Cinema Studies

Reel impact: How a U of T alum brought free films to Toronto parks each summer

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 14:54:03 +0000

Reel impact: How a U of T alum brought free films to Toronto parks each summer

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 08/16/2024 - 10:54

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U of T alumna and TOPS founder Emily Reid, right, poses with Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow during a TOPS screening this summer (photo by Rebecca Tisdelle-Macias)

David Goldberg

Topic

City & Culture

Alumni

Cinema Studies

Film

Innis College

St. Michael's College

Subheadline

'There are times when I get caught up in the planning and the numbers of it all – but that goes away at showtime. When I look out and see such an impressive crowd, it's very touching and I feel enormously proud of it'

For more than a decade, the Toronto Outdoor Picture Show (TOPS) has been a staple of the city's summer scene. Whether it’s a cultural touchstone film or something more obscure, the screenings bring thousands of people together.

And it’s all thanks to University of Toronto alumna Emily Reid.

“TOPS exists at the intersection of community, culture, cinema, public spaces, accessibility and affordability, providing programming that is available to everyone regardless of financial means,” says Reid, who is the artistic and executive director of TOPS.

The venture began humbly in 2011, just a few months after Reid earned her master of arts degree from the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Cinema Studies Institute.

The first screening billed as, “Movies in Christie Pits”, was a small, potentially one-off event, but Reid was determined to tap into something the city craved.

“I think there is such a strong desire for gathering and fostering cultural experiences together,” she says.

Within a few years, however, the park was packed every Sunday night – so Reid added more shows at more locations. After rebranding as Toronto Outdoor Picture Show and registering as a not-for-profit, Reid started running TOPS on a full-time basis.

“I didn't expect it to pay much, and I was right about that. It took quite a long time to take a salary,” says Reid. “And there are times when I get caught up in the planning and the numbers of it all – but that goes away at showtime. When I look out and see such an impressive crowd, it's very touching and I feel enormously proud of it.”

TOPS registered as a charity in 2020, which helped secure new government grants and sponsorship opportunities. This growth made it possible for Reid to hire more full-time staff and purchase better AV equipment to make the organization nimbler and more autonomous.

Thousands of people flock to Toronto parks every summer to catch Toronto Outdoor Picture Show (photo courtesy of TOPS)

Lights, camera, education

Growing up in the 1990s in small-town Quebec, the only movies Reid could watch were the ones she rented from the local video store. Her favourites included A League of Their Own and Strictly Ballroom.

Reid was infatuated with film but realized she wasn’t a born filmmaker. Her true calling was in film curation and supporting other people’s artistic goals. She knew U of T could open the right doors and give her the experience she needed to make an impact.

“Toronto always sounded like a mythical place to be,” says Reid. “I knew its reputation as a city of cinephiles and a city of festivals; I’d never been to the Toronto International Film Festival.”

For the practicum requirement of Reid’s master’s degree, she worked at Toronto’s historic Revue Cinema, where she pitched and curated her first film series. She also learned the ins and outs of film sourcing, marketing and event production – all essential skills for her future startup.

U of T played a pivotal role in expanding Reid’s industry network. She formed close bonds with the 13 people in her cinema studies cohort, some of whom later became her collaborators at TOPS.

Felan Parker, associate professor, teaching stream, in the Book & Media Studies program at St. Michael's College, is a TOPS co-founder who has served several terms on the board of directors and regularly contributes to festival programming.

“Emily is the driving force behind TOPS, having taken it from humble beginnings to what is easily the biggest and best outdoor movie event in the city,” says Parker. “She is probably the most fastidious person I know, and community-oriented public arts is her passion and vocation.”

There’s a strong connection between U of T and TOPS, which draws more than 30,000 movie-goers each year (photo courtesy of TOPS)

Parker and Reid have teamed up to build strong ties between U of T and TOPS. The organization has hosted numerous for-credit undergrad interns.

Isabella Brown, for example, is a U of T graduate who joined TOPS as an intern and is now the organization's program administrator.

Despite TOPS’ success, Reid is tasked with overcoming existential threats year in and year out, citing underfunding of the arts. She says government grants are shrinking while inflation is rising.

“We lost all our sponsorship funding in the first week of the pandemic. And most of that has never returned, even though our festival is so much bigger, so much more successful than it was in 2019,” says Reid.

But Reid is hopeful that TOPS will continue hosting outdoor film screenings for many years to come. She knows the value it brings to the city she now calls home.

“When we hear that some arts entity is calling it quits, that doesn't mean something else won't come in its place. But it takes at least a decade to create something impactful. And we don’t live in a time where there are many resources available to create new things,” she says, adding that TOPS is grateful to the patrons who keep the festival running summer after summer.

“We need to preserve what we love and what we value as the cultural fabric of this city.”

U of T prof takes home award at Sundance Film Festival

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 18:06:40 +0000

U of T prof takes home award at Sundance Film Festival

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 02/13/2024 - 13:06

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Brett Story, an assistant professor at U of T’s Cinema Studies Institute, says it was the first time she had a film premiere at the Sundance Film Festival (photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Sean McNeely

Topic

City & Culture

Cinema Studies

Faculty of Arts & Science

Film

Subheadline

Brett Story co-directed Union, which follows a group of workers who successfully organize the first labour union at online retail giant Amazon

The University of Toronto’s Brett Story recently returned from the Sundance Film Festival, where the documentary she co-directed about a group of unionizing Amazon employees won the festival’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change.

Union follows a group of current and former Amazon workers in the New York City borough of Staten Island as they attempt to organize an independent labour union at the online retail giant.

An assistant professor at the Cinema Studies Institute in the Faculty of Arts & Science, Story recently spoke to writer Sean McNeely about the film, her time at Sundance and the lessons she’s passing on to her students.

What is Union about?

Union is a documentary chronicling the organizing efforts of a group of Amazon workers in Staten Island, N.Y., who organized the first ever successful union campaign at an Amazon facility. We were there from day one and we filmed for almost three years documenting their efforts to form an independent union without institutional affiliation. When they won their election, they became the first Amazon union in America. But it’s not just a film about employees versus the employer, it’s really a film about how hard it is to organize people.

And we didn't know they were going to win. In fact, the decision to make the film – that it was worth documenting their process – was made independent of any kind of real evaluation of whether or not they had the capacity to win. It didn't seem like they could win. This was basically a small group of people outside, under a tent, who are trying to unionize a workplace that even the Teamsters deemed unsuitable.

