With love, from Poland. Films reviewed: March’68, Norwegian Dream, Bones of Crows
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Spring film festival season continues in Toronto in June. The Inside Out festival which ushered in Pride Month, closes tonight with a jukebox musical called Glitter & Doom, a love story based on songs from the Indigo Girls. And TJFF, the Toronto Jewish Film Fest, is just starting up, with an excellent selection of comedies, dramas and documentaries from four continents, viewable online or in person with a number of special guests. And keep your eyes open for the other TJFF, Toronto Japanese Film Festival, beginning next week.
This week, I’m looking at three excellent new movies: two Polish romances, one each from Inside-out and TJFF, plus an epic indigenous drama made in Canada.
March’68
Co-Wri/Dir: Krzysztof Lang
It’s 1967 in Warsaw. Hania (Vanessa Aleksander) is a talented young actress studying theatre. She’s in a rush to view a controversial new play from backstage. It references Adam Mickiewicz, the 19th century Polish poet and playwright. But on the way she is bowled over by a young stranger. Janek (Ignacy Liss) is a student at the same university. She brushes him off but he doggedly follows her as far as the theatre. And — perhaps because of his relentless pursuit — Hania gradually begins to like him. Like turns to love, and soon they’re a couple.
But these are not ordinary times. Władysław Gomułka’s one-party state is cracking down on intellectuals and student dissidents. At the same time, it’s running a harsh purge of all Poles of Jewish descent within the Party’s apparatus. This repression soon spreads to University campuses and throughout the country at large. How does this affect the young couple? Hania’s dad is a neurosurgeon who has just lost his prestigious job in the anti-Jewish campaign. While Janek’s father is a Colonel in the Interior Ministry — basically a spy who holds everyone’s secret files, and is a major figure behind both the crackdown on student protesters and the anti-Jewish purge. Can this Romeo and Juliet couple stay together despite the purge? Or will politics cross generations?
March’68 is an excellent romantic drama set in Warsaw 
during that dark, tumultuous and repressive time. (The title refers to the month when the government imposed their harshest laws.) It deftly combines real historical events and figures — from Gomulka to Adam Michnik, a future intellectual and journalist — with the fictional heroes. Through the use of period footage and reenactments, it brings you right into the middle of riots, mass arrests and interrogations alongside Hania and Janek.
This is an excellent movie.
Norwegian Dream
Dir: Leiv Igor Devold
Robert (Hubert Milkowski) is a 19-year-old boy from Bialystok, Poland. He’s starting a new job in Norway at a remote salmon processing plant. He shares an apartment in a crowded, overpriced dormitory with Marek and the rest of the Polish workers at the plant. The foreman assigns Ivar (Karl Bekele Steinland) a young Norwegian man, to train him. He’s patient and thoughtful, and befriends Robert. He’s also Black. Knowing Robert is in need of income, he offers him a weekend job in Trondheim handling the lights for Ivar’s performance. But when Robert finds out what kind of performance it was, he quits in a panic and runs away. Ivar’s a flamboyant drag queen, and Robert is terrified at being seen with him. Is he repulsed by Ivar, or is there a mutual attraction? And could Robert handle a gay relationship within a racist and homophobic environment?
Norwegian Dream is a touching romantic drama set within 
the lives of migrant Polish workers in Norway. It’s made in a realistic style, with conversations happening while hundreds of dead salmon roll past on a conveyor belt. It also deals with the bigger issues of class, race, and sexuality. And while told in a simple and straightforward way, it also poses many paradoxes. Ivar may be black, but he’s also the adopted son of the owner of the fish plant and lives in a houseboat, while working-class Robert is just trying to keep his head above water. And though the casual behaviour of the Polish workers’ may be racist and anti-gay, they are also trying to form a union to get a decent wage from their exploitative employers. And while the dialogue — mainly in Polish and English — feels a bit stilted, it actually adds a further element of authenticity to the film.
I like this movie.
Bones of Crows
Wri/Dir: Marie Clements
It’s the early 20th century in Canada. Aline Spears (Grace Dove) is a girl from a Cree nation in Manitoba. She, her brother and sister are taken away from their parents and forcibly put into a residential school. It’s run by priests who feast on fine food and wine while the kids are left hungry. But Aline is given special privileges when Father Jacobs (Remy Girard) discovers she’s a prodigy on the piano. He nurtures her talent and assigns her a special tutor. But despite her new status, she is far from safe, and after suffering unspeakable acts, she and her siblings try to escape the school.
