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<\/a>First up is Jean-Philippe Tremblay\u2019s Shadows of Liberty<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (2012), which had its world premiere at the revamped Bloor Cinema. Although it\u2019s face-on a slick alert about the current state of media empires and their monopolistic endeavors in America, most viewers ought to notice striking similarities in their own towns & cities, regardless of what country they live.<\/p>\nIn the packed balcony at the Bloor, it was easy to hear little murmurs among nearby audience members who quickly noted the changes that have similarly occurred in Canada. The similarities between Canada and the U.S. are quite stark, since the CRTC may have less teeth and spine than the FCC, be it with ownership of media streams in large markets, metered internet billing, negative billing, and total vertical integration.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu factor for Canadians because the domination of singular entities has been ongoing for decades, be it U.S. control of cinema screens, Bell exploiting their control of the telecommunications infrastructure (which they admittedly built), Rogers\u2019 virtual control of the cable industry in provinces like Ontario, and the CBC\u2019s own struggle to remain distinct as its financial resources continue to be eroded by government funding.<\/p>\n
Cross-media systems and total vertical integration have been in practice in Canada for years, and there\u2019s no turning back the clock, so while the U.S. struggles to find a balance between monopolistic entities and the preservation of a free press, we\u2019ve already lost the battle. Bell is easily the most oft-cited villain because it owns print media, TV stations (CTV), and cable TV stations; it\u2019s the internet provider that owns the lines third-party firms must ride; and it\u2019s already geared the programming it carries into junk convergence.<\/p>\n
News isn\u2019t packaged, it\u2019s manufactured from non-news items. When CTV carried Canadian Idol<\/strong> [CI], for example, anchors, weather & health reporters blissfully commented on the prior night\u2019s CI show; the manufactured excitement was branded \u201cidol mania,\u201d and call-in segments were regularly devoted to the \u2018events\u2019 on the series. Each ad break featured CI bumpers to reinforce the network\u2019s push, and this interpolation of junk news ended only when the show was cancelled. In the U.S., ABC similar pushed hosts of chat shows to engage in discussion about prior and upcoming nights to maintain audience interest, if not to convert non-followers.<\/p>\n The CBC\u2019s The National<\/strong> no longer features the lengthy 2-part investigative journalism pieces that peppered each week; in their place \u2013 besides extensive, American-style ad breaks \u2013 are roundtable discussions because it\u2019s cheaper to bring back the same sets of three-person panels to regurgitate politics and Why It\u2019s Good to Save than produce a steady level of original content.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no longer disheartening – – just annoying we\u2019re being cheated of actual news content, because like the American media, there\u2019s less international focus unless there\u2019s an event directly tied to an affected Canadian. It is remarkable to see international news reports condensed into stills and sound bites on the CBC, but they\u2019re essentially following the packaging formula that\u2019s made CTV\u2019s own national newscasts ad showcases than meaningful news pieces.<\/p>\n The doc boasts gorgeous visuals, and Friedlander provides a more humanistic approach than the BBC mondo-series Human Planet <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (2010), which filmed the miners for exotica rather than social commentary.<\/p>\n Each capsule review includes links to respective websites and HotDocs screening details, and feature-length reviews will appear once a film is commercially released.<\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor Capsule reviews from the latest HotDocs screenings: Shadows of Liberty (2012) making it’s World premiere, and Where Heaven Meets Hell (2011) making it’s North American premiere, plus editorial blather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[1258,1259,1107,1254,1265],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1fb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>The second HotDocs review is Where Heaven Meets Hell <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (2011) which has its North American premiere Saturday at the ROM cinema. Director Sasha Friedlander was on hand (alongside co-producers Bao Nguyen, David Osit) for a Q&A, and the first-time director described the film\u2019s genesis, and filming the four miners who trek into the crater of an active volcano in Indonesia with little protection to mine sulfur.<\/p>\n
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"