It doesn’t stop there. The summer festival includes up-and-coming stars Hollerado, Braids and The Rural Alberta Advantage as well lots of local talent, including Adverteyes, Common Grackle, Shannon Kingsbury Band, Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy and Jude Vadala.

“The Hillside audience is unusually open to new ideas,” comments Samir Baijal, the artistic director. “This allows me to program artists who have not reached mainstream status but whose music is astonishingly original.” This year’s summer line-up will keep everybody happy:

2011 Line Up

• Adverteyes
• Braids
• Callers
• Chali 2na
• Charlotte Cornfield
• Common Grackle
• Dala
• Etran Finatawa
• The Fugitives – Spoken word
• Hannah Georgas
• Ganga Giri
• Graveyard Train
• Hollerado
• Hooded Fang
• Emmanuel Jal
• Karkwa
• Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
• Kevin Drew & The Beauties
• Kidstreet
• KO
• Seun Kuti
• Lights
• Little Miss Higgins
• Little Scream
• Lost In The Trees
• Dan Mangan
• Memphis
• The Midway State
• Modern Field Recordings
• Mother Mother
• North Mississippi Allstars
• Old Man Luedecke
• One Hundred Dollars
• POP Montreal Presents: Gobble Gobble, Grimes, Pat Jordache
• Doug Paisley
• Paper Lions
• The Recipe – Spoken word
• Rundown Royalty
• The Rural Alberta Advantage
• Serena Ryder
• Shad
• Shannon Kingsbury Band
• Snailhouse
• The Stanfields
• Sweet Thing
• Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy
• These United States
• Les Tireux d’Roches
• Jude Vadala
• Chris Velan
• The Woodshed Orchestra & Shlomo
• + More TBA

Tickets Go On Sale MAY 7 @ 10:00 am through Ticketpro.ca or a these fine outlets.

Ground Floor Music (Guelph), Soundscapes (Toronto), Encore Records (Kitchener), Hillside Office (May 7 only)

*Weekend or day passes available

History: The Hillside Festival is a 28-year-old, volunteer-powered grassroots festival that celebrates and inspires creativity through clever music programming in a warm and peace-promoting atmosphere. Environmental stewardship, altruism and equality are upheld as core values that bolster and help sustain the festival. Every year for the past six years, the festival has sold out its weekend passes on the first sale date. The musical programming is well regarded for its visionary quality, since the artistic director tends to book bands, such as Arcade Fire, well before they become big names.

Contact:

For more information, please contact Marie Zimmerman or Sam Baijal at executivedirector@hillsidefestival.ca, 519.763.6396 (Hillside Office), Website: www.hillsidefestival.ca

“You ever watch Fred on You Tube,” asks D-Sisive. A friend sent him a link to a You Tube video about somebody named Fred who’s the object of scorn for this other guy, Chicken Little, and D-Sisive is clearly enthralled with it. “This is what I do, I watch clips on You Tube and see who’s having a beef.”

Not entirely true. D-Sisive, whose real name is Derek Christoff, is also a highly talented rapper and hip-hop artist. Circling the Toronto scene for over 15 years now, D-Sisive released his first, full-length album, Let The Children Die, in May 2009. Surely and quietly making a name for himself in hip-hop circles for his emotional and occasionally whimsical rhymes, D-Sisive got into hip-hop through one of the most unusual avenues.

“I got into it through my obsession with Nightmare on Elm Street,” he says. Or to be more precise, the 1987 video for “Nightmare on My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, which ran in circulation on Muchmusic when he was a kid. “I was just like ‘I need to have this.’ So I bought the cassette and bought it for that song only.”

D-Sisive says that he swiftly wore the tape out, listening to the one track over and over again, and when he did, he decided to give the rest of the tape a listen and he liked what he heard. Soon, the young D-Sisive found himself graduating from the Fresh Prince and on to Cyrpess Hill who had just released their debut album. They and other hip-hop acts of the late 80s and early 90s ended up inspiring the young rap appreciator into becoming a rapper himself.