Much later, she joins the military in WWII and is assigned to London where she becomes part of a crucial team sending telegrams in Cree, this creating a code impossible for the Germans to crack. There she falls in love with and marries Adam (Phillip Lewitski) an indigenous member of the Canadian military. But despite their their bravery, they face a hard life back in Canada, their deeds forgotten. Much of her 
efforts are now spent caring for their family and trying to protect her little sister Perseverance (Alyssa Wapanatâhk) who has fallen by the wayside. Can Aline’s past violations and injustices ever be rectified?
Blood of Crows is an epic drama with a gripping story about one woman’s amazing life. Although its about Aline, it’s also a metaphor for the treatment of an entire people. It’s a 100+ year long story. Stretching back to confederation, it includes the wiping out of the buffalo, residential schools, the lack of status and Canadian citizenship, denial of services, and the widespread incarceration, death and disappearance suffered by indigenous women. But, don’t worry, this is not meant as a depressing story suffering, it’s actually inspiring, about her descendants who fight for rights and redress. This movie, with its large indigenous cast and crew from the director on down, is both convincing and compelling. I saw this one last fall at TIFF, and it was one of my favourite movies there; I’m so glad it’s finally hitting theatres.
Don’t miss it.
Bones of Crows opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Norwegian Dream played the Inside Out Film Festival, and March’68 is coming to the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
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 Drew Hayden Taylor about The Pretendians on CBC
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
For years, many indigenous people have been trying to blend in, struggling to make it in a white world, to be offered the same opportunities, to be treated equally in a court of law, and to receive the benefits that everyone else in the country is entitled to. Many have hidden their backgrounds because of the 
pervasive bigotry and discrimination they might face.
But recently, there’s been a strange reversal, where white Canadians are trying to pass as native. Whether it’s for financial gain, as a fashion accessory, to find inner value or to help their careers, they are a factor to be reckoned with. What are we to make of these “pretendians”?
The Pretendians is a new documentary that delves deeply into the lives of some of these alleged pretend indians, their opponents, and how it affects us all. It’s made by the well-known novelist, columnist, playwright and humourist Drew Hayden Taylor, from the Anishinaabe Curve Lake First Nation. I last spoke with Drew about his CBC series Going Native.
I spoke with Drew Hayden Taylor in Toronto via Zoom.
The Pretendians is currently streaming on The Passionate Eye on CBC Gem (S02 E03).
Daniel Garber talks with Buffy Sainte-Marie about Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On at #TIFF22
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Buffy Sainte Marie was born to Cree parents on a reserve in the Qu’Apelle valley Saskatchewan but was adopted and raised by a family with Mi’kmaq roots in Massachusetts. She grew up musically-inclined and sang folk songs in Yorkville and Greenwich Village coffee houses. Her dynamic guitar style and distinctive vibrato set her apart.
The songs she wrote and performed climbed the charts and were covered by hundreds of other musicians, from Elvis to 
Donavan, Joni Mitchell to Barbra Streisand. Her song Universal Soldier became an anthem of the anti-war movement while Now That the Buffalo’s Gone did the same for the American Indian Movement. She starred in movies and on TV, became a regular on Sesame Street, won countless awards, and was the first — and for many years only — indigenous person to win an Oscar.
Her story is told in a new documentary by Madison Thomas called Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On. Narrated by Taj Mahal, Robbie Robertson, Joni Mitchell and others, and Buffy Ste Marie herself, it combines period footage and personal photos, dramatizations, and lots of music and concerts, both vintage and new.
I spoke to Buffy Sainte-Marie on site at TIFF22.
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On had its world premiere at TIFF and is opening at the Hot Docs Cinema later this month.
Indigenous films at TIFF22. Movies reviewed: Ever Deadly, We Are Still Here
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival is back again with guns ablazin’, after a two-year hiatus. Yes, TIFF didn’t actually stop over the past two years — there were some great films online in 2020 and some in-person shows during last-year’s hybrid version, but very few people were in actual attendance. No celebs, no parties, no volunteers, no lineups, and no red 
carpets. When the anti-piracy laws popped up on your home screen, there was no crowd there to say Grrrrr. You couldn’t turn to the stranger sitting beside you and ask what did you think of this movie. It felt more like a simulacrum than an actual event.
