The cast of Pure Pwnage.

After six years online, Toronto-based mockumentary show Pure Pwnage is about to debut as a series on Showcase. It follows Jeremy (Jarrett Cale), a.k.a. “teh_pwnerer,” a twenty-six-year-old obsessive video gamer, and Jeremy’s brother Kyle (Geoff Lapaire), who documents Jeremy’s life and frustration with “n00bs” (that’s “leetspeak“).

“We had always had the goal of getting into traditional television production,” says Cale, who created the web series in 2004 with Lapaire. “Pure Pwnage began as simple test-footage, shot to familiarize ourselves with editing software, the intention being to independently produce a comedy pilot we could shop around. We placed the test footage online and it went viral, creating this demand for a show we hadn’t actually planned to make! We made a few episodes and the audience kept growing exponentially, so we abandoned our original plan and focused entirely on [the web series].”
In 2008, the Pure Pwnage website received two million unique visitors, with nearly five million videos streamed or downloaded that year. Cale and Lapaire helped build their dedicated fanbase by experimenting with different methods of distribution: they debuted episodes at the Bloor Cinema, with additional screenings in Montreal, the United States, and the U.K. Some episodes were sold online before being streamed for free. Now, Pure Pwnage has been translated into fifteen languages, and it has led to a spin-off web series and comic book, before Showcase even came knocking.

FPS Doug (Joel Gardiner) and Jeremy (Jarett Cale).

Among the talent on-hand to oversee the television series is filmmaker Ron Mann, who with Catherine Tait aided in the guys’ pitch to Showcase. (“We met Ron Mann at the New York Comic Con in 2008,” Cale explains. “His son was a big fan of the web show and brought him to our booth to get autographs.) Derek Harvie (The Tom Green Show) is the showrunner. “Derek Harvie is a very, very funny man,” says Lapaire. “He is an amazing storyteller and always has hilarious ways of acting out and communicating his ideas. I’m always telling him he should be in front of the camera instead of behind the scenes.” People actually appearing on camera as guests include Kenny Hotz (Kenny vs. Spenny) and Steve “Lips” Kudlow (Anvil! The Story of Anvil).
Showcase’s involvement with the show and its culture is promising—it demonstrates that there is still much more exploration and experimentation to be done in bridging online audiences, video games, graphic novels, and traditional television. Currently, a production blog bridges the web series and television show, with more content on the way. Cale promises that the website will continue to be an important presence: “In between seasons we plan to resume the web series and possibly other new web content. I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished so far and web distribution of this type of media is still only in its infancy. There’s a really big future there and we’ve got six years of experience to leverage helping us stay on top of it.”
The show premieres on March 12 on Showcase, followed by a screening of three episodes on March 20 at the Bloor Cinema.
Photos courtesy of Showcase.

Illustration by Matthew Daley/Torontoist.

District 9 was directed, written, edited, and scored by Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell, Julian Clarke, and Clinton Shorter, respectively—all Canadians. (Blomkamp was born in South Africa but moved to Canada as a teenager.) The film, however, was produced by Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films (New Zealand) and financed by QED International (USA). Without any Canadian funding, District 9 doesn’t qualify for recognition by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.
Gareth C. Scales, a local editor, is trying to change that. Sales has organized a Facebook group called “Vote for District 9 at the Genies – Help Recognise Canadian Talent!” with the hope that the film will receive some recognition at this year’s awards ceremony. “I wanted to try to show the Academy that it’s more than just me who cares about this issue,” says Scales. “The absolute best possible outcome would be for the Academy to accept that it’s perhaps time to change the rules.”