Then it was D-Sisive’s turn to inspire with his first album, and considering that it was originally on the books to be released in 2001, the rapper says it definitely felt good to finally get it out there; not that he’s resting on his laurels, of course. “I’m enjoying the response that it’s receiving, but I’ve totally gotten myself in this workaholic head space, so I’m always constantly recording and working on new material,” he says. “It’s like the album came out, but we’re already on to the next thing.”

D-Sisive is continuing to work with producer Moonshine and together they managed get the album together in about four months with the exception of a couple of songs. It was personal issues that kept D-Sisive from releasing an album any sooner, but he says that the extra time, and the struggles he went through, helped create a better inaugural album.

“Finally, I’m working on this material, which is way more personal than the music I was making when I was 20,” he explains. “It’s not like I’m embarrassed of that music, but that was all part of evolving and growing. Those were years when I had nothing to talk about, and now I’m making music that I feel means something to people, and means more to me.”

Part of that evolution was getting more confident about his own talent and his own material. D-Sisive says that he’s gone from taking three to four hours to record a song to getting it done in one take; 80 per cent of Let the Children Die was one take, he says.

“It’s not a matter of being a perfectionist; it’s a matter of being confident about the material,” explains D-Sisive. “I try not to stay too long with things. The longer you spend writing songs, [the more] you’re wasting your time and you’re losing the vibe when you try to put too much thought into it.”

It’s also about trusting himself more. “I’ve been getting an excellent response with the music I’m doing, so I figure that I’m on the right track and let’s just keep doing it,” says D-Sisive. “I definitely trust myself more now than I ever did back then.”

I first talked to D-Sisive in Spring ’09, he was going into his seventh North By Northeast appearance, saying that coming back to do the festival again and again, is “just a fun experience. It’s something that as a musician, you just want to be a part of it.” Since then, he’s released numerous singles and two more albums: Jonestown (2009), Vaudeville (2010) with an expected third later this year, Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye (2011)

Coming to Kazoofest! later this month is another opportunity for the rapper to reach new people with his unique hip-hop stylings. “My goal is just for more people to hear the album,” he says. “I just want the music to spread, that’s all I really hope for. If I can maintain longevity and make music people still give a $#!t about 10 years from now, then that’s my goal.”

D-Sisive also likes the surprise of when people put the man with the music. “I think people who have heard my music before meeting me assume that I’m this dark depressing man because a lot of my music is so personal, and that’s totally not the case,” he says. “The songs tell a story from a certain part of my life, but it’s not necessarily what I’m going through right now.”

D-Sisive will play at the ebar on Thursday April 14^th as part of Kazoofest!

Written By Adam A. Donaldson

The program for this year’s Local Focus will feature a combination of short films, documentaries, music videos and feature length films. Prizes will be awarded in all categories, including a special recognition for the best of youth submissions. Additionally, Local Focus, and its organizer The Multicultural Cinema Club, will be hosting a “Best Of the Fest” screening over four nights: April 28th and 29th at the Waterloo Region Museum and May 2nd and 3rd at the Princess Twin.

This year’s jury includes new and returning favourites: Philippa Gates (English & Film Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University), John Tutt, (Founder, owner, manager Princess Cinemas, Waterloo), Michael Greaves (Founder, owner Gen X, Waterloo), Gary Kirkham (local actor and award winning playwright), and Terry Barna (actor and singer, performing in TV, film, and on stage).

For more information about Local Focus, visit the festival’s website. Here’s the schedule breakdown.

Monday, April 18th

Opening Gala, Starting at 6:00 pm
Films Start at 7:30 pm

Roses are Red (2010)
Go Home and Dream (2010)
Juiced (2010)
Serra (2010)
Life of Logan (2011)
Count Us In (2010)
Rivers of Green - The River (2010)

Tuesday, April 19th, Starting at 7:00 pm

Zap Zap by the Ascot Royals (2010)
Polluted (2010)
Too Low (2010)
To the Wire (2010)
Everyday Einstein - GPS & Relativity (2010)
Ribbons of Green - The Pond (2011)
Aakideh: The Art & Legacy of Carl Beam (2011)