Union, co-directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing, won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change at Sundance (image supplied)

How was the experience of being at Sundance?

It's got the aura of a very glamorous festival, but it takes place at a very high elevation in Park City, Utah, which is a ski town. It's very snowy – so instead of red-carpet glamour, everyone's wearing snow boots and sweaters.

But it's so exciting, especially the first weekend. There's tons of press – all the critics are in the room, all the buyers. Part of the hype around Sundance is that it’s a big market. So it's not just the prestige, it's also knowing there's an opportunity to get distribution. A lot of independent films, including my own, that go to Sundance don't have a distributor, so we don't know where anyone's going to be able to see this film outside of a festival.

The hope is that at Sundance, you can get someone to distribute it. That didn't happen for us yet. We're still waiting to see if anyone's going pick it up. It's a bit of a hot-button film. Obviously, Amazon isn't going to buy it.

But, realistically, when the media landscape is dominated by media-tech companies, one has to ask whether any of them want to touch a film about a scrappy labour movement that took on one of the world's biggest companies. We’re optimistic that someone will pick it up because it’s an exciting story and we think we did it cinematic justice in our film.

How was the screening of your movie?

Watching it with an audience was a really special, beautiful experience. People laughed and cried, and we got a big standing ovation. For me, part of the joy of making a film is watching how other people respond to it. It's then out of my own mind and into the imaginations of others.

Were participants in the movie at the screening?

Yes – not everybody, but we brought eight people. You’re not always able to do that. It's very expensive and people have complicated lives. But it was important for us. The film honours their hard work. They showed a lot of vulnerability, allowing us into their lives.

And it's only fair that the rewards of making a film – like getting applause, or having people tell you that it's amazing – don't just accrue to the filmmakers. Those should be felt by the people who are in the film.

What was your reaction to Union winning an award?

This was the first time I'd ever had a premiere at Sundance, so it was a big deal. I tend to not have expectations about these things – that keeps me from disappointment. But it's a huge honour to even be at Sundance. We only finished the film six days before the festival started.

From left to right: Brett Story and Stephen Maing hold the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for the Art of Change at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival (photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

How does your filmmaking impact your teaching?

The great thing about having taught last term was that I could tell students, in real time, what I was struggling with regarding the construction of the film. At one point, we couldn’t decide on our opening and my co-director and I were having this artistic disagreement, so I could talk to them about that process and show them the different possible openings. I think it was fun for them to see me go through that and complete the film.

What’s your advice to students who are thinking of making a movie?

It's important to understand that failure is part of the process. The only way to learn how to make a film is to actually make one. If there isn't the possibility that what you try might fail, then you're not actually trying anything at all.

A lot of the exercises I'm doing in my class right now are about limitation. We just did an exercise where the students made a film but were only allowed to use one shot. Their next exercise is to make a sound film in which they're not allowed to have any images. There's something about these kinds of limitations that helps them understand the tools a little better and hopefully take risks.

One doesn’t just “become” a filmmaker overnight. It is a practice like any other and the most important thing is to not let yourself get discouraged. I got a film in Sundance and won a big award. It's huge for my career. But this is my fourth feature film and I've been making films for over 15 years. I could have given up after my first film didn't get into Sundance, but I didn't and I learned from it.

Can you show Union to your class?

Right now we're on a festival rollout. I won’t be able to have a public screening until we have a festival screening. I hope to report soon on where the film will play in Toronto. It makes a difference to watch something with a big audience, so I will probably show them scenes but will wait until the film is playing in a theatre to invite them all. And then, yes, absolutely, we will hopefully show it at Innis (College).

U of T 'Horror Film' course keeps students on the edge of their seats

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:20:29 +0000

U of T 'Horror Film' course keeps students on the edge of their seats

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 10/31/2023 - 11:20

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The "Horror Film" class offered through U of T’s Cinema Studies Institute examines movies spanning several decades, including early horror pictures (photos by LMPC via Getty Images, Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

“Horror provides a structured, formal space to explore experiences like death, decay and monstrosity that may otherwise be dangerous, hidden or off-limits"

When Carrie Reese turned 10, she invited friends to her house for a sleep-over birthday party and chose a special film to mark the occasion.

Equipped with plenty of pillows to clutch and hide behind, she and her friends nervously pressed play and began watching Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic 1963 horror film, The Birds.

Carrie Reese (supplied image)

It was the beginning of a lifelong interest in scary movies that she is now sharing through her course, Horror Film, at the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Cinema Studies Institute (See a list of Reese’s picks for Halloween viewing below).

The course examines horror films through a critical thinking lens, exploring key elements such as gender and genre as well as notions of space, the home and ownership. That extends to discussing ways that horror connects to emotion and experience, and how emotions like fear and dread can be visualized.

“It's about getting students to learn through images and to understand the value in studying images,” says Reese, a sessional instructor who holds a PhD in cinema studies from U of T. “Rather than talking about whether a film is good or bad, we’re critically investigating it and seeing how it helps us to understand different modes of being.”

The class studies movies spanning several decades including modern films such as Us (2019) and Candyman (1992), to classics such as Jaws (1975), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and early horror pictures such at Cat People (1942) and the original Frankenstein (1931).

(Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images)

Reese says she loves the fact that every student’s approach, interest and reaction to horror movies is unique, and she feeds off this wide spectrum of experiences and perspectives.

“I encourage students to come to horror movies in different ways and through their own interests,” she says. “It's been rewarding to see students who maybe have never taken a cinema studies class before and are able to have their first experience with the discipline through horror.”

Part of the course requires a deep dive into the films’ stories, and the techniques and methods used to evoke a fearful response.

“One of my favorite things to look at in horror is editing,” says Reese. “If there's something that's edited in like a jump scare, why are we responding to that? Because it's put in at a time that’s not expected. So we’re breaking those things down and talking about our reactions, but also examining how this is created on screen – how there are patterns in horror that we come to expect, but nevertheless continually surprise us.”

When it comes to fearful responses, Reese sees them first-hand during her in-class screenings of the course’s movies as the crowd of students hold their breath together or sigh in relief.

“It’s absolutely delightful to engage in screenings as a community and I think it's such an important experience,” says Reese, adding that the screenings are paired with reflective discussions that follow.