Well, this year it’s on again,
They’re sticking a toe in the water to see how it feels. It’s called the TIFF Experience (whatever that means) and you can experience it right now, if you go down to King Street West in Toronto, between Peter and University. Even if you’re not up to going indoors yet, they’re showing outdoor screenings of 
classic movies. On stage, there are free concerts, and there are always sponsors handing out free samples to munch on, street performers, people dressed up, fans waiting to photograph arriving celebrities, the whole kit and kaboodle. This is pre-recorded so I can’t promise that’s what it will be but that’s prediction. It’s actually fun. That’s just on this weekend, so if you’re in Toronto, you should drop by.
This week I’m talking about two new movies playing at TIFF, both on indigenous peoples in the two antipodes. There’s throat singing in the far north and a new telling of history, far, far south of the equator.
But first here are a few other TIFF movies I can’t wait to see.
MOVIES AT TIFF
Chevalier (Stephen Williams) is about a little-known Guadaloupe-born composer in Paris during Mozart’s era. I want see it because it stars Kelvin Harrison Jr, one of the best new actors around who creates an entirely new character for each movie he’s in to the point he’s virtually unrecognizable.
Steven Spielberg has a world premier at TIFF with The Fablemans, his first autobiographical movie. Why do I want to see it? I’m just really curious to see what he did.
Women Talking is based on a book by Mirriam Toews about a Mennonite-type colony. It stars Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Sheila McCarthy, Frances McDormand, but I really want to see it because it’s directed by Sarah Polley.
The Kingdom Exodus is about a weird Danish hospital. It’s a 
TV show, something I rarely bother to watch at TIFF, and I know nothing about it, but the reason I want to see it is it’s directed by Lars von Trier, and I’ll watch anything he makes, no matter how painful.
And finally I hope to catch The Hotel, about a bunch of Chinese people stranded in a hotel in Thailand during 2020’s Spring Festival, just as the pandemic lockdown hit. I want to see it because it’s directed by Wang Xiaoshuai, who is an under-appreciated but skilled and thoughtful filmmaker.
Ever Deadly
Dir:Tanya Tagaq and Chelsea McMullan
Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit throat singer and performance artist from Nunavut. Ever Deadly documents a performance accompanied by musicians and singers. It’s experimental, avant-garde music interspersed with stories and poems recited as part of the concert. Throat singing is a traditional Inuit art form, but she also experiments with it, in a unique, highly sexual, sensual, visceral, animalistic and at times even supernatural voice. If you’ve seen her before you’ll know what I mean. The film is also about her family’s history, and that of Canada. Her nomadic grandparents were forcibly relocated to a barren arctic area, with nowhere to hunt or fish, in order to 
claim sovereignty of the land along the northwest passage. Chelsea McMullan also includes stunning scenes of the stark arctic landscape, polar bears, migrating birds, aurora borealis. And not just the visuals but also the sounds like the unique squeaking crunch of walking on pebbles on a beach. There are vintage footage and photos contrasting lawmakers in parliament with Inuit kids gleefully eating bloody raw seal meat. And grotesque, highly-sexualized animated drawings.
If you’ve ever seen Tagaq perform you’ll know exactly why you should see this, but if you haven’t, it’s time for you to experience it.
We Are Still Here
Dir: (Various)
At the height of the British Empire maps were coloured pink on every continent, showing both colonies and the so-called Dominions, areas, like Canada, Australia and New Zealand that were settled by Europeans who make up most of their populations. But these places weren’t empty when the British arrived.