Wednesday, April 20th, Starting at 7:00 pm

Crawdaddy by The New Enemy (2010)
Je M’appelle Julia (2010)
Stolen (2009)
Milk and Honey (2010)
Queen of the Highway (2010)
The Catch (2010)
Gerima (2010)
Entourage Indie (2010)
Return to Africa (2010)

Thursday, April 21th, Starting at 7:00 pm

Lego Soccer Game - England vs. Brazil (2011)
Penguin (2011)
Strong Enough (2010)
Deliveries (2010)
In Good Hands (2010)
Proudly She Marched (2008)
Just Us (2011)
A Symphony of Design (2009)
Ribbons of Green - The Woods (2011)

Friday, April 22nd, Starting at 7:00 pm

Chronicles of a Shirtless Vampire (2010)
Tell Me a Secret (2010)
Case Study (2010)
Thicker than Water (2011)
Channel Spieling (2010)
Dead Genesis (2010)

Saturday, April 23rd, Starting at 10:00 am
24-Hour Film Challenge
Matices, “Temporary” Migration in Canada (2011)

Closing Ceremony, Starting at 7:00 pm

GUELPH, March 29th 2011 - We are excited to announce the 4th annual Kazoo! Festival will be taking place April 13-17th 2011 in downtown Guelph. Over 5 days the festival will feature 27 musical performances, multimedia art, film screenings, Zine & Comic Expo, and a Kid’s Disco. Kazoo! Festival is entirely organized and run by volunteers who are active in Guelph’s vibrant arts scene.

This years festival will showcase some of Canada’s best emerging artists at 14 events at various locations across downtown Guelph. In the past the festival has seen approximately 1,500 attendees and we are expecting more this year with expanded programming and city-wide collaborations with other arts organizations and festivals.

When: Kazoo! Festival happens April 13-17th 2011.

What:

• Legendary Guelph band King Cobb Steelie playing a 20th anniversary set with special guests.
• Juno Award-nominated rapper D-Sisive to headline a show on Thursday April 14th at Bookshelf eBar.
• A selection of Canada’s best emerging artists including Bonjay, Evening Hymns, Rich Aucoin, Kidstreet, and many more.
• A showcase for some of Guelph’s best local bands: The Skeletones Four, Lowlands, Harbourcoats (Bry Webb of the Constantines), and The Magic.
• A number of all ages and family-friendly events including Jenny Omnichord’s Video Feedback Disco, a psychedelic nightclub designed for kid’s 12 and under co-presented with Ed Video.
• Guelph’s only Zine & Comic Expo, an annual small press comic and literary fair that will feature over 40 different creators and publishers. After the event we will be hosting our keynote speaker, Jennifer Haines of the Dragon Comic Book store, who will be discussing ‘Women in Comics‘.
• Film screening co-presented with the Festival of Moving Media.
• Opening Night Party featuring a Video Game based installation, a drawing collaboration from Guelph Drink & Draw, and a Kazoo! Poster artwork display.

Where:
Venues include: Bookshelf eBar, Ed Video Gallery, The Synnema, The Cornerstone, Jimmy Jazz, Van Gogh’s Ear, Norfolk United Church and more.

How:

• Kazoo! Is a non-profit organization run by a dedicated group of artists and volunteers who program events year-round at a monthly music showcase and at special events.
• This year’s sponsors include: The Bookshelf, Wellington Brewery, The Cornerstone, Salsateria, Atmosphere Cafe, Red Brick Cafe, Ed Video, CFRU 93.3, City of Guelph, Downtown Guelph Business Association, Synn Studios, Festival of Moving Media, and more.
• Kazoo! Festival aims to keep our events financially accessible by charging very reasonable cover charges (no show is more than $12) and many events are entirely free or by donation.

I think of it this way: imagine the floor at a comic convention. Over here, you have the local steam punk fans all dressed in leather dusters and goggles. Over here, you have kids buying the Dragon line of action figures from McFarlane Toys. And there, there is a bunch of guys looking at samurai swords and other movie prop recreations. In one corner of the room, the latest video games are being demoed by eager throngs of young men in their teens and 20s, and across the convention floor are nubile young woman in a variety of body hugging and/or revealing costumes.