“We’re looking at how these things are presented visually and stylistically, and I’m seeing firsthand the way these images have shifted ways of critically thinking about media, about emotion, and about politics.”

But why do we subject ourselves to being frightened?

(Photo by Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images)

“This paradox, enjoying horror, has been studied in some of the canonical horror literature and it’s one of the things I had students explore in the first few weeks of the course,” says Reese.

“Horror provides a structured, formal space to explore experiences like death, decay and monstrosity that may otherwise be dangerous, hidden or off-limits. Part of the thrill is in seeing things we’re typically not supposed to see or experience. This is articulated in the ‘paradox of horror,’ or why we seek out and derive pleasure from frightening, horrific experiences, as articulated through the cinematic medium.”

Eric Kim, a second-year student and member of Woodsworth College with a double major in cinema studies and East Asian studies, says he is enjoying the class but admits he isn't a fan of horror films.

“I never really liked them growing up,” he says. “But over the past few years, I've really appreciated what directors like Jordan Peele (Nope, Us, Get Out) were doing with horror, and it made me realize what a strange blind spot it was in my understanding.

“What is it about a film that makes you want to scream in fear? I just wanted to dive into that question and confront that. And it's led to how I can start discussing my own anxieties through what I want to research in my other courses or what I create with my own stories and comics. Unknotting these emotions and finding a new creative perspective inside has been a delightful discovery.”

Addisa O’Brien Thompson, a member of Trinity College and a second-year student with a double major in cinema studies and international relations, says she adores horror films and being scared.

“I’m a fan of scary things,” she says. “Through this course, I’ve gained the ability to better analyze the variety of methods in which terror and disquiet are portrayed through film and instilled into the spectator. What I enjoy most about this course is how I have opportunities to explore the horror genre through these practical means.”

All of this analysis has inspired O’Brien Thompson to make a short film of her own for the course’s final assignment.

Similarly, Kim says he's inspired to create his own story. “It's forced me to reconsider everything I thought I understood about horror and encouraged me to start think about making one."

Six films Carrie Reese recommends for Halloween:

Ringu (dir. Hideo Nakata, 1998)

“A notorious Japanese horror film that I love for its take on the monstrosity of media. You may have seen the American remake, but the original provides a texture to its treatment of video and technology that I think is lost in the Hollywood version.”

Rec (dir. Paco Plaza, Jaume Balagueró, 2007)

“A scary, fun found-footage horror film that is a gruesome and increasingly relevant commentary on illness and quarantine.”

Raw (dir. Julia Ducournau, 2016)

“This film is known for its audience response to gore, but I promise it’s not as bad as the press makes it out to be. A coming-of-age cannibal story.”

Goodnight Mommy (dir. Veronika Franz, 2014)

“This is a film that has stuck with me for both its style and unique treatment of themes in the horror genre, including doubles, imposters, and cosmetic surgery. Worth a watch for the opening alone.”

Blood Quantum (dir. Jeff Barnaby, 2019)

“Another brilliant take on the zombie film that uses the genre to explore Indigenous heritage. The title refers to laws used to determine indigeneity. Shot in Quebec and New Brunswick.”

Nanny (dir. Nikyatu Jusu, 2022)

“This is a surrealist horror take that I have been thinking about because of the ways it so seriously and beautifully grapples with migration, work and care.”

U of T Faculty of Law hosts screening of film celebrating 'the supreme life of Rosalie Abella'

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:56:10 +0000

U of T Faculty of Law hosts screening of film celebrating 'the supreme life of Rosalie Abella'

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/27/2023 - 09:56

Cutline

A U of T alumna, Rosalie Abella was the first pregnant woman appointed to the judiciary in Canada, the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada and the first Jewish woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada (photo by Polina Teif)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

"Rosie has been motivated by the pursuit of justice and a steadfast, infectious belief in the power of individuals, institutions and the law to be forces for the good"

Equal rights champion. Innovator. Icon.

For her many accomplishments, retired Supreme Court of Canada justice Rosalie Silberman Abella, a dual graduate of the University of Toronto’s University College and the Faculty of Law, is the focus of a new documentary about her life, Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella.

U of T Law will host a special screening of the film Thursday, which had its debut premier at Hot Docs International Film Festival this spring. The event will be held at the Jackman Law Building in the room that honours Abella: The Rosalie Silberman Abella Moot Court Room.

“Rosie has been motivated by the pursuit of justice and a steadfast, infectious belief in the power of individuals, institutions and the law to be forces for the good,” says University Professor Jutta Brunnée, dean of the Faculty of Law and James Marshall Tory Dean’s Chair. “She's inspired generations of students and young lawyers.”

Abella’s is an especially storied legal career.

Her father graduated with master’s degree in law from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, but war broke out before he was ever able to practise. Her parents were married on Sept. 3, 1939 – the day Britain declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland – and both survived several years in different concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Abella was born after the war on July 1, 1946 in a displaced persons camp in Stuttgart, Germany. The family came to Canada as Jewish refugees in 1950. But as a non-citizen, her father could not practise law.

“It's one of my earliest memories in Canada, of his coming home and saying, 'I can't be a lawyer here’. I remember saying – ‘Then I'm going to be a lawyer’ – I had no idea what it meant. But I was four years old and could see how disappointed he was,” she told a U of T audience in 2019 when she received U of T’s Rose Wolfe Distinguished Alumni Award.

“I just stayed on that course. I was going to be what he couldn't be. What was amazing was that he never complained. Neither of my parents or grandmother ever complained. They thought that this is a country of opportunities, but you have to make them happen.”

True to her vow, Abella graduated from U of T Law in 1970. She was one of only seven women in a class of 150 law students.

She became the first pregnant woman appointed to the judiciary in Canada at age 29. She was also the first refugee appointed to the bench in Canada, as well the first Jewish woman appointed to Canada’s Supreme Court.

Among her many contributions to legal thought and jurisprudence, Abella created the term and concept of employment equity when she was the sole commissioner of the 1984 federal Royal Commission on Equality in Employment. Her definition of equality was adopted by the Supreme Court of Canada in its first decision under Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Our generation revolutionized how the law worked for people,” says Abella in Without Precedent.

Rosalie Abella with her late husband Irving Abella in a still from the film (image courtesy of Melbar Entertainment Group)

Following the screening, Abella, the distinguished jurist-in-residence at U of T Law who received an honorary degree from the university in 1990, will be joined in conversation with the award-winning filmmakers of Melbar Entertainment Group.

