Canada's Environmental Voice
Thinking outside of the box is fun. It’s challenging, creative, sometimes comical and – surprisingly often – useful. It can help you understand things in unexpected ways. And out-of-the-box thinking can lead to innovative approaches to environmental opportunities and creative solutions to persistent problems. There are scads of guides and […]
Terra Lightfoot played at Hillside Music Festival and the Harvest Picnic this summer. These are two festivals that I keep my eye on because they weave environment so beautifully into their occasion. Both keep their event footprint sustainably light, and they attract artists (and patrons) who care about the planet […]
Last week, Planet in Focus wrapped their five-days of 60 films, from 15 countries, attended by 30 international and Canadian filmmakers. With numerous sold-out screenings including their opening event “An Evening with Dr. Vandana Shiva”, the attendance for this year’s event was up 15 percent from last year.
Now in it’s 16th year running, Planet in Focus is an environmental media arts organization dedicated to showcasing films that question, explore and tell stories about the world we live in. The Film Festival — based in Toronto — kicks off this Wednesday with Vandana Shiva, author, journalist, and global […]
Festivals with clear skies are a rare sight to behold, but a festival with clear grounds — now that’s truly a sight to see. When you step onto the Guelph Lake Conservation Area, where Hillside Festival is based, festivalgoers are accosted by unique music, rather than the crunch of garbage […]
“Science insists that we can’t express particulars. But we love things in particular, not in general … and when you love something in particular, you’re not inclined to see that it could be replaced by anything else.” – Karen Houle, writer-in-residence, rare Charitable Research Reserve.
In his brief career, Phil Ochs wrote over 100 songs – many of them about civil rights and other caring social/environmental observations. “When I’m Gone” was just one of his many anthems pointing toward a better world. From a songwriting standpoint, Elephant Revival does not appear to be influenced by Ochs’ music, […]
The Watershed is a documentary verbatim play, created through a research and community building process. The play focuses on writer Annabel Soutar’s research into the federal government’s 2012–2014 closing of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA). The ELA is a scientific ecosystem research facility in Ontario that was transferred to a […]
Annabel Soutar and Chris Abraham are, respectively, the artistic directors of Montreal’s Porte Parole theatre and Toronto’s Crows Theatre. Between 2012 and 2014, the two collaborated on producing and touring Seeds, a play about the use and spread of genetically modified organisms. I spoke to them last weekend about their new […]
This art needs to be seen and appreciated.
