Daniel Garber talks with Robert Osborne and Brooke Mullins about Malcom is Missing
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Brooke Mullins is a woman raising her two daughters in Port Hope, Ontario. She grew close to her divorced Dad as an adult. A few years ago, Malcom moved to Mexico to spend his retirement winters relaxing amid the lush palm trees and sparkling beaches of Puerto Vallarta. He remained in close contact with Brooke, until suddenly… all contact disappeared. And when she tried to reach him, she received little help from his live-in girlfriend, Marcela. The authorities were indifferent and the police were no help at all. So, taking things in her own hands, she flew down to Mexico to try to find her dad or at least find out what was happening to him. And what she found was shocking.
Malcom is Missing is a personal documentary that traces Brooke’s search for her father and some sense of justice, amidst the crime and corruption lurking just beneath the surface. It follows her investigation including interactions with journalists, lawyers, the police and prosecutors, along with Malcom’s friends and colleagues. The film is directed by Robert and Jari Osborne, and features Brooke Mullins as its principal subject. Robert is an award-wining journalist and documentary filmmaker with over 30 years experience at The Nature of Things, CBC POV and CBC Docs, along with CTV’s W5, Global’s National News and National Geographic, among many others.
I spoke with Robert Osborne and Brooke Mullins via Zoom from Toronto.
Malcom is Missing is having a special screening followed by a Q&A at Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto on January 29, 2023, and will be broadcast on CBC’s Documentary Channel in March.
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.
Daniel Garber talks with filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn about “The Price of Everything”
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Art can be beautiful, shocking, moving or novel. It can function as a historical record or signal future changes in how we view the world. But it has never been a commodity, an investment, a future or a stock to be leveraged. That is until its steadily rising value proved irresistible to investors, many of whom know “the price of everything… but the value of nothing.”
The Price of Everything is the title of a fascinating new documentary that takes us behind the scenes of the monetary side of fine art. It talks with curators, collectors, historians, critics, dealers and auctioneers… people trying to determine — or change — the perceived value of a work of art. And it talks to the artists themselves who either embrace or reject the Long Game.
It’s written and directed by award-wininng American filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn, best known for the Oscar-nominated My Architect.
The Price of Everything showed at Hot Docs 18 in the spring and is now opening in theatres in Toronto.
I spoke with Nathaniel, via telephone, from CIUT 89.5 FM.
Daniel Garber talks with director Simon Stadler about Ghostland: The View of the Ju/’Hoansi
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM
The Ju/’Hoansi are a people living in the Kalahari desert for millennia. They feed themselves as hunters and gatherers with minimal contact with outside groups. But not so long ago, hunting wild animals in the bush was banned in Namibia (in Southwest Africa.) Deprived of their livelihood, they were forced to turn to tourism to earn money selling handicrafts and posing for pictures. And the white tourists – known as ghostpeople – flocked in from all over. Later, some members of the village were shown other parts of Namibia, and four of them taken to Europe, a land filled with ghosts.
Ghostland: The View of the Ju/’Hoansi is a new feature documentary that follows the four as they discover Europe, teach people there how to live as they do, and carry some of the wealth and technology they encounter back home to their families in the Kalahari. It is directed by Simon Stadler, a prize-winning filmmaker and known for his background in anthropology.
I spoke with Simon in Germany by telephone from CIUT 89.5 FM studio.
The film opens on Christmas Day at Toronto’s Hot Docs cinema.
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