Judy Lung, communications manager for the Academy, outlined their position to Torontoist. “The Genie Awards celebrate and promote Canadian cinema,” Lung said. “Films that are eligible for a Genie Award must qualify as a Canadian film production or co-production, as defined by CAVCO and/or CRTC criteria. As such, there is no formal procedure for submitting a film that does not qualify under this criteria.”
According to Scales, the CRTC/CAVCO certification creates a situation whereby “films do not have to be 100% Canadian, and can qualify as a co-production….A film with even 5% Canadian funding would qualify, which is why Julie Christie can be nominated and win for her amazing work in Away From Her. Currently the rules are awarding ‘Canadian’ films, and not necessarily Canadian filmmakers.”
This isn’t a new issue. It was covered extensively in the media (at least relative to the usual Genie coverage) in 2007, when director Jason Reitman complained that his film Juno—directed by a Canadian, filmed in Vancouver, and starring Ellen Page and Michael Cera—wasn’t eligible.
“It’s a Canadian director, Canadian stars, Canadian cast, Canadian crew, shot in Canada,” Reitman said at the time. “How are we not eligible for a Genie when David Cronenberg’s film about Russians living in London shot in England with a British crew and British cast is eligible? I’m sorry, but somebody is going to have to explain that to me; I don’t get it.”
But if the problem is reoccurring, with little chance that it will change soon, why does it continue to inspire anger in Canadian cinephiles? The Toronto Star‘s Peter Howell raised that question around the time that Reitman’s comments were making headlines: “So why don’t I just let the matter drop? The reason is that year after year, the Canadian movie industry moans about the lack of support for homegrown talent.” It’s true; if anything, Howell understated the issue. Even people not in the industry seem cognizant of Canadian talent and the negligence towards it, if not its relocation elsewhere. Citing “the Byzantine Genie rules,” Howell continued: “The Genies inspire so little passion in the frozen populace, only people directly involved care about who wins what prize. The viewing audience for the Genies’ telecast is so low, our national taxpayer-funded broadcaster no longer carries it.”

Canadian audiences, much like Canadian talent, largely look elsewhere. In 2007 came the release of Superbad, a film starring Canadians (Cera and Seth Rogen), written by Canadians (Rogen and Evan Goldberg) about growing up in Vancouver. The film grossed over $170 million, but neither it nor Juno were recognized by the Academy; Away From Her and Eastern Promises walked away with the bulk of the awards. This year presents a similar situation, with not only District 9 nominated for Academy Awards—as in, the Oscars—but Reitman’s Up in the Air and James Cameron’s Avatar also considered favourites—the lattermost having the distinction of being the highest grossing film of all time.
Scales makes a point of distancing his cause from extending to films like Avatar. “What I am suggesting,” he says, “is that it is opened up to filmmakers living in Canada as well, who under the same CAVCO regulations are considered Canadian (which is, if you’ve filed taxes in Canada the previous year)….people who aren’t working and living in Canada and aren’t paying taxes into the funding system don’t qualify. Thus, someone like James Cameron wouldn’t be eligible.” (He might be a little biased towards the District 9 team, too. “I know Julian Clarke and Clinton Shorter,” he told us. “They were/are disappointed that they can’t be recognized in their country.”)
While a change in regulations in time for this year’s ceremony seems unlikely, as nominations will be announced in the coming weeks, the Academy—as in, the Genies—claims that they’re open to suggestions. “The Genie Awards rules and regulations are reviewed each year,” says Lung. “Recommendations (for example, to revise eligibility rules, introduce a new category, etc.) can be made by Academy members.”
In the meantime, the Hollywood Reporter summarized the current situation well: “The message: Leave it to other awards shows to honor filmmaking excellence, whatever its origins. The Genies celebrate government support.”

Teenage Head lead singer Frankie Venom. Photo by Ross Taylor.

The history of punk rock is usually dominated by the emergence of scenes in New York City and London. This makes some sense, given the significance of bands like the Ramones and the Clash, but it only allows a very black-and-white understanding of the period’s culture—punk didn’t exist, and then it was here. The greater story comes into better focus with an understanding of Toronto’s own punk scene, which gets its due treatment in a new book by local writer Liz Worth: Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond (1977–1981).