"In a long career of documenting the famous and the infamous, the rare opportunity to focus on an individual with the insight, humanity and power to change history and lives was one of the great highlights of my career," says director and producer, Barry Avrich, a graduate of Woodsworth College whose previous credits include Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz and David Foster: Off the Record.

"This film is a testament of an infinitely inspiring journey that will be remembered for generations."

Producer Mark Selby, a graduate of the cinema studies program in the Faculty of Arts & Science, says he's thrilled to have the documentary screened at U of T.

“Canada does not make celebrities out of its Supreme Court justices, but if ever there was someone who should be renowned across the country for her incomparable achievements and devotion to helping people, it’s Rosalie Abella,” Selby said.

Black History Month 2023: What's on across U of T's three campuses

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:58:26 +0000

Black History Month 2023: What's on across U of T's three campuses

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 02/01/2023 - 12:58

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Volunteers serve food at the annual Black History Month Luncheon three years ago, when the event was last held in-person (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Adina Bresge

Topic

City & Culture

Black Founders Network

Canadian Black Scientists Network

Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office

Black

Black History Month

Cinema Studies

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education

Film

Hart House

Innis College

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Rotman School of Management

Toronto International Film Festival

U of T Mississauga

U of T Scarborough

From dance parties to thought-provoking panels and celebrations of Black excellence, the University of Toronto is hosting a wide array of events across the three campuses to mark Black History Month.

Members of the U of T community will have the chance to come together to learn, reflect, share stories, have fun and engage in self-care at conferences, cultural events and celebrations throughout February.

Rounding out the calendar is the annual Black History Month Luncheon, which is being held in-person and will spotlight Toronto International Film Festival CEO Cameron Bailey.

Here’s a sampling of the events on offer throughout the month.

Feb 1. – Feb. 4

BE-STEMM 2023 Conference

The Canadian Black Scientists Network is hosting a four-day virtual conference that brings together researchers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Medicine and Health (STEMM). The agenda includes talks by leading Black scholars across disciplines, networking sessions and opportunities to mentor the next generation of scientists.

Feb. 1

Ghetto Fabulous: Black Y2K Party

Time to pull out your finest threads from the 1990s and 2000s for this throwback bash, hosted by the Black Students’ Association at U of T, reclaiming the word “ghetto” and celebrating the Black subculture of the era.

Feb. 2 – Feb. 3

Re/Viewing, Re/Visioning, and Re/Imagining Black Canada Symposium

This two-day symposium, co-hosted by U of T and York University, will provide a forum for Canadian and American scholars to reckon with themes raised in the recent volume Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History, published by University of Toronto Press. The event will engage participants in the latest debates, research and theories in Black Canadian history/studies to better understand how scholarship has evolved to offer a more expansive and nuanced view of Black Canadian experiences.

Feb. 4

Black Excellence Kiki Ball

You better bring your A game to this sports-themed kiki at U of T's Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. Guests can warm up with a beginner-friendly vogue dance workshop led by Legendary House Mother Snoopy of the Disney Kiki House. Then get ready for a ballroom battle celebrating game-changing Black athletes such as Colin Kaepernick, Simone Biles and Venus and Serena Williams.

Feb. 6

Black History Month Symposium – What Has Changed: The Role of Attitudinal Barriers to Advancing Black Inclusion

Hosted by the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office, this event will examine attitudinal barriers that contribute to anti-Black racism in post-secondary environments and discuss strategies to address this systemic problem. It includes a performance by U of T alumna Michelle Bookal and opening remarks by Njoki Wane, chair of the department of social justice education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), and Charmaine Williams, dean of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. Panellists include: Cherilyn Scobie Edwards, director of the Equity Diversity and Inclusion Office at U of T Scarborough; Andrew Campbell, assistant professor at OISE; Nancy Simms, adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law; and Teeanna Munro, project co-ordinator in the Black Perspectives Office at Concordia University.

Feb. 8

Kickoff Panel for Black Histories Wikipedia & Wikidata Edit-a-thon

This is your chance to contribute to Wikipedia through a series editing sessions focused on Black histories. The events are co-organized by U of T and other universities in collaboration with the Toronto Public Library. Funké Aladejebi, an assistant professor in the department of history in the Faculty of Arts & Science, moderates the kickoff panel featuring multidisciplinary artist Debbie Ebanks Schlums and Jonsaba Jabbi, co-founder of Building A Black Archive.

Feb. 9

Tastes of Culture 2022-23: African Perspective

U of T Mississauga’s International Education Centre and Hart House co-present this virtual cooking session that will bring the tastes of Ghana to your home kitchen. Chef Kwame Owusu-Afriyie Nsafoah will show how to make stewed black-eyed peas and krakro (plantain fritters) to be paired with jollof rice and stuffed into a burrito.

Feb. 9

The Intersecting Identities that Inspire Our Excellence

The Dalla Lana School of Public Health hosts a celebration of Black leaders across a range of fields for a discussion on how their intersecting identities inform their work. Panellists include: Toronto Argonauts linebacker Hénoc Muamba; Celina Caesar-Chavannes, a former MP and business consultant; Jason Faulkner, owner and clothing designer of Spread Love; Stella Djulus, visual artist and founder of Arts by Stella; and Kevin Allwood, owner of Allwood MKRT & KaSpace Café.

Feb. 10

Rest as Resistance

This session, hosted by Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office, invites Black participants to slow down and engage in community care. After starting the session with gentle meditation and movement, Yamikani Msosa will facilitate a dialogue about how both rest and action can be forms of resistance in the fight against anti-Black racism.

Feb. 13

Pop-Up Barbershop

Get a free trim, fade or braid while testing your hip-hop knowledge at this pop-up hosted by Hart House Hip Hop Education in partnership with beauty services finder Fyyne, co-founded by Jeff Fasegha, a U of T graduate and a member of the of the Black Founders Network.

Feb. 15

Our Stories: Black History Month

Learn from the lived experiences of three U of T students as they share their stories at this virtual event co hosted by U of T Scarborough’s International Student Centre, U of T Mississauga’s International Education Centre and the St. George Centre for International Experience.

