamo) is everything her own father is not. He’s kind, honest and giving, someone who pays attention to her texts. Bob works as a contractor out of his trailer. He has few hobbies — he likes gazing at the shooting stars, while his wife Jeanie (Rachel Bay Jones) is into making scrap books. When childless Bob and parentless Lily finally meet face to face, they feel a familial warmth they can’t quite explain. Jeanie thinks Lily’s a grifter or an aspiring catfish, trying to get his money. While insecure Lily is afraid of messing things up. Can two people, who live in different states ever have a real friendship? And is this new friendship superficial or deep?
Bob Trevino Likes It is a very cute, very sweet tear-jerker of a movie about friendship, kinship and chosen families. Much of the story is told through text messages and Facebook posts. 
Barbie Ferreira plays Lily as a non-stop faucet. She weeps in the opening, she cries in the middle and bawls at the end. And as the viewer, I cried along with her. John Leguizamo — once known for his over-the-top comedy — is at his most restrained in this one. But despite all the tears, it’s told in a light, humorous way.
This is a really nice indie movie.
Bob Trevino Likes It is now playing across Canada, with The Penguin Lessons opening this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And Aum is now available on VOD.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Jeff Harris talks with Ali Weinstein about her new documentary Your Tomorrow
Photograph and Interview by Jeff Harris
Your film points out a stark contrast between 1970s Toronto (when Ontario Place was opened) versus today. What exactly is going on?
I’m really quite sad and devastated about what’s happening at Ontario Place right now to be honest. I was never a fan of what’s been chosen to go on the west island because I don’t think it that it retains the spirit of Ontario Place as it was meant to be, this lasting place of exploration, education and fun for Ontarians. I tried to not make the film itself be an essay for my own personal point of view, I tried really hard to show the place as it was and I heard different reactions from people where they’ve watched the film and said “yeah, it does need to be redeveloped”. In terms of what’s coming next I don’t think it’s in line with what Ontario Place was meant to be and I think that the original spirit of Ontario Place is a really beautiful one, one that should be fought for today because we have even fewer places to be outside and to be in nature in this city.
The city has only gotten far far far more dense in the last 50 years and you have places like Liberty Village that didn’t exist in 1971 when Ontario Place opened… now there’s a tonne of condos where people don’t have their own outdoor space but next door is this beautiful waterfront land with forested areas to walk, and nature and birds and foxes. There is so much nature present at Ontario Place so I don’t really understand the vision when it comes to turning it into a spa.
What are the concerns about the spa?
The fact that it’s not a Canadian venture, it’s a European / Austrian owned spa that has this very not transparent deal with a 95 year lease that has been signed. I have a hard time imagining that my great grandchildren are gonna have the desire to go to the same spa that some people today might go to as a one off. I think there were probably many other visions for that land that got sent into the government when they opened it up proposals in 2019 that could have been tourist attractions, that could have made money for the province if they really prioritized that and they could have stayed with the original intent of being about Ontario and teaching people the history, the indigenous history of Ontario, what we have to be proud of as a province and that could have been more the focus as opposed to something indoor, foreign owned, and the vision just doesn’t feel like it’s towards longevity with the spa.
There’s a great line in the film where one of the protesters points out that this natural park is essentially a spa already!
She was part of a group of people that used the beach all the time, they would swim, hang out, exercise on the beach and it was a place for physical and mental wellbeing. I think a lot of the people that started to congregate at Ontario Place, many of them found the space during the pandemic when everyone was going loopy and stuck at home and isolated. People found community there and found other like-minded people there who wanted to be active, to be outdoors — and this was in their backyard! So when they talk about it already being a spa, they mean it’s been so beneficial for them. I felt that way myself going to Ontario Place.
Are you a fan of spas?
I enjoy going to a spa here and there… and some of my favourite parts of being at a spa are going with friends, going to catch up with people, to have sometimes a cultural experience like I love going to the Russian Spa, or the Korean Spa. The type of spa that’s going to be built at Ontario Place, I don’t foresee it being a place that people are going to go to repeatedly… it’s being marketed as a tourist attraction and I don’t know why that would go in the heart of the city on this very valuable prime land. It’s one of the few parts of the waterfront that’s actually accessible to residents of Toronto, where they can swim and boat and paddle board and run and jog and cycle and birdwatch and fish and so many different things so I think that the idea of it being a place of well being is interesting messaging from the government. So many people were using it for exactly that during the pandemic! It became this defecto public park because the government wasn’t doing anything with it.