“When I first found out that Toronto had even been part of punk’s first wave, I was really interested, but it was really hard to find anything out about it. The more digging I did, the more I realized that it wasn’t just a few bands we had here, but a thriving scene,” says Worth. “I couldn’t understand why it was so hard to find out about it when it was so easy to find out about punk in other places, especially since it’s become such an important part of pop culture history.”

“If the sky was overcast and you walked out onto Yonge Street on a Sunday morning and everything was closed and you’d look down from Bloor right down to Wellesley, you’d see nobody else on the street but you….So Toronto was small-town-y, but becoming this big city.”
— Blair Martin, former frontman for the Raving Mojos and sometime-drummer for Teenage Head, quoted in Treat Me Like Dirt

Bands like Teenage Head, The Diodes, and Viletones are all included, in addition to a slew of less well-known acts. But Treat Me Like Dirt isn’t only about the evolution of the local music scene. By telling the story through an oral narrative, Worth lets the interviewees dig into their personal experiences and provide snapshots of an urban life that feels familiar but out of time. Within the first few chapters, the scene for the punk movement is set within the day-to-day experiences of seeing double-bills at The Original 99 Cent Roxy Theatre and spotting then-unknowns like John Candy and Catherine O’Hara at Dan Aykroyd’s Club 505 on Queen Street. When the bands in the book play their first shows, it’s at Gasworks on Yonge Street and the Victory Theatre on Spadina.

Left to right: Margaret Barnes-DelColle (proprietor of New Rose), Gambi Bowker (proprietor of the 404 speakeasy), Lucasta Ross (the B-Girls, Minutes From Downtown), Nora Currie (fan). Photo by Gail Bryck.

“There was that hair salon on Yonge Street called House of Lords. On a Saturday—nowadays you can’t even imagine it—but imagine a hair salon having a lineup outside of people wanting to get a shag haircut. I lived 30 minutes outside the city and yet I took a bus to go stand in line at House of Lords to get a shag haircut. So there was that whole glam rock thing that everybody was really into.”
— Margaret Barnes-DelColle (a.k.a. Margarita Passion), proprietor of Toronto’s first punk store, New Rose, quoted in Treat Me Like Dirt

Toronto still boasts a music scene—albeit a very different one—but its downtown culture has shifted significantly. Says Worth: “Now it’s like the Eaton Centre tore down its walls and spilled out all over Queen West. Paul Terefenko summed up Queen West perfectly in NOW Magazine when he wrote, ‘the hood’s long been ultra-FCUK-ed.’ He’s more creative in describing it than I am, though. I prefer to just say it’s fucked.”
Worth will be featured in the next edition of This Is Not A Reading Series, taking place this coming Monday at the Gladstone. She’ll be discussing the story of Toronto punk with (appropriately?) Fucked Up lead singer (and hero) Damian Abraham.
Photos courtesy of Bongo Beat Books.

Original photo by BruceK from the Torontoist Flickr Pool; map overlay added.

As fans of things that are both free and internet-y, Torontoist was excited when Evan Bender told us about his website, a massive collection and map of free Wi-Fi spots across Toronto.
Bender was leaning on Wi-Fi access in coffee shops when he had the idea to start his site. “To help me keep track of the places I had been recently and to make job hunting a little more interesting, I decided to make a bit of a challenge of walking around with my phone and trying to find new places and networks.”
Some of the locations on the map are tips Bender has received and still need to be confirmed. But the places he has visited and verified so far are accompanied on the map by useful details. Orange Alert, an espresso bar on the corner of Dundas and McCaul that offers fair trade and organic coffee, provides a password upon purchase. The James Joyce, an Irish pub on Bloor in the Annex, has open Wi-Fi access (no password needed) and 7.22 Mbps download speed. (Who knew?)
“The best thing I’ve noticed is having Wi-Fi open at an environment where the staff can see customers with devices, and inform them about the access details, like upon purchase,” says Bender. “It keeps it honest and still comfortable.” He cites Wireless Toronto as an example of initiatives being taken with Wi-Fi access. “That is innovative…Really setting a good local example for Toronto, and corporations with franchises attempting Wi-Fi solutions.”