Feb. 16

Black Health Leaders Recognition Ceremony

The Dalla Lana School of Public Health hosts its inaugural recognition ceremony celebrating Black leaders in Toronto’s public health and health systems. This year’s recipients are: Fatimah Jackson-Best, project manager at the Black Health Alliance and assistant professor at McMaster University; Cynthia Damba, director of health analytics at Ontario Health, Toronto Region; and Jacqueline Silvera, director of inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility and anti-racism with the University of Health Network.

Feb. 17

Hip Hop Family Skate Day

Skaters of all ages are invited to hit the ice at Varsity Arena and glide along to the sounds of hip-hop, R&B and Afrobeats curated by DJ Mel Boogie. Professional figure skaters Chloe Panetta and Kieran Thrasher will be on hand to offer tips and perform a routine.

Feb. 22

Black Ice: Film Screening and Panel Discussion

U of T's Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education (KPE), Innis College and the Cinema Studies Institute present a special screening of Black Ice, an acclaimed documentary tracing the history of anti-Black racism in hockey, from the 19th century to the present-day. Director Hubert Davis will join KPE faculty members Janelle Joseph and Simon Darnell for a discussion of the film, which counts LeBron James, Drake and Maverick Carter as executive producers.

Feb. 23

Panel Discussion on Black-Led Community Space

Isaac Olowolafe Jr. of the Dream Legacy Foundation, Amina Mohamed of the Somali Centre for Culture and Recreation and Alica Hall of Nia Centre for the Arts engage in conversation about the need for community spaces built by and for Black communities. The event – sponsored by the Infrastructure Institute at U of T’s School of Cities and co-hosted by the Somali Centre for Culture and Recreation – comes on the heels of a joint report examining gaps in public investment in and access to Black-led social infrastructure in Toronto.

(photo by Johnny Guatto)

Feb. 24

21st Annual Black History Month Luncheon

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey is set to give the keynote address at this year’s celebration of Black excellence, continuing a more than two-decade-long tradition that has become Black History Month’s marquee event at the university. Community members will come together at Hart House and be treated to delicious food, captivating speakers and dynamic performances.

Feb. 25

Future Black Business Leaders Conference

Black business leaders will share their tips for success with the next generation of power players at this conference hosted by the Rotman School of Management. Attendees will have the chance to connect with top industry professionals and learn more about Rotman’s scholarships and awards for future Black leaders.

Feb. 28

Lecture/Recital with Beau Dixon

Actor, musician and playwright Beau Dixon returns to U of T to discuss his creation and curation of the Stratford Festival’s Freedom Cabaret 2.0: How Black Music Shaped the Dream of America. The event will also feature performances by Dixon and singers from the Faculty of Music.

Feb. 28

The Self-Care Fair

There are plenty of ways to decompress at this Hart House event aimed at encouraging self-care for Black students. Relaxing activities include painting, aromatherapy ball-making, guided meditation, massages and board games.

‘The City Where Movies Are Made’: Course focuses its lens on Toronto

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 18:52:43 +0000

‘The City Where Movies Are Made’: Course focuses its lens on Toronto

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 11/02/2022 - 14:52

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Paul Bradley, Jayne Eastwood and Doug McGrath sitting on bench in a scene from the 1970 film Goin' Down The Road (photo by Chevron Pictures via Getty Images)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Film

Innis College

Toronto is often disguised as a major American city in film, so the history of movies that portray the city as itself is relatively humble – but that doesn’t make it any less important or interesting.

Adam Nayman finds sharing that history rewarding in “The City Where Movies Are Made,” his popular cinema studies First-Year Foundations course at Innis College that is part history, part film theory and part urban studies. In the course, students explore “the intersection between the city’s real and reel histories,” meet local directors and producers, and learn about Toronto’s film festival culture.

Adam Nayman

“All movies narrate some kind of real history of the places where they're filmed or the culture they depict,” says Nayman, an author, film critic and the course’s instructor at the Cinema Studies Institute. “Even if they end up distorting it, you can always learn something.”

Students break down movies such as Goin’ Down the Road (1970), which is considered to be among the most famous films about Toronto. Directed by Donald Shebib, it tells the story of two young men who leave the Maritimes, where job opportunities are few, in exchange for the bright lights of Toronto.

This film paints the city as cold and unfriendly.

“This is a movie where Toronto could be the villain, but it's not a deliberate villain,” says Nayman, who has a master’s degree in cinema studies from U of T. “It's so big and neutral but you see that it's these guys and their choices that are to blame, as opposed to the city not treating them well.”

Still, the movie is believed to have played a role in creating a strained relationship between Toronto and the rest of Canada.

Nayman also delves into the heyday of Toronto’s film history in the 1970s and 80s when movie-making was driven by financial incentives.

“The government lifted all kinds of restrictions and created tax loopholes that attracted outsiders and impresarios who made a fascinating cycle of genre movies,” says Nayman.

“In trying to kickstart the industry and get movies made here, lots of people used Toronto to make cheap thrillers. And there's a happy ending to that because some of the movies made out of that cycle are crucial works of art.”

For example, that period launched the career of famed director David Cronenberg who Nayman calls “one of the greatest artists this country has ever produced.” His earlier films, such as the 1983 science fiction horror Videodrome, “made Cronenberg into a cultural warrior who is a Toronto filmmaker by choice because he wants to still connect to Canada,” Nayman says.

Toronto is often disguised as a major American city in film, which explains these New York City police cars and taxis parked at King and Bay Streets (photo by Can Pac Swire, CC BY-NC 2.0, via Flickr)

Nayman’s course also explores films from the late 1980s and 1990s that reflected Toronto’s growing cultural and sexual diversity.

I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987) is comedy-drama film directed by Patricia Rozema that features a women’s love triangle and celebrates Toronto’s arts scene.

“This is a really beguiling movie,” says Nayman. “The local arts community is captured in different aspects of Rozema's filmmaking.”

Rude, a 1995 crime film directed by Clement Virgo, tells three distinct but interrelated stories about Black life in Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood. It was the first Canadian feature film written, produced and directed by an all-Black team.

“That movie is a landmark, and the title is deliberative. It's meant to be a provocation,” says Nayman, referring to the lack of Black representation in Canada’s film landscape.

More recent films that Nayman examines portray Toronto as a bohemian hipster paradise with a thriving indie arts and music scene.

