Canada's Environmental Voice
This suite of eight-foot by eight-foot paintings by Ottawa-based painter Stephen Hutchings is a character study of storms, each as distinct as a snowflake. “The Tower” is fierce and concentrated, capturing a tornado column as it violently strikes an idyllic green field. “Gathering Storm” is ominous and foreboding, with its swirl […]
The political left has been unable to counter the vision of wealth, personal autonomy and traditional values offered by conservative proponents of the free market. To my mind – which admittedly has a left academic bias – we will need a new way of thinking to do so. In this […]
Jock Brandis works for peanuts, or more accurately, for peanut shellers. His hand-cranked invention, the Universal Nut Sheller, enables farmers to shell nuts 60 times faster than they can by hand. In Thinking Big, Building Small, Jock’s sister Marianne – a Stratford, Ontario-based writer – tells the story of the […]
The vision promoted by Masanobu Fukuoka to fight desertification using natural farming methods is undeniably an appealing one. Sowing Seeds in the Desert is the latest attempt to revitalize the teachings of this farmer and philosopher. Initially published in Japanese in the mid-1990s, the book’s vintage adds poignancy to Fukuoka’s […]
Many people are already reaching for organic products on supermarket shelves. But does certified organic really mean health, harmony and happy cows? This young American director makes it clear that many people also aren’t really sure.
With 350 riveting images, Québec-based photojournalist Éric St.-Pierre takes us into the lives of coffee growers drying beans on jute-covered tables in Ethiopia, flower workers wrapping roses in cardboard boxes in Ecuador, and rice farmers sowing seeds in paddy fields in Thailand. St.-Pierre doesn’t hide the harshness of their lives. […]
It would be easy for a writer to bite off more than they can chew by addressing subjects as far-reaching as colonialism, genocide and the guiding magnetic orientation of bees. But in Matt Soltys’ first book, he not only addresses these diverse, complex topics, he weaves them into a thundering […]
Although it opens by framing sunlight on a forest floor, it’s hardly obvious that Sarah J. Christman’s newest (and lengthiest) documentary explores how matter is reshaped by energy. Contemplative scenery reveals as much as the dialogue, while unidentified speakers and a deliberate absence of talking heads keep the narrative elusive.
In 2002, New York’s Department of Education began a radical measure to boost struggling youth above the grinding realities of poverty by creating hundreds of small schools in embattled communities. Filmed in the South Bronx, this candid documentary profiles the implementation of this project at the Bronx Center for Science […]
The title character of this 20-minute, interactive National Film Board documentary is a grizzly that was caught and tagged as Bear 71 in Banff National Park in 2001 at the age of three, then monitored until her death eight years later. Filmmakers Jeremy Mendes and Leanne Allison use a navigable […]