It seems as if Snyder, writing his first original script ever with the assistance of Steve Shibuya, took a stroll around the Comic Con floor with a notepad and jotted down all the various things he saw fans getting crazy about. He took it all, and threw it in this blender called Sucker Punch. Its visual effects pornography, a bunch of really well-produced action/fantasy set pieces tied loosely together by a light narrative that serves only to get us from scene to scene. There’s a twist ending, which does nothing but make you, as an audience member, wonder if Snyder is going for the M. Night Shyamalan Award for bizarre non-sequitur passing for foreshadowing.

The story is about Baby Doll (Emily Browning), a young woman whose mother dies and then her sister is accidentally killed when a drunken bender makes her stepfather try and rape both his stepdaughters. Because this is Misogyny World, the stepfather takes Baby Doll to the local insane asylum where a 10-spot to the orderly will get you a quickie lobotomy. As Baby Doll’s about to get something spiky poked behind her eye, she flashes herself into a world where she’s sold into a house of burlesque, and her hypnotic skill as a dancer not only distracts people, but launches her into a third world where she and four other inmates battle zombie Germans in the trenches of World War I, dragons over a medieval castle and giant samurai monsters with machine guns.

In other words, Suck Punch is basically Inception as envisioned by a 13-year-old boy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I tip my hat to Snyder, he can envision sequences of a beyond epic scale like nobody’s business. Regardless what you think of the politics of 300, either of the foreign policy or gender variety, it takes a creator of rare vision to make a swords and sandals film feel like a natural extension of 21st century filmmaking. And after 20 years and nearly as many creators, he was the one that was able to bring the elements together to finally create a Watchmen movie. The man is undoubtedly talented… with material that’s not his own.

The problem with Sucker Punch is all thematic and story development. The lesson is that a woman finds power through her physical attractiveness, as it’s only when Baby Doll gyrates and slithers to the music that people pay attention to her. Of course, we never actually see her dance either; she starts a little two step, and the camera zooms in and the scene dissolves into the new fantasy realm. Aside from Abbie Cornish’s Sweet Pea and Jena Malone as Rocket, the rest of the girls aren’t really developed that well as characters. Not that they need to be because they all fit the Five Man Band trope to a tee.

There was a lot of potential here to build a film that would speak to the fanboy geeks of the modern age, but normally when you try and talk to someone in their language, and it’s a language you don’t entirely understand, something’s going to get lost in translation. On the surface, Sucker Punch is a fanboy fever dream, crack underneath the surface though and you’ll just find more surface. The film is not entirely a failure, but it is beautifully disappointing. It’s about as empty and hallow as the platitudes the imaginary wise man (Scott Glenn) gives the girls before their mission. The best we can hope for is that the parts of the film that work inspires enough to get be transformed into something more substantive by the filmmaker wannabes that see it.

That’s where Aaron Soch from Synn Studios came into the picture. My interview skills combined with his savvy audio tech wizardry would make for the perfect combination. And out of a laid back conversation on a movie set last July, the idea was born for The Wyndham Street Podcast.

We produced this, I guess you could call it a ‘pilot,’ last summer. For the inaugural podcast, we interview filmmaker Reese Eveneshen about his latest zombie opus “Dead Genesis,” and then we talk to nerdcore rapper Embassy about hip-hop with a geeky slant.

I hope you enjoy the first Wyndham Street Podcast. With luck, there will be many more on a by-weekly basis, at least to start. Feel free to offer your feedback and suggestions in the comment section below.

In what was a sure sign of the times, it was announced during the Christmas holidays that Waterloo’s vaunted Generation X video would be closing its doors at the end of February. On February 28^th, a little piece of modern K-W history will close its doors and movie lovers who have yet to make the (full?) conversion to digital will miss something truly unique.