This film rewrites the history of Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific as seen from an indigenous point of view. It’s made by eight filmmakers, four each from Australia and Aotearoa, and it consists of a number of scenes set in the past, present and future. The first British ships appear on the horizon to a mother and daughter catching fish. A settler lost in the bush demands an aboriginal guide show him the way back to his town. A Maori village debates whether to go to war against settlers, ending in a Haka war dance. And a soldier in the trenches of Gallipoli, has an unusual conversation with his enemy, a Turkish soldier. There’s also a dystopian view if the future, and a number set in the present day, including a clandestine graffiti artist and a young protestor. One of the 
most moving ones is about an ordinary guy, a tradesman, just trying to buy a bottle of wine from a grog shop (liquor store), who is stopped each time by an abusive cop because he’s indigenous, and it’s Northern Territory where, apparently, it’s legal to routinely treat some people as second-class citizens.
I shy away from reviewing short films because they’re too short and there are too many of them. But We Are Still Here functions as a feature film, telling all the stories not as individual short films, but interwoven into a common coherent thread, jumping back and forth between then and now. It’s nicely done and relevant, very moving, and made by indigenous filmmakers. And it helps restore parts of history that have up to now been erased.
We are Still Here and Ever Deadly are both playing at TIFF; Festival Street is open all weekend.
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 Gail Maurice about Rosie at #TIFF22
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photos by Jeff Harris.
It’s the 1980s in a working-class neighbourhood of Montréal. Fred is an artist whose day job is working at a sex boutique. Adopted as a child, she ran away from home at 16 and never 
looked back. Now she’s best friends with Flo and Mo, two gay streetwalkers who make up her current family. But she’s thrown for a loop when a social worker shows up at her door with a six-year-old girl, who says Fred is her closest living relative. What??
She tries to explain she’s close to eviction, living hand-to-mouth, she’s a Francophone while Rosie only speaks English, and knows absolutely nothing about raising a child. But who can resist a cutie-pie like Rosie?
ROSIE is a new, feel-good comedy/drama about life on the edge in 1980s Montreal. It deals with chosen families, 
marginalized groups, homelessness, and indigenous and queer people in urban settings. (Both Rosie and Fred were adopted as indigenous kids into white families)
The film is directed by actor and filmmaker Gail Maurice. It may be her first feature, but you’ve probably seen her unforgettable roles on TV shows like Trickster, and in movies like Night Raiders.
I spoke to Gail in Toronto via ZOOM.
ROSIE is having its World Premiere at #TIFF22 on Sept. 9th.
Journeys to redemption. Films reviewed: Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon, Bullet Train, We Are Living Things
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF is back on track again, after two makeshift years, bringing you the world’s best movies, showing only in theatres. King street will be open for celebrity spotting once again, along with free concerts and other spectacles. And the discount ticket packages are on sale only till Sunday, that’s tomorrow, with individual tickets starting as low as eleven dollars each if you’re 25 or younger.
This week I’m looking at three new movies about desperate journeys toward redemption. There’s one girl on a quest to save her Amazon village; two alienated migrants in America on a search for the truth behind alien abductions; and a half-dozen killers on a bullet train trying to kill all the other killers… before they get killed themselves.
Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon
Dir: Richard Claus, Jose Zelada
It’s present-day in the Kundamo nation of the Amazon. Ainbo is a 12 year old girl who calls herself a legendary hunter but hasn’t quite mastered the bow and arrow. She’s an orphan who lives with her best friend, Zumi, who is next in line for chief. But a dark shadow has fallen on her community, with fish dying and people turning ill. So she sets out on a quest: to talk to the giant mama turtle for direction, discover a powerful weapon, find the source of the poison, and defeat the evil demon Yakaruna.
Fortunately, two odd-looking animals appear beside her to help her on her way. Strangely enough, she can understand 
everything they say. Dillo and Vaca are her spirit guides but also tricksters, who can only be believed some of the time. Meanwhile, Attak, a mighty hunter, blames the disease on Ainbo, and chases her through the jungle to keep her away. Can Ainbo summon enough inner strength to realize her spiritual goals? Or will her people all die from this mysterious ailment?
Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon is a delightful, high-quality animated kids movie about a 12 year old girl’s attempt to save her people from destruction. Its told in the manner of a classic folktale, but with modern twists: perhaps their problems come from European developers trying to usurp their land. This is clearly aimed for little kids but I found it totally watchable, including a scene with day-glo psychedelia. I like this one.
Bullet Train
Dir: David Leitch
Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is a freelance criminal who carries out complex thefts around the world. But somehow bad things happen to people around him. Dying of poison, falling off rooves — there seems to be no end to the misery all around him. Luckily, his current job, is a piece of cake: board a bullet train in Tokyo, steal a briefcase full of cash, and get off at the next stop before anyone notices. Simple, right? Not quite.