“You look at a movie like This Movie is Broken by director Bruce McDonald, who's a famous Toronto director with a very rock 'n' roll sensibility,” says Nayman, adding that the 2010 movie captures a young man hoping to convince his longtime crush to become his girlfriend by taking her to a Broken Social Scene concert at Harbourfront.

“They used a real concert as the backdrop,” says Nayman. “Celebrating this couple and the hipster lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock and roll, Toronto has never looked so utopian.”

In many ways, this film also represented the shifting of a neighbourhood’s identity.

“That film was paralleled with rampant gentrification in the west end,” says Nayman. “The movies gentrified along with the neighbourhood.”

Setting Toronto in a similar light was the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a romantic comedy about a struggling musician trying to win a competition to get a record deal while battling his girlfriend’s seven evil exes.

With scenes shot at Pizza Pizza on Bloor Street West, the steps of Casa Loma, Lee’s Palace and other locations, it offers a virtual tour of Toronto.

“When I showed it 10 years ago, more students put up their hands and said, ‘I know that neighbourhood or I know that band,” says Nayman.

“That’s happening less and less – not just because those reference points are fading, but because a lot of my students are not native Torontonians. That tells an interesting story about Toronto and about U of T. And that's also one of the subthemes of the movie: Toronto as a new home.”

Iman Bundu took Nayman’s course as part of their undergraduate degree in cinema studies and critical studies in equity and solidarity. Graduating in 2021, they’re now completing a master of arts degree in film and photography preservation and collections management at Toronto Metropolitan University.

“‘The City Where Movies Are Made’ was a key factor in my deciding to pursue cinema studies further,” says Bundu.

“The course made me aware of how the industry’s development was shaped by cultural attitudes and government policy. And the most enjoyable part of the course was learning about Canadian film history through the lens of the films featured.”

'A huge smile under my mask': U of T profs welcome students back to the classroom

geoff.vendeville — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 23:21:14 +0000

'A huge smile under my mask': U of T profs welcome students back to the classroom

geoff.vendeville Tue, 09/28/2021 - 19:21

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Elham Marzi leads a negotiations class for upper-year students in U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Topic

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Innis College

Undergraduate Students

When Charlie Keil addressed his film-history class for the first time this fall, the first thing he said – before introducing himself – was “I cannot tell you how happy I am to see you all here.”

Charlie Keil

The principal of Innis College and professor in the University of Toronto’s department of history and cinema studies teaches a year-long course that encompasses the silent film era to the 1960s.

Like thousands of others at U of T, Keil's course was moved online earlier in the pandemic. But Keil said the virtual format was less than ideal since students can’t hear the laughs, gasps and other audience reactions that reveal important insights about a movie – in this case, Bonnie and Clyde.

“Film was conceived of as a form that you are meant to see with other people,” Keil said. “Even if it’s something that the film doesn't mean to be funny, and then everyone titters at it, that’s a shared sort of spontaneous response and it can become helpful in the pedagogy.”

Keil is far from the only U of T professor who is welcoming the return to face-to-face learning this fall – albeit behind masks.

At the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Elham Marzi recently taught a negotiations class for upper-year students in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. The assistant professor, teaching stream, in the Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education & Practice (ISTEP) said the in-person teaching experience has advantages over online instruction.

“It gives us a better ability to learn from each other and with each other. So, it opens a lot of possibilities that we’ve missed out on during the pandemic,” she said, adding that some students had difficulty when she was teaching remotely due to poor internet access or because they lived in a different time zone.

Now, she said, the entire class is back on a level playing field.

While COVID-19 remains a concern, Marzi said students are respecting safety measures, including wearing a mask throughout her class. Other U of T measures in U of T’s 12-step plan include a proof of vaccination requirement, mandatory self-screening, improved ventilation and physical distancing requirements in non-instructional spaces.

“Students have been exceptional and everyone is working together – and being in it together is incredibly important,” Marzi said.

Yasmin Adem, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student in Marzi’s class, said it feels good to be back in a lecture hall.

“I feel a bit more productive because I’m actually in a school setting this time,” she said. “At home, I was either on the couch or my bed.”

Jessica D'eon

Jessica D’eon, an associate professor, teaching stream, in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science, said she held a “hybrid” class during the first week that gave students the option to conduct an air-sampling exercise in person or to use old datasets. All chose to pick up the equipment in person and collect fresh data from a range of indoor environments, including subway stations.

“I'm excited to be in-person and I think it's going to work out well,” D’eon said. “I hope – and I think – the majority of my students feel that way, too, but I do understand that many people have complicated emotions about it.”

If all goes well, D’eon hopes to take her students on a field trip to a site on the Welland River that was contaminated with fluorinated organic chemicals by fire-fighting training activities at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. Her classes started gathering data to monitor the site’s recovery five years ago but had to skip the exercise last year due to the pandemic.

“I found in previous years the class is night-and-day different after the field trip,” she said. “I just find it's a really good bonding activity and that the dynamic of the classes is quite changed.”

Just walked down the hall and got the "OH MY GAWDDD, Professor Variawaaa!!" treatment by first and second year #uoftengineering students...

So I returned the favour. "OMG IN-PERSON STUDENTS WOAHHHH!!" #UofT #Toronto pic.twitter.com/XqKWV8J6gG
— Prof. Chirag Variawa (@ChiragVariawa) September 15, 2021

Chirag Variawa, an assistant professor, teaching stream, at ISTEP, will have to wait a little longer to resume in-person teaching. That’s because his course, Orientation to Engineering, is one of the largest classes in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, with more than 1,000 students.

Variawa said teaching remotely has some advantages – including the ability to bring in guest speakers from Google, Microsoft and Tesla – and his students still get to participate in 40-person tutorials that are conducted in-person by teaching assistants. There, they learn about ethics, time management and develop other core competencies.

Variawa said some of his students stopped him in the hall last week after they recognized him behind his mask.

“I was just so shocked. I had a huge smile under my mask,” Variawa said. “It was one incredible bonding moment. It was just so special to see your students in person, and for the students to see the human behind the camera.

“To have this moment where my students' eyes lit up brought on a lot of emotions and made me think, ‘I’d do it any day for these students.’”

With files from Rahul Kalvapalle

Alexie Tcheuyap named U of T’s head of international student experience

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 22:01:08 +0000

Alexie Tcheuyap named U of T’s head of international student experience

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 07/30/2021 - 18:01

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(Photo by Johnny Guatto)

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Alexie Tcheuyap, a professor of French whose scholarship focuses on African literary, cinema and media studies, has been appointed the University of Toronto’s associate vice-president and vice-provost, international student experience.