The arrival of Netflix last year in Canada was probably a sign for GenX owner Mike Greaves, who is closing his store while it’s still profitable enough to generate a “decent living”, but clearly long after the golden days were over. In a recent article in the Waterloo Region Record, Greaves laid out a pretty thorough timeline as to how his business has changed in the last 16 years, and why now’s the time for him to take a bow. He also left those of us who still enjoy the experience of going out to a bricks and mortar video store, and the sense of discovery that this can foster, a dire prediction:

“Renting and selling DVDs will be profitable for another five or 10 years for some shops if the owners are not paying rent and have very low over head, Greaves said.”

How the world has changed because of a little box and a wire that plugs into it. My saving grace is that predictions of this sort usually tend to be overly dire and pessimistic. My sister had a teacher in 1989 that predicted that all bookstores and libraries would be gone by 1994, and the last time I checked both those things were still with us, to various degrees of viability.

Certainly no one would argue that the retail video sector doesn’t face its challenges. Blockbuster seems to constantly teeter on the brink of financial collapse and have had to close nearly a thousand stores in the U.S. to remain viable. Rogers Video, meanwhile, seems to have had it a bit easier thanks to corporate hegemony and being able to offer service for cell phone, internet and cable subscribers alongside the aisles of rental movies and video games.

As always in this environment, the hardest hit and the hardest to maintain a competitive edge are the small businesses. And video was never an easy business to be in to begin with because the format seems to have a 10 year shelf life: VHS gave way to DVD at the end of the 90s, and now the conversion is on to Blu-ray. Along the way there were battles between competing formats: Betamax and VHS back in the 80s, HD DVD and Blu-Ray just five years ago.

What’s lost in the closing of a store like Generation X isn’t that you have to go somewhere else to rent a DVD, but that you lose a place of discovery. People who love anime didn’t discover it at the local Cineplex, or Blockbuster, or from their TV screens, that is unless it was something watered down and homogenized for North American TV like Sailor Moon or Astroboy. Cult classics, exploitation films, foreign cinema, forgotten masters, they all filled the shelves of your independent video stores. GenX, for its part, has a proud history of supporting queer cinema, and to this day has a section on its website dedicated to it specifically.

Renting videos at a chain or at the corner store was only ever going to get you what’s new and what’s popular, and it’s worse than ever if you’ve been in a video store lately. You can get one of 100 copies of Inception, but if you’re looking for a copy of Repo Man or just about anything by Terry Gilliam you’ll probably leave empty handed. And even if you never knew what either of those things were, chances are that some one at you indie video store would point them out to you. And that’s something that might be missed the most in the death of the video store experience. Sure you can find just about anything you want on the internet, but access might come at the expense of guidance, loyalty and trust.

I’m not sure if small time video stores, or even video stores in general, will be gone in 10 years, but GenX video will be gone in two months. For those interested GenX has begun selling off their stock, and all rentals will cease as of February 14^th. (Valentine’s Day… Bummer.) But one of my favourite things about GenX has been cancelled for a couple of years now: the Genxine, which was a zine featuring all sorts of movie reviews and related articles. It was small press, printed on newsprint and mostly black-and-white, but it was a wonderful little extra that made GenX so great. I suppose, in retrospect, the loss of Genxine was a sign of things to come.

So let us all say farewell to Generation X Video. You will be missed by your loyal though shrinking cliental.

Written By Adam A. Donaldson
Photo Courtesy of The Waterloo Region Record

Hillisde Inside just announced the first names for its fourth annual show, which this year will unfold across two days and at multiple locations around Downtown Guelph.

Sarah Harmer will headline the show with a performance at River Run Centre on Friday February 4^th, while the Saturday night show on February 5^th will feature the Arkells. Both Harmer and Arkells have previously taken the stage at the summer Hillside Festival on Guelph Lake Island.

Other artists playing the festival include Jim Bryson, who will be backed up by Winnipeg’s The Weakerthans. New Brunswick blues guitarist Matt Andersen and spoken word performer Shane Koyczan are also confirmed for Hillside Inside. More musicians, as well as songwriting workshops and visual performances, will be announced over the next several weeks.

Tickets for Hillside Inside, including a limited number of passes, will go on sale on December 4^th at the Hillside office and Ground Floor Music in Guelph, Encore Records in Kitchener and at Soundscapes in Toronto. Tickets will also be available online through ticketpro.ca.

