The Canadian documentary “Betrayal”, directed by Lena Macdonald, chronicles the whistleblowing of Cindor Reeves crucial to the war crimes conviction of Liberian President Charles Taylor by the United Nations backed special court for Sierra Leone in 2012. Taylor was convicted of sexual violence, physical violence, abductions, terrorizing civilian populations, forced labour and utilization of childContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Betrayal”: Not One but Many”
Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)
RKS Literature: Writing is Like Dreaming (Wally Lamb)
“He followed me into the bathroom, peeling a banana. “Depressing, I was cranking up on a new poem when some dipshit called, trying to sell us a storage freezer. Writing is a lot like dreaming, you know? There’s a subconscious connection, you know. Once someone intrudes, it’s like trying to go back to sleep toContinue reading “RKS Literature: Writing is Like Dreaming (Wally Lamb)”
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Losing Patience with Marynissen: Not Charmed by This Charmed Rosé
John Marynissen might be categorized as a Niagara wine legend but he’s long gone and at last account the winery is in the hands of a Chinese investors, I think. The winery website states the winery was sold in 2012 but for some reason (wonder why) fails to reveal the identity of the purchaser(s). Whatever,Continue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Losing Patience with Marynissen: Not Charmed by This Charmed Rosé”
RKS Literature: Too Much Pineapple Juice and Ashley’s Stinky (Wally Lamb)
“Ashley pulled at her mother’s pant leg and Paula bent down to hear the secret. “Well, Ashley, maybe next time you’ll listen to Mommy about drinking too much pineapple juice. Come on we’ll just have to tinkle behind the car.” “But I don’t have to tinkle. I have to make a stinky.” Wally Lamb, “She’sContinue reading “RKS Literature: Too Much Pineapple Juice and Ashley’s Stinky (Wally Lamb)”
RKS 2025 Wine: Agiorgitiko a Greek Munga Red From Zacharias
From Nemea in the Peloponnese a “oak aged” Agiorgitiko. Having been in Thessaloniki in November for the Thessaloniki 65th Annual Film Festival I found perhaps the best wine shop right by the main port buildings. The red wine leader on the shelves was Agiorgitiko and the same held true for supermarket and the smaller cornerContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Agiorgitiko a Greek Munga Red From Zacharias”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Unwelcomed” (Si Vas para Chile)
“Unwelcomed” is yet another migrant crisis examined. During the COVID pandemic some 8 million Venezuelans migrants poured out of their economically and politically failing country. Some 300,000 Venezuelan undocumented migrants are presently in Chile. The journey is perilous fraught with gang robbery, murder and rape but the promised land lures the migrants. But what awaitsContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Unwelcomed” (Si Vas para Chile)”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Life Invisible”: Combatting Superbugs and a Lithium Obsession
Chilean microbiologist Professor Cristina Dorador rings the alarm bell many others have been ringing for decades. The wholesale and indiscriminate use of antibiotics has given those bad microbes it once easily defeated an opportunity to mutate and resist antibiotics killing an estimated five million people a year. We follow Dorador on an expedition to theContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Life Invisible”: Combatting Superbugs and a Lithium Obsession”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “La Femme Equi-Libre”: Horsing Around with Mental Health
The short documentary “La Femme Equi-Libre” focuses on the Elm Grove Centre in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island run by Josée Gallant Gordon a graduate social worker. Gordon offers equine therapy to mental health patients and in lieu of tranquilizing patients with enough tranquilizers to kill a horse the horse and therapist playContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “La Femme Equi-Libre”: Horsing Around with Mental Health”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “Becoming Ruby”: In the Footsteps of the Pansy Craze?
Alex Nguyen, a Vietnamese Winnipegger, struggled with his queerness at an early age. His progression into drag queen Ruby Chopstix was fraught with self doubt. Alex became the first resident drag artist of Winnipeg’s The Rainbow Resource Centre’s “Drag Artist in Residence” supporting drag artists to uplift “a beautiful form of queerness and culture” throughContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “Becoming Ruby”: In the Footsteps of the Pansy Craze?”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “Crossing the Great Divide” in the United States: Braver Angels
Watching American news in the past few years and speaking with Americans, most recently in California, one senses a polarized nation where a 6Jan21 riot was illustrative of a greater shade of polarization namely extremism. Rioters seen by some as “patriots” and by others as criminal insurrectionists. As to politics and related points of viewContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “Crossing the Great Divide” in the United States: Braver Angels”
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