Your Tomorrow had its world premiere at #TIFF24 and will have its broadcast premiere with TV Ontario on March 23rd at 9pm.
Wolf men and assassins. Films reviewed: Wolf Man, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It may be cold outside, but things are burning up on the big screen. This week I’m looking a two new movies, a thriller horror and a documentary. There are wolf men in Oregon, and assassins in Congo.
Wolf Man
Co-Wri/Dir: Leigh Whannell
It’s present-day San Francisco. Blake (Christopher Abbot) is a lapsed writer who devotes his life to his wife and daughter. Charlotte (Julia Garner) is a careerist who is rarely at home, so Blake takes on the parenting role. He spends all his time with their precocious 10-year-old daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth). But he and Charlotte are constantly bickering about her absentee-mom-ism. So when a package arrives with his late father’s will and a set of keys, he wonders if this is the miracle they need to keep thew family together. He has inherited — a house, a barn, and countless acres of lush green forest — the beautiful country he grew up in. Blake suggests the three of them go on a road trip together for some quality time. Young Blake was raised in isolation by a hard-ass survivalist who was strict and demanding toward his motherless son. That’s why Blake is so indulgent towards Ginger, who still dresses like a Disney princess at age 10.
So off they head for his isolated cabin in remote Oregon. But
what Blake seems to have forgotten is there are wolves in them thar hills! Big bad wolves, mean ugly wolves, the kind who stand on two feet and like wolfing down people like them. Sure enough, as they approach their farm one of them woolfies drives their u-haul off the road… and they’re forced to run for their lives. Luckily the house is still wolf-proof, with iron bars on all the windows. Unluckily, Blake gets himself slashed by the Wolf Man, and he’s changing into something different. Can he keep his vulpine urges in check and protect his family from harm? Or will he be the biggest danger to them of all?
Wolf Man is a cabin-in-the-woods werewolf movie with a few new twist. In this version, people don’t turn into wolves on a full moon and then change back again; they’re in it for the long haul. And these werewolves aren’t sleek, or sexy or furry, never mind cute or loveable. They’re more like zombies infected with a horrible virus that makes their teeth and hair fall out and their skin go bumpy and gross. These werewolves want to eat flesh and blood, preferably human. Once infected, they can no longer speak or understand people.
There’s no sex in this movie, not even a kiss, it’s totally sterile. In this neck of the woods everyone’s a guy, with literally no women at all. And every man could be a wolf man. Women and girls are urban sophisticates, while men and boys are potential redneck killers. Christopher Abbot plays Blake as a male Oprah mom who is inevitably drawn back to the dangerous manliness he grew up with. Julia Garner’s Charlotte is a less developed character, just an aloof woman forced to either scream and run or fight back.
But not enough to save a story that doesn’t quite cut it.
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Co-Wri/Dir: Johan Grimonprez
It’s June 30, 1960, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is reborn as a free, democratic state, after nearly a century of brutal colonial rule under the King of Belgium. Leopold II is notorious for chopping off the hands of men, women and children who didn’t produce their quota of rubber. Congo (under the Union Minière) is a very rich country full of diamonds, copper, tin, and uranium, extracted and shipped to Europe and the US. Its rubber and copper were crucial to winning the world wars and their uranium fuelled the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Its first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, gives a speech on independence day, celebrating the transfer of power from their previous colonial rulers. He rightly condemns the colonial atrocities and speaks out in favour of the non-aligned movement (former colonies in Europe and Asia). While his speech is well-received locally, Europeans — including the Belgian 
royal family — are shocked and aghast. Will they lose control of the Union Minière, and will the US give up its uranium source? Not a chance. They accuse Lumumba of being a communist, despite his stressing independence and nationalism. So they declare Katanga, an area rich in minerals, as independent from the DRC. The seceded state is essentially ruled by white Europeans and Rhodesian mercenary police and a military that operates with impunity, kidnapping miners and bombing uncooperative villages.
The US (especially the CIA), fearing the so-called communist Lumumba, launch a two-pronged campaign: a covert one, involving assassinations, bombings, kidnappings and regime change; and a diplomatic one, where famous American jazz musicians are flown to independent African states to perform as ambassadors of Jazz. Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone and Max Roach, have no idea they ware working 
for a CIA front. By January, 1961, the wildly popular Lumumba is dead, assassinated in Katanga with Belgian and American complicity.