For more information about the festival, you can visit the website here.

Written By In Magazine Staff

Joseph Chen is driving to the Gig Theatre in Kitchener to do a final dress rehearsal of sorts. He’s got the films to be run in his car and he’s taking them down to the venue located in downtown Kitchener to make sure the prints are ready to roll for the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema.

It started in 2001 when he was helping to run the anime club at the University of Waterloo when Chen realized a couple of things. First, there was the sheer diversity of animated cinema worldwide, beyond what was being done in Japan and North America. And second, there was a desire to start bringing animated cinema back to the venue it was meant to be seen in: the big screen.

Chen is employed by Blackberry-maker Research in Motion as a self-described “engineering hack.” He has a small team that helps with the logistics of the festival, but the program is put together by Chen himself. His goal in selecting films is to show off the storytelling potential in animated films. “Films here in North America tend to fall into two distinct camps,” explains Chen. “Either it’s really kiddie animation, like Saturday Morning cartoon fair, or you get the edgier adult stuff like Simpsons or Family Guy. It’s a really limited range in terms of what animation is capable of.”

As a result, Chen says the program tends to highlight “a little bit of everything.” From puppet animation to 2-D cel animation to 3-D computer animation, Chen judges the films by their content rather than the sophistication of their production. “In the general public there seems to be so much pigeonholing as to what animation’s supposed to be,” says Chen. “But it’s not about how you make the film, it’s about the story being told by the film.”

WFAC brings films from all over the world to Kitchener-Waterloo. But it’s not just a variety of localities, it’s a variety of tastes; from serious art house pictures to crowd pleasing hits. Chen admits that given the prevalence of computer animation as the medium of choice for North American animated films, he tries to look at other forms, but he still can’t exclude them. “It wouldn’t be fair to the film,” he says. “We go by story and we tend to find that the bad films try and use 3-D to cover-up for their deficiencies elsewhere. They’re not going to get selected anyway.

“At this festival you’re going to see things that are of a different nature,” he continues. “They don’t have the big budgets, but they’re a whole heck of a lot more fun. And in most instances, it’s not the budget that determines of good the film is. We’ve seen films done by a single person in their basement, rendering away on a couple of computers, that look better than some of the [films that spent] tens of millions on productions. It’s about art, it’s about creativity, and it’s not about how much you pay to the voice actors.”

In the last decade years, Chen says his festival has gone from a showing of animated films to a full-fledged animated film festival; a celebration of the form. Not only are new films being exhibited, but early animated films are being shown as well to give audiences the added gravitas of appreciating film history. At the same time though, Chen says he hasn’t forgotten the festival’s roots with a heavy emphasis on Japanese anime, although, he notes, that’s largely a coincidence because of the number of new films coming out of the country the last few years. Overall, the program is balanced, internationally speaking.

“We’re really looking forward to seeing how this film festival shapes up and whether the audience will like the directions we’re taking,” says Chen.

Independent animated filmmakers are now coming to Chen to exhibit their work at WFAC as well. The field of animated movies is a difficult one to break into, with the big companies monopolizing the spotlight with franchise pictures and blockbusters. “Animators are almost like a fraternity, or sorority, and it’s among the humblest of artistic communities I’ve seen anywhere. There’s so little jealousy and there’s so much appreciation for art, that whenever we have guests here, we always have a phenomenal time.”

And on those occasions, Chen has been pleased to be able to give these animators the spotlight they deserve; a share of the credit they don’t often receive with a little bit of that showbiz shine usually reserved for actors and directors. “In the course of doing this festival, the most gratifying thing was been to establish a bridge between the audience and the artistic community.”

From a small club of anime appreciators at the U of W, to an internationally recognized festival with a unique niche, Chen didn’t just start a film festival, he opened the world to Waterloo. “I was gratified to learn that there was a whole world of animation out there and a whole community of animators worldwide that produce beautiful work. It’s one thing to know they’re out there, but it’s another to experience them with an entire community.”

This year is the tenth anniversary of WFAC, and the festival is promoting itself hard as the only film festival in the world dedicated to feature animation. The line-up for 2010 includes the usual North American and World Premieres that the Festival’s become known for, along with a special presentation about the future of the art form.