Having received governance approval Thursday, Tcheuyap will serve for nearly six years beginning Sept. 1, 2021, including six months of administrative leave. He will be responsible for promoting opportunities for students to learn abroad, overseeing the tri-campus Centre for International Experience, developing global engagement opportunities for all U of T students through curricular and co-curricular initiatives and generally fostering a positive experience for international students at the university.

Tcheuyap says his own experience as an international student – he was educated in Cameroon and in the United Kingdom before moving to Kingston, Ont. for graduate studies at Queen’s University – gives him unique insight into the needs of U of T students who are new to Canada.

“All of this is very personal for me because I came here as an international student and this means I have lived through a lot of the same things as the students whom I will be working to support,” he said.

“In my career as a professor, I have always been very sensitive not only to the experience of students, but of those who are new to the country.”

He added that he arrived in Canada in 1997 carrying two suitcases – one for clothes and another full of books.

“My driver dropped me off [at Queen’s] in front of the university’s Stauffer Library and he said: ‘You brought books here. See that building over there? It’s full of books,’” Tcheuyap recalled.

He went on to earn a PhD in French literature from Queen’s, adding to a doctorate and master’s in the same field from the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon. He taught at the University of Calgary before joining the French department at U of T in 2006 and is a senior fellow of the European Institutes for Advanced Study.

An expert in African literature, cinema and media studies, Tcheuyap counts Ariane Astrid Atodji, Florence Ayisi, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Assia Djebar, Amina Abdoulaye Mamani, Jean-Marie Teno and Mansour Sora Wade among his favourite African filmmakers. He has written several books, including De l’écrit à l’écran, Postnationalist African Cinemas, Autoritarisme, presse et violence au Cameroun and Avoir peur. Insécurité et roman en Afrique francophone.

The most rewarding part of his job as an instructor, he said, is to introduce native English speakers to the original text of French language works.

Tcheuyap also brings considerable senior leadership experience to his new role.

He served as chair and associate chair of the department of French in the Faculty of Arts & Science and has been the faculty’s vice-dean, academic life and equity since 2019. As vice-dean, Tcheuyap initiated new strategies to develop a more diverse and more inclusive faculty, including the recruitment of several Black and Indigenous scholars.

Tcheuyap succeeds Professor Joseph Wong in the international student experience office; Wong was named vice-president, international earlier this year.

“Professor Tcheuyap is an extraordinary leader at the University of Toronto, who brings with him tremendous insight into the international student experience, having been one himself in the 1990s,” Wong said.

“He is well known among colleagues for his leadership skills at all levels of the university. His academic background in the humanities will no doubt open up new opportunities in international partnership-building as well as international learning experiences for our students.”

Tcheuyap said he will continue promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in his new role.

“It’s important to ask where our students come from and to make sure that everyone feels welcome on campus, regardless of their background,” he said. “This requires special efforts to attract and retain students from underrepresented groups.”

He also plans to build on Wong’s efforts to create global scholar and global citizen designations for U of T students that are acquired through completing academic or extracurricular activities that foster a global outlook. The designations appear on a student’s co-curricular record or transcript.

“We are very fortunate to have the global scholar and citizen programs,” Tcheuyap said. “We just need to make sure that all students are aware of these possibilities to gain an international perspective.

“It’s not unusual to find a student who was born in Lethbridge or Kingston and who has never left Canada. The world is changing around us. We need to bring these international opportunities to students.

“The world is so rich. We need to encourage students to learn about the world in Toronto or go abroad and harvest international experience and then return to share their newfound knowledge back here.”

U of T film student documents her disorder to raise curtain on epilepsy, normalize disabilities

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 14:52:45 +0000

U of T film student documents her disorder to raise curtain on epilepsy, normalize disabilities

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 06/18/2021 - 10:52

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Sally Walker-Hudecki’s film, Foreign Ages, premiered at the Toronto Queer Film Festival earlier this year. It explores her experience with epileptic seizures (photo courtesy of Sally Walker-Hudecki)

Sean McNeely

Topic

Our Community

Cinema Studies

Faculty of Arts & Science

Film

Innis College

Undergraduate Students

It’s not easy making a movie about your chronic disorder.

Yet, that’s exactly what the University of Toronto’s Sally Walker-Hudecki set out to do when creating a short film called Foreign Ages that premiered at the Toronto Queer Film Festival in March.

The seven-minute film is Walker-Hudecki’s attempt to capture what she experiences during seizures caused by temporal lobe epilepsy – what she sees, feels and thinks.

“It was very hard to do, facing all the fears I had about what people would think about me, and the discomfort that sharing health problems can cause others,” says Walker-Hudecki, a third-year cinema studies student in the Faculty of Arts & Science and a member of Innis College.

“It's hard to explain something that makes people so uncomfortable to hear about and witness, and something they just don't experience.”

When Walker-Hudecki has a seizure, she remains conscious and semi-aware of what’s happening around her – but she’s unable to speak.

“It’s like very odd altered states of consciousness,” she says. “To others, it might appear like I've gone limp, but my eyes are open and I'm still awake. It's very strange and surreal. And with the film, I’m trying to document and portray this from the inside – from my perspective as the person experiencing it.”

In part, the film is an educational tool, showing others what life is like with this condition.

“People I’ve told about my epilepsy who aren't very informed tended to either shy away from how dangerous it can be, minimize it or have narrow information and try to give me advice based on that,” she says.

For example, Walker-Hudecki says people, perhaps well-meaning, have encouraged her to never walk across a bridge and never go anywhere alone.

Sally Walker-Hudecki, who first enrolled at U of T in 2008 but later left to pursue film-making and communications work, returned to university in 2019 to complete her studies, saying the cinema studies program expanding her understanding of film and film analysis (photo courtesy of Sally Walker-Hudecki)

The film consists of a series of artistic indoor and outdoor urban scenes paired with Walker-Hudecki narrating what she is feeling and what is going through her mind. Occasionally, in the corner of the screen is a second smaller screen – with Walker-Hudecki doing day-to-day activities such as putting on make-up, dancing or playing music.

