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Urban Planner: November 17, 2009
Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to [email protected].
Still from Future of Music. Courtesy of Nokia Mobifest Toronto.
FILM: Nokia Mobifest is the “world’s largest independent short film festival using mobile phone technology.” That’s right, these movies are made especially for your iPod. Earlier this month the best of the festival contenders were announced, and tonight the finalists will be screened at the Revue Cinema. The entries vary widely in style and production values (last year’s Best Canadian Film winner, Egg Love by Zach Math, is a sort of tongue-in-cheek art house film about eggs that’s reminiscent of a certain sausage-themed Kids in the Hall sketch). Tonight’s screening will include selections from the festival’s first twenty-four-hour Toronto Made-For-Mobile Challenge, a sneak peak at a Jason Priestly–directed movie about world champion downhill skier Jan Hudec, and films from Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Spain. The winners will be announced tonight, with the challenge winner receiving $2,500 in cash (donated by the City of Toronto), and the Best of Festival winner receiving a free trip to Los Angeles, California, as well as $2,000 cash. Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Avenue), 7 p.m., $5.
MUSIC: The 416 Toronto Creative Improvisers Festival touts itself as providing “the best music you’ve never heard.” Indeed, this annual festival showcases some of the finest improvisational musicians within the 416 area code (although tonight’s lineup is based mostly out of Montreal…), who experiment with sound and create unique, in-the-moment art. Tonight’s lineup includes Lori Freedman (bass clarinet), Martin Tétreault (turntable), and a group consisting of Gordon Allen (trumpet), Rob Clutton (bass), Tomasz Krakowiak (percussion), and Ben Grossman (hurdy gurdy!). Tranzac Club (292 Brunswick Avenue), 9 p.m., $6.
MEDIA: When media blackouts occur in places like China or North Korea, Canadian pundits generally call it censorship, something that happens regularly when certain foreign governments want to keep an embarrassing incident quiet. When it happens here in Canada and the States, however, the question of journalism ethics comes under heavy debate. Robert Fowler is a Canadian diplomat and special envoy of the UN Secretary-General to Niger. Last December he was captured by al-Qaeda and held hostage for one-hundred and thirty days before being released. His case was widely reported in the media, while New York Times reporter David Rohde‘s capture in Afghanistan in November of last year was kept quiet. Today, Fowler will be joined in discussion with Toronto Star Publisher John Cruickshank and Globe and Mail Foreign Editor Stephen Northfield about the significance of news blackouts in kidnapping cases for a Canadian Journalism Foundation event. The presentation and Q&A will be followed by a cocktail reception where the discussion can be continued. University of Toronto, Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Avenue), 6:30–9 p.m., FREE.
POLITICS: The next municipal election may still be a little under a year away, but people are already starting to campaign—and it’s not just mayoral candidates who are pounding the pavement. ArtsVote Toronto is a coalition of Toronto arts workers and artists who are dedicated to electing candidates who support the arts community. Today is the launch for their campaign at the Urbanspace Gallery, where co-chairs Camilla Holland and Jacoba Knaapen (along with other speakers) will be there to discuss the best way to get out the arts vote over the coming year. Urbanspace Gallery (401 Richmond Street West), 5–7 p.m., FREE.