Soundtrack of a Coup d’Etat is a fantastic documentary that retells the events of those six months. The doc is 2 1/2 hours long, so I can only give you the briefest outline of what it’s about. But the film itself is amazing, covering everything from pan-African nationalism and the Cold War, to non-aligned nations, colonialism, and the UN. We hear Malcolm X in Harlem, Andrée Blouin on women’s rights in Africa, Castro in NY, and Nikita Khrushchev’s famous shoe speech (where apparently he didn’t actually say what they said he said) in the general assembly. It’s filled with compelling imagery: Alan Dulles the head of the CIA smoking his pipe; a North Rhodesian mercenary recounting the tens of thousands of people they killed with impunity; the Soviets crushing Hungary, and Voice of America broadcasts. There are hilarious propaganda newsreels like the US parachuting record players and vinyl discs across the iron curtain. And through it all, jazz music from America to Africa.
The film is made of excerpts from previously-made audio
documentaries combined with non-stop black and white footage and stills. Most cuts are only about 2-3 seconds, giving the whole film the feeling of a glorious collage of African history. (It’s similar to the films of Adam Curtis, but without his spoken narration.) Many of the subtitles are large fonts superimposed on photos in blues, yellows and pinks, like the cover of a Blue Note jazz album.
A crucial historical document and a work of art, Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a must-see.
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat and Wolf Man both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Ali Weinstein about her new doc Your Tomorrow
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s the 1970s in Toronto, just a few years after the Centennial and Expo 67, and pride is running high. A huge new theme park, built on four islands made of reclaimed land on Lake Ontario, is opening to great fanfare. It offers an outdoor concert stadium, a geodesic Cinesphere, the first one ever built to show IMAX movies, and a kids’ park with playgrounds, music and automatons. It’s surrounded by tall trees, grassy areas and flowers everywhere. It’s called Ontario Place, and is packed with visitors.
Flash forward to the 2020s. Ontario Place is still attracting crowds but, after decades of neglect, many of its pavilions have closed down permanently, and the park itself ain’t what it used to be. But it still has nature trails, forests and a pebble beach. And then Premier Doug Ford announces the park is closing down for renovations. They’re 
fencing it off to clear cut trees and tear up the park in order to build a gigantic, private, for-profit European health spa and water park on public land, following a big-money, backroom deal. People across the province are shocked… and the protests begin. But no one knows exactly what will become of this beloved park in the days to come.
Your Tomorrow is the name of a new Canadian documentary about Ontario Place, its history and the people who love it in this crucial period of change in its future. It follows visitors, locals and park 
employees to get a cross section of views. Delving deeply into people, nature and politics, it silently observes the skateboarders, polar bear swimmers, security guards and concert-goers who still flock to the park. It’s both low-key and heart breaking. The film is written, directed and produced by award winning filmmaker Ali Weinstein, who made the quirky Mermaids in 2016 and #Blessed in 2020. (My interview with Ali, Blessed, 2020)
Your Tomorrow had its world premiere at #TIFF24 and opens theatrically at Toronto’s Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on Friday, December 6.
I spoke with Ali Weinstein in Toronto via ZOOM.
Daniel Garber talks with Jeff Harris about #TIFF24!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF is the most important film festival in this hemisphere, that gives us hints about the upcoming Awards season, what movies we should look out for, and where contemporary cinema is going. It ended six weeks ago, so it’s a good time to take a look at what TIFF brought us — the hits, flops, changes and sleepers, and just about the TIFF vibe itself. Jeff Harris is a professional photog who has covered TIFF for more than two decades, in photos and features for Macleans, The Walrus, and culturalmining among other outlets. So I’m very pleased have friend of the show Jeff Harris, here, in person, for a spirited discussion about this year’s TIFF.
TIFF 24 RECAP – PART 1
Films discussed include:
- The Substance
- The Assessment
- Bird
- Heretic
- Emilia Pérez
- The End
- Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara
- Elton John: Never Too Late
- The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal
- Piece By Piece
- Better Man
TIFF 24 RECAP – PART 2
Films discussed include:
- Paul Anka: His Way
- The Luckiest Man in America
- The Last Republican
- The Order
- The Seed of the Sacred Fig
- The Girl with the Needle
- Kill the Jockey
- Nightbitch
TIFF 24 RECAP – PART 3
Films discussed include:
- The Life Of Chuck
- The Wild Robot
- Mother Mother
- Pepe
- Dahomey
- The Brutalist
- Riff Raff
- Nutcrackers
culturalmining.com 
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