Here’s this year’s program:

• Daredevils of Sasun by Arman Manaryan, Armenia, 2010. The first animated feature film from Armenia, and the first screen depiction of the founding epic of the Armenian nation.
• Goodbye Mr. Christie by Phil Mulloy, U.K., 2010. “If Disney is animation’s heart, then British animator Phil Mulloy is its bowels.” - Chris Robinson, OIAF
• Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then by Brent Green, U.S.A., 2010. Director will be in attendance. “A tinkerer’s ode to a tinkerer, and a romantic’s tribute to a romantic.” - The New York Times
• In the Attic: Who Has A Birthday Today? by Jiří Barta, Czech Republic / Japan, 2010. Winner of the Grand Prize at the 2010 New York International Children’s Film Festival.
• Piercing I by Liu Jian, People’s Republic of China, 2009. Director will be in attendance. A film about the human experience of unrelenting social change.
• Redline by Takeshi Koike, Japan, 2010. “The most insanely exciting, visually exhilarating anime film you’ve seen in decades.” – Tim Maughan, AWN
• Summer Wars by Mamoru Hosoda, Japan, 2010. By the director of the WFAC 2007 fan favourite and the Japan Media Arts Festival Awards winner, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.”
• The Rainbow by Joška Marušić, Croatia, 2010. Inspired by the short stories “The Rainbow” and “The Horseman”, by 19th-century Croatian writer Dinko Šimunović.”
• The Ugly Duckling by Garri Bardin, Russian Federation, 2010. Director will be in attendance. Based on the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen.
• The Rebirth of Buddha by Takaaki Ishiyama, Japan, 2009. Director will be in attendance. The apocalypse told from the perspective of Buddhist spiritualism.
• Trigun: Badlands Rumble by Yasuko Kobayashi, Japan, 2010. A western with style, in the way only anime can.
• And a special presentation: a lecture free and open to the public: Bring Your Vision To The Screen by Ben Steele, U.S.A. An inspiring lecture on the future of computer animation by the founder of the cross-media initiative aoineko. What are the fundamental ingredients to successful animated film storytelling? What pivotal role will animation play over the course of rapid technological development over the next decade? What new technologies are fundamentally changing the way that animation is produced and experienced?

For more information about the festival, or to get tickets, go to the festival’s website.

Written By Adam A. Donaldson

Fearson’s work is impressive. Short and often brilliant, his poemspack such a punch, you’ll see stars around your head, but it’s not because he’s a noisy performance artist. He needs no tricks or gimmicks. He is soft-spoken, thoughtful, deliberate, and impeccably timed. His latest book, Noise in My Mind (RWF Publishing) is easily available for Guelph area bookworms by going online at indiepool.com.

iN Magazine: Have you ever performed in the Guelph area?

Rudyard Fearon: In March, 2006, I read at Whitchurch-Stouffville Public Library. It was an intimate and warm atmosphere. I am looking to reading there again, maybe in the fall, to promote my new book, Noise in my Mind.

iN: Give a brief run down on your publishing history.

RF. Just before leaving Jamaica, I got my first poem “Maxi” published in a (Arts and Entertainment) magazine called NOW. The publisher, Stewart Brown, was so impressed with my poem that he sent me a personal letter advising me who to read, and where and how to send out my work. I am forever grateful to him, for I was never conscious that I had that kind of talent. I had just turned 21. When I migrated to Canada I kept writing and sending out my poems to newspapers, such as Toronto Sun’s “Poets Corner” where I placed a few poems, and to various magazines and newspapers that also published some of my poems.

iN: What made you decide to publish as an inde artist?