“I wanted to show glamorous, beautiful, fun moments to help people without disabilities question their preconceptions about what people with epilepsy might look like or what they might be doing the rest of the time when they’re not having seizures,” she says.

How does it feel to make and then show such a personal film?

“It's quite nauseating at first, it’s terrifying, especially before it actually plays,” says Walker-Hudecki. “It's very similar to stage fright. When you're on stage doing your performance, you're fine. But the lead-up gets worse and worse until it happens.

“I also worried immensely about being selfish or making something inaccessible – or making something bizarre or just plain boring. But showing this instead of telling [it] became an exhilarating idea.”

Walker-Hudecki first came to U of T in 2008, but left in 2010 to focus on communications work for organizations like Epilepsy Ontario – that is, when she wasn’t traveling and making short films.

“But it bothered me that I didn't finish,” she says. “I missed the structure of school and I just felt like I didn't know exactly how to describe my films, and I didn't understand as much about the historical context of what I was making. So that lured me back in 2019.”

She says it was definitely the right decision, with the cinema studies program expanding her understanding of film and film analysis.

“The strength of the program is certainly its focus on theory, and contextualizing film through theory and history,” she says. “I didn't even know that this kind of analysis that I felt naturally drawn to was even a discipline."

Her courses and instructors “break down films in such a way, talking about the historical context they came from, or what they could have been responding to politically … I didn't have the same words I'm using now to describe what fascinated me when I watched films.”

Set to graduate next year, Walker-Hudecki has her sights set on directing. She’s inspired by directors like D. A. Pennebaker, the influential documentary filmmaker who is heralded for chronicling the hippie culture of the 1960s.

Walker-Hudecki was moved by Pennebaker’s documentary Monterey Pop that captured the famous 1967 music festival with artists such as Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix and the Who.

“There's something about the way Pennebaker filmed performances that just gave me a feeling that film can be an art,” she says.

Walker-Hudecki is also considering pursuing graduate studies in film, but no matter what she decides, she intends to continue to experiment with filmmaking.

In the meantime, she’s grateful to the Toronto Queer Film Festival for showing her work.

“They had such an openness towards intersecting identities,” she says. “They were looking for people making films about experiences with disability, and experiences with being gender non-conforming. I just found it so precious to be able to feel recognized for these different areas – having a disability, identifying as bisexual and making films all in the same event.

“No one can understand your experience of something, even when it is as common as epilepsy, if you don't just try to show them. Also, I wanted to remind others that we as people with disabilities have just as much right to enjoy ourselves, feel beautiful and silly, and have as much fun as anyone.”

Richie Mehta, a U of T alumnus, finds validation in International Emmy win for Delhi Crime

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 16:10:52 +0000

Richie Mehta, a U of T alumnus, finds validation in International Emmy win for Delhi Crime

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 12/14/2020 - 11:10

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Richie Mehta's Delhi Crime tells the story of the police investigation that led to the apprehension of the six perpetrators of the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student – a crime that shocked India and the world (image courtesy of Netflix)

Topic

Filmmaker Richie Mehta was finishing a project in Delhi when the Nirbhaya (Hindi for “fearless) case broke out. The 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in the national capital territory shook India to its core, making headlines around the world.

As details emerged "over the course of several days your whole understanding of what a human being could do to another human being was altered,” says Mehta, an alumnus of the University of Toronto Mississauga, who recalled the protests, riots and re-writing of laws.

“The crime changed the country’s psyche forever. I was there. I was a part of it, experiencing the same frustration and sadness.”

Mehta, who is now based in London, won the International Emmy Award for best drama series last month for Delhi Crime, which he wrote and directed. The Netflix series tells the story of the Delhi police investigation that led to the apprehension of the six perpetrators of the gang rape and murder.

“The investigation was led by women,” Mehta says, “so essentially, it’s about the women who are trying to solve this incredibly vast problem of violence against women in the most heinous sense.”

Mehta began work on the project in 2013. A family friend connected him to a former police commissioner who introduced the filmmaker to the investigation team and to the woman who led it. Mehta got to know the officers over the course of several years.

“They were real-life superheroes,” he says. “I thought it just turned the whole story about India on its head. People have this perception of the dangers that women face, which is not unfounded, but at the same time, it’s an environment where you come face-to-face with a kind of courage you’ve never seen before.”

Mehta says it was initially tough to find supporters for the project, but that he ultimately found a group of producers and financiers in the U.S. and India – including women – who “took a real stand” (photo by Arsh Sayed/Netflix)

The majority of the six years Mehta spent making Delhi Crime was devoted to research. Accuracy was crucial to the project – an extremely sensitive subject, still raw in the mind of the nation – so he worked closely with police, interviewing detectives and reviewing their files. “This is not stuff I was going to make up,” he says. “It’s about a real case; real people were affected and there were real victims.”

He proceeded slowly and with trepidation. The horrific detail of the police reports was, of course, disturbing. He was living between Toronto and Delhi then. “I’d spend time with the cops for two or three months, gathering research, go home to Toronto and just sit in a room and cry,” he says. “Then, I’d have to sort everything out.”

At times, he doubted the project’s worth. He also worried about the toll it was taking on him. He says it took a few years to finally realize that “something productive could come out of this.”

Initial conversations with the film industry were difficult. No one was eager to do a film or a series about gang rape in India, Mehta says. After he’d written the script, however, he found a group of supporters in L.A. and India – including women – who would become Delhi Crime’s producers and financiers. “They took a real stand,” the filmmaker says. “They thought it was relevant, meaningful and that it should be made.”

Mehta calls the International Emmy win “a validation.”

“I was trying to do something that would not only address deep issues for Indians within the justice system,” he says, “but also patriarchal misogyny, violence against women, class, the caste systems – all these issues swirling together.”

At the same time, Mehta says he wanted to show global audiences how this crime, which happened in a country where sexual violence is endemic, was absolutely devastating to India. “Ninety-nine point nine per cent of people there were as hurt and as shocked as we are. They are as ethical as we are and they are trying their best to fix this thing. It is important that people see that.”

Delhi Crime will continue as an anthology series, following different crimes set in India’s capital territory in Season 2, though Mehta will not be at the helm. The city makes a compelling backdrop for such a series, he says.

“Delhi is a very dark place in a certain manner of speaking. It has the reputation in India of being the hardest city with the hardest type of people … But it’s also the place where you find the most humanity – sometimes it’s just hiding well.”