He doesn’t realize he’s not the only criminal on board. A well-dressed pair of twins, code-named Tangerine and Lemon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry), are professional hitmen and the holders of said briefcase. Prince (Joey King) is a ruthless and mysterious young woman dressed in a pink, snug-fitting school uniform, with her own agenda. Then there’s Kimura and his dad, both of a yakuza clan, a mysterious killer named The Hornet, and a man named Wolf (Bad Bunny) with 
vengeance on his mind. And of course the ruler of the underworld himself, White Death. Who will survive this fatal journey?
Bullet Train is a fast-paced, violent action comedy set aboard a Japanese high-speed train. It has a punchy soundtrack and an A-list cast, including Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with cameos by Michael Shannon and Sandra Bullock. And it’s 
based on a book by critically-acclaimed Japanese novelist Kôtarô Isaka. Unfortunately, this big budget movie feels like a third-rate Tarantino knock-off. The screenplay is crap, filled with unfunny jokes and two-dimensional caricatures. It feels like the director has never been to Japan or set foot on a bullet train — he doesn’t even know they’re on raised platforms not normal tracks, or that Japanese vending machines never malfunction. Even the sound recording is poor — I couldn’t make out some of the dialogue in the first scene. While not bad enough to put you to sleep, Bullet Train never rises above the mediocre.
We Are Living Things
Co-Wri/Dir: Antonio Tibaldi
It’s present-day New York, where two immigrants live very different lives. Solomon (Jorge Antonio Guerrero) lives completely off the grid. Born in Mexico, he crossed the Arizona border as a young man in search of his mother. She completely disappeared and Solomon believes she was abducted by aliens. Now he works as a jack-of-all- trades, good at plumbing, wiring and carpentry. He likes non-digital devices, like metal detectors and industrial dryers and stays away from computers and cel phones. He rents a hidden space inside a recycling plant, where no one can find him; he’s undocumented and knows how to make himself invisible. His main objective is to listen to aliens — the ones in outer space — through their radio waves, using a complex device made of a satellite dish and a piece of a magnetic meteorite.
Chuyao (Lü Xingchen) works in a mani-pedi salon. She holds a legal ID, its just not hers. She has cut her hair short and changed her name in an attempt to match the ID, but she looks nothing like the photo. It doesn’t matter, says Tiger (Wang Zao), the man who got it for her; white people think we all look the same. Tiger is a sleazy criminal and her de facto boyfriend, but behaves more like her pimp. He makes her attend private 
parties for rich clients, sometimes just singing karaoke, but often leading to sketchy or even dangerous after-hour meetings. Worse than that, Tiger has implanted a chip in her neck so he always knows exactly where she is. After a chance meeting, where Solomon discovers Chuyao shares his obsession (she was abducted by aliens back in China), he begins to follow her around, a guardian angel to protect her when she’s in trouble. Eventually they end up fleeing the city together in an attempt to uncover aliens in Arizona… and perhaps discover each other.
We Are Living Things is a bitter-sweet, art-house drama about the lives of two alienated migrants in America, trying to regain their sense of self-worth. It’s filled with dreams and 
surveillance footage woven into the narrative. And while there is an undercurrent of sci-fi themes, the real dangers they face are the omnipresent police and ICE agents who permeate their lives. The cinematography is strikingly beautiful, capturing Chuyao’s louche glamour, Solomon’s low-tech machinery, and the glory of the American west. And Guerrero and Lü both have cinematic faces that look great on the screen. Strange and impressionistic, this film will stay in your mind long after it’s over.
You can catch We Are Living Things at the Carlton cinema in Toronto; check your local listings. Ainbo opens in theatres this weekend; and Bullet Train is now playing across North America.
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 Nyla Innuksuk about Slash/Back
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s summer solstice in Pangnirtung, on Baffin Island Nunavut where the sun is up all night. But a group of teenaged girls — Maika, Jesse, Leena, Uki and Maika’s little sister Aju — notice something weird is going on. They see a polar bear acting very un-bearlike; and a fisherman who seems less than human. Their blood is black, their skin seems detached from their bodies, they walk in jerky steps, with creepy tentacles that squirm out to suck your blood. Are they monsters? Aliens? Zombies? Whatever they are they’re killing people, and the grown-ups aren’t around to help — they’re all at an annual dance. But nobody messes 
with the girls of Pang. So it’s up to them to fight back.
