Daniel Garber speaks with Jamie Kastner about Nobody Wants to Talk About Jacob Applebaum
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photo of Jamie Kastner by Jeff Harris.
Jacob Appelbaum is a computer programmer, hacker, and journalist. He was a core member of TOR, and a major player in the world of information privacy. Through his access to NSA files released by whistleblower Edward Snowden he helped break stories like the US government spying on Angela Merkel. He was good looking, charismatic a crucial spokesman for Wikileaks, a 
highly sought-after writer and pubic speaker and has worked with major cultural stars like Ai Weiwei and Laura Poitras. But in 2016, in the wake of sexual abuse accusations, everything came to a halt. Since then, a cloak of silence has descended on everything about him. Is the US government surveilling him? Is he a victim of Cointelpro? Will he end up like Julian Assange, locked away for years without a trial? And how come nobody wants to talk about Jacob Appelbaum anymore?
Nobody Wants to Talk About Jacob Appelbaum is a new documentary that looks at this man’s life before and after 2016. It’s clever, surprising and revealing. The film follows him from East 
Berlin to Tel Aviv to Portugal to interview him and those who know him. It’s the latest work by award-winning Toronto documentarian Jamie Kastner. I’ve previously talked with Jamie about The Secret Disco Revolution (2012), The Skyjacker’s Tale (2016), There are no Fakes (2019) and Charlotte’s Castle (2023).
I spoke with Jamie Kastner in Toronto via ZOOM.
Nobody Wants to Talk About Jacob Applebaum is screening at the TIFF Lightbox on June 23, and premieres on CBC Gem on June 26th.
Daniel Garber talks with Jamie Kastner about Charlotte’s Castle
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photo by Jeff Harris.
Spadina Gardens is a legendary apartment building in the Annex, of downtown Toronto. Stratford actors, opera singers and robber barons have lived there, publishing houses were spawned there, and writers like Salman Rushdie and Patricia Highsmith passed through its doors. But when a dutch real estate conglomerate bought it, and words like renoviction started floating down its hallowed halls, the tenants decided to fight back. But can even an apartment as legendary as this one stop the rampant explosion of Toronto’s housing crisis?
Charlotte’s Castle is a new documentary that looks at one Toronto apartment building — its history, aesthetics, architecture — and the plight of its tenants: the people who live there. It’s the work of award-winning Toronto documentarian Jamie Kastner. I previously talked with Jamie about The Secret Disco Revolution in 2012, A Skyjacker’s Tale in 2016, and There are no Fakes in 2019.
Charlotte’s Castle is having its world premiere tomorrow, September 24th, at Toronto’s Hot Docs Cinema, and on TVO beginning on Tuesday, September 26th.
I spoke with Jamie in Toronto, via ZOOM.
Daniel Garber talks with Jamie Kastner about There Are No Fakes
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photos by Jeff Harris
Norval Morrisseau was one of Canada’s most celebrated painters, whose brightly-coloured images, surrounded by thick, black outlines are instantly recognizeable. An Ojibwe shaman from an area north of Thunder Bay, Morrisseau incorporated Anishinaabe culture and 
storytelling into his work. His paintings hang in top galleries and are highly prized by art collectors. So musician Kevin Hearn, of the group Barenaked Ladies, was pleased to buy a large green Morrisseau canvas from a Toronto Gallery. Until, that is, he discovers it’s a fake.
There Are No Fakes is a new documentary that looks at the roots of Canada’s biggest case of art fraud ever uncovered. It also looks in depth at the dark underworld of fine art, filled with deception, organized crime, money laundering, and terrible 
violence.
It’s written and directed by award-winning Toronto filmmaker Jamie Kastner and is having its world premier at Toronto’s Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. He’s known for his quirky, funny, shocking and highly original documentaries on a wide range of topics. I’ve spoken to Jamie twice before on this show, once about the Great Disco Revolution (2012) and again, in 2016, about the Highjacker’s Tale.
I talked with Jamie Kastner in studio at CIUT 89.5 FM.
There Are No Fakes will have its world premier on April 29th at 6:00 pm at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Daniel Garber talks with director Jamie Kastner about A Skyjacker’s Tale
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s the 1980s. Ishmael Ali is on a commercial flight to the US. Virgin Islands. But not to lie on the beaches of St Croix. He’s being transferred to another maximum security prison. He’s serving time for the Fountain Valley Massacre – the infamous killing at a golf course owned by the 
Rockefellers… a crime, he says, he did not commit. And on this flight he manages to hijack the plane to Cuba. But there’s much, much more to this skyjacker’s tale.
A Skyjacker’s Tale is a new feature documentary that interviews the skyjacker himself in Cuba. It tells his story, and that of all the 
people he affected: at the skyjacking, and at the trial. These interviews shed new light on a controversial case – with a dramatic finish — that left the public polarized. A Skyjackers Tale is directed by award-winning filmmaker Jamie Kastner, who brought us films like Kike Like Me, and The Secret Disco Revolution. (Here’s the interview from 2012).
A Skyjacker’s Tale opens today at the Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto.
I spoke to Jamie in studio at CIUT 89.5 FM..
The Secret Disco Revolution: Daniel Garber interviews Jamie Kastner about his new tongue-in-cheek documentary, having its world premier at TIFF
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM
What is it that some people call a movement, others a musical form, a fad, a plastic commercial fraud, or a subversive political revolution? I’m talking about Disco, and a new, tongue-in-cheek documentary having its World Premier at TIFF looks at its history, its origins, and perhaps an aspect of it you never considered. It’s called The Secret Disco Revolution, and its director, well-known Toronto filmmaker Jamie Kastner, tells me all about it.
You’ll hear about disco’s origin, the academic perspective, the musical side of it, why disco doesn’t really suck, and how a love of Pinter’s plays led him to explore disco music. Confused? Listen!
culturalmining.com 
1 comment