RF. I never really thought of starting a press. The opportunity arose in the year 2000 when I met Andrew Lee who was about to publish a compilation of U of T artists on a CD-ROM. He had approached me to record a piece by me “Somebody Had To Die”. He previously published one of my poems in a U of T campus publication. The CD-ROM he produced, Naked Walls, and it encompassed both text and audio. I was really impressed with this technology, so I asked him to help me produce Free Soil. I thought it was a wonderful way to showcase the performance aspect of my work, and the written text to go along with it. It was then I decided to form RWF Publishing, a press solely to produce my own brand of poetry. After producing the successful CD-ROM Free Soil, I decided to take the production further by publishing my book Spin (2004) along with the Free Soil text, a sort of double book, mainly because I wanted to go the conventional way this time around, to present Free Soil on the conventional page. I, then, to chance (sic) by asking ask George Elliott Clarke for a Foreword and he gladly complied.

iN: How did your stint with Bravo (Heart of a Poet series)come about?

RF: The Bravo series, Heart of a Poet, came about when one of the producers of the Bravo project saw me reading at the Art Bar reading series, and asked me to be one of the subjects for the series.

iN: What advice would you give to emerging writers?

RF: I would advise young artists to learn as much as they can about the craft of the art they are practicing. It is only through knowledge, and of course talent, that an artist can grow. No matter what kind of art one is practicing, the craft is as important as the message.

iN: Is it important for emerging artists to find a niche, as in business, for their creative work? Is writing alone enough these days?

RF: It is important to know what kind of art one wants to produce. For me, I knew my niche is the short, condensed style of writing, although I didn’t set out at first to write in that style. It happened naturally. All I did was to refine it when I realized that was my strong suit. I don’t think one should write poetry to make a profit. Those who have, those who were too popular in their time, quite often found posterity frowned upon them. Their work quite often becomes dated – and almost sentimental.

iN: What is your opinion on Canadian readers and poetry. Is poetry a hard sell and why? What needs to be done by the poetry community?

RF: I think Canadian poetry and literature to be at a very high standard. At the Art Bar Reading series the open stage is at such a high standard that performers often rival the main features. If I was to make a criticism on poetry, as a whole, I would say some poets have taken poetry a bit outside the realm of poetry and too far into the realm of prose. I don’t think classic style poetry will ever sell; such is the culture, but the freer form, such as Spoken Word, is drawing large audiences, especially among the younger generation.

iN: Public persona, performance, the written word – what comes first and foremost for you?

RF: It might surprise many who know me through my readings to say the written word comes first. For me it is not so much what is said; it is how it is said. Thus craft is an integral part of my writing. The question of how does a writer write, what is the influence, is a time-old question. I am not really sure how to answer such a question. I know I just don’t write a poem because I want to write a poem. I guess I write through some divine inspiration. There is no other way to explain it.

iN: I see your poems as a distillation of expression, like a rock that has been tumbled into valuable diamonds. Describe your creative process? For example, are you inspired by what you observe and, then, internalize? Or does the poem begin with a feeling that you put out into the world and make visible? Perhaps neither of these methods?

RF: I often get a thought running through my head then I write in a stream of consciousness. Then I edit, and edit until I get it. That’s the only truthful way I can explain it.

iN: In what way is your cultural background significant as a writer in Canada? How does it inform your writing?

RF: I think I am blessed to come from a multicultural background. It is great resource to write from. I can’t envision writing some of the poems that I have written if I had born in Canada – and if I wasn’t black.

iN: Name one or two living poets and one or two dead poets who have done much to influence you and shape or guide your way as an artist.

RF: Early in my career I was truly fascinated with the temperament of Robert Frost, but have grown to like so many other poets. Quite often a particular poem rather than the poet, but poets like John Donne and, of course, Shakespeare are the benchmarks for a learning poet.

iN: What would you like people to know especially about your new book Noise? How does this book compare to others you have written?

RF: My new book, Noise in my Mind is even more experimental, I think, than my other work. I felt more brave in playing with the language, line break, stanza break, etc.

iN: Final words?

RF: I felt if I had not made those publications, the books and CD, I would not have been invited to do the Bravo series, nor would I be asked to donate my literary papers. All in all, it took 30 years to reach where I am now. I guess patience can sometimes be a virtue.

Other publications by Rudyard Fearon include Spin (2004) and Free Soil (Videorecording, Blue Cardinal Films, 2008). For information about the Art Bar Series, visit www.artbar.org.

Written By Sheila O’Hearn