Slash/Back is the name of a new alien horror movie set in the arctic. It interweaves traditional Inuit culture with contemporary genre filmmaking. It features a cast of first-time Inuit actors, set against the stunning ice, sky and ocean landscape of Nunavut. Slash/Back is the work of acclaimed producer, writer and director Nyla Innuksuk, who is well-versed in both the technical and creative sides of film-making. And she’s the only film maker I’ve ever heard of who has also co-created a superhero for Marvel Comics!
I spoke with Nyla in Toronto via Zoom.
Slash/Back opens across Canada on Friday, June 26th.
Daniel Garber talks with filmmaker Shasha Nakhai about Scarborough
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s typical day at a literacy clinic in eastern Toronto. Three new kids are there with their parents trying to find a place for them in the complex school system. Sylvie’s there with her mom — her dad is in hospital and her 4-year-old brother Johnny is hard to handle. Bing is bullied by other kids who questions his sexuality, even as his mom works all day in a mani-pedi and his dad’s in a mental hospital. And little Laura was abandoned by her abusive mom, forcing her dad to raise her — someone who knows nothing about taking care of kids. Luckily, a kindly teacher named Ms Hina is there to smooth out the bumps and care for the kids… even when it looks like nothing can help them. And Bing, Sylvie and Laura become good friends. But can they overcome the obstacles in their precarious lives at a public 
school in Scarborough?
Scarborough is a wonderful, new, feature-length drama that premiered last fall at TIFF and the ReelAsian film festivals to rave reviews and appreciative audiences. Using an ensemble cast and first-time actors, it explores life in a working class, multicultural neighbourhood in Scarborough, where people struggle with poverty, homelessness, racism, and a largely indifferent social system. Based on the award-winning book by Catherine Hernandez, it’s directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson. Shasha Nakhai is a Toronto-based filmmaker whose work has aired on the BBC, CBC, ZDF and Arte and screened at the Museum of Modern Art. She has worked on documentaries like The World Before Her (2012), Driving with Selvi (2015), and League of Exotique Dancers (2015).
I spoke with Shasha Nakhai in Toronto via Zoom.
Scarborough is opening in Toronto on February 25th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Daniel Garber talks with documentarian Leora Eisen about Chef Secrets
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
While professional chefs might talk about their signature dishes, they like to keep their recipes a closely guarded secret. Even Colonel Sanders wouldn’t reveal his 11 herbs and spices. But is it simply a matter of flavour …or is there some hard science in the mix? And what are these hidden tricks of the trade?
Chef Secrets is a new documentary that looks at the science behind some everyday dishes, how they are applied, and why they make food taste so delicious. It follows a number of chefs 
and scientists, cooking everyday things like sourdough bread and mashed potatoes. And it proposes some intriguing conundrums like what food is solid, liquid and gas — simultaneously? The documentary is produced, directed and written by award-winning documentary filmmaker Leora Eisen whose work has been seen on CBC, Radio-Canada, History, Bravofactual, Smithsonian, BBC Worldwide and Amazon Prime.
I spoke with Leora Eisen in Toronto via Zoom.
Chef Secrets: The Science of Cooking is now streaming on The Nature of Things on CBC Gem.
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Daniel Garber talks with Desirée Mckenzie about the Jayu Human Rights Film Festival
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Movies are made to entertain — they should be interesting, novel, funny, exciting, or surprising. But movies can also inform, opening our eyes to important issues. Well, there’s a film festival in Toronto that does all that… and more. The JAYU Human Rights Film festival offers movies, poetry, art talks and films for 
audiences to watch and to discuss afterwards.
Desirée Mckenzie is the iAM Program Coordinator at JAYU — she’s also an award-winning poet, arts educator, and national poetry slam champion.
I spoke with Desirée in Toronto, via ZOOM.
The JAYU Human Rights Film Festival is entering its 10th year; it runs through Dec 10th.
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