Last night I caught my first Nightvision film–in fact it was the first film in the Nightvision program for Hot Docs, and what a film to jumpstart the kooky, funny, strange, out-there films that comprise the series.

GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was a fantastic, funny, touching and kick-ass story about the women wrestlers on the 80′s TV show GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling).  The box office schedule limits what films I can see and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to this film, but my goal was to get out to all the Nightvision films and so I decided to go. I’m so glad I did. That’s always a highlight for me at this documentary festival, to go see a film I wouldn’t normally be interested in seeing based on the description, title, etc.. (book, cover…), and then get blown away by it, either in the sheer awesomeness of the film or how it  will influence me as a filmmaker. Well, GLOW was awesome and I’m glad I got to see it.

It’s playing two more times so check out Hot Docs’ website for more info.

GLOW (official website)

Last night, day one, was the opening night party which was great!  Saw many people from a few doc circles and it was a good time overall.  I’m writing this, keeping an eye on the time as I know I have to bike over to TBLB for my first shift (let’s hope it goes well!  TBLB is busy, busy, busy!), but so far I’ve only seen one film today, but it was a fabulous one at that.

This morning I saw THE LIFER AND THE LADY (1984) follows a convicted criminal serving a life sentence, and his relationship a prison volunteer. Directed by John Kastner, whose film is part of a Hot Docs Retrospective series this year (so go out and see more of his films!), the film also highlights important issues surrounding correctional facilities and certain theories applied in them, many of which are relevant today with the recent goings on at Parliament (I’m not well-versed on these issues unfortunately, but here’s a great article from TheStar the retrospective and a bit on this film).

More films, more events, in anticipation of a wonderful Hot Docs!

THE LIFER AND THE LADY (Hot Docs website)

Occasional Hot Docs tweetings: @kathleen_mackey 

Trying my hand at a tilt-shift of the farm. I love tilt-shift. When I was younger, I had a whole model farm kit–I love it. The little livestock, fences, trucks, silos, hay bales…

When I was a kid, I absolutely loved watching Disney’s Cinderella.  The VHS would play and I’d pretend to be Cinderella, acting out all the scenes in the movie. My mum likes to remind me of this often.

So when my friend Salini asked me to photograph her artwork in preparation for her year-end show, I was surprised to find out it revolved around Cinderella!  She has kindly let me showcase the beautiful detail of her paper box scenes.

To see it in person, visit the Seneca’s Illustration Diploma Art Exhibit [fb] [twitter], running from April 17 to 21, 2012 at the York University Special Projects Gallery.

I got a call around noon on March 5 from my mom. She said that dad visited the farm that morning and that the demolition had already begun. Unprepared, as we all thought it was happening the next day, I grabbed my camera, and other equipment, racing from work in Toronto to Whitby to capture the demo of my family’s farm. The time had finally come, and while thankfully the developers had given us some warning as to the demo, I guess some of the work had started a bit earlier. And luckily, when I got to the farm, the barn was still standing. One shed had disappeared, separated into piles of wood, brick, and sheet metal. An orange vehicle with a claw traveled towards another shed, and I saw it reduce this building to the same piles, so quickly. Dramatic, perhaps. But watching this unfold has really been something else. Putting the “doco” hat on makes it more surreal as it’s not until later, when faced with the photos of before, and after, that it really hits me.

The next day, March 6th, the main barn was torn down.

I would like to thank my family who, while I wonder sometimes if they support my filmmaking tendencies, really proved it this week (at least I think so). My mom racing from her own workplace with the Hi-8 video camera so I would’t miss anything. To my dad, informing the residential developer of my documentary and asking if it was okay that I film the demo. My sister Laura who was there that day, and Rachel, who wasn’t, but helped me take photos days before–a portrait of me standing in front of the then-standing barn. And thank you to John who captured, on the DSLR, the little things I would have missed.  His photos are below. And thank you to all my friends who supported me in one way or another.

Watching the event unfold through a lens sometimes made me forget what was happening.  Thanks to those around me, I was able to capture this event and will reflect on it for many years to come.