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Some twenty films, discussion panels, and a photo exhibition will showcase the depth and diversity of Black LGBTQ+ communities during Massimadi* Montréal, February 18 to February 28, 2021. Organized during Black History Month, the thirteenth edition of the Afro LGBTQ Film & Arts Festival is a lot more than an artistic and social celebration. It’s also a designated safe...
Moving an international audience with a truly local story may seem like a tall order for many directors, including documentarians. Does sharing very little to the people whose lives are portrayed in a film necessarily constitute an obstacle to appreciating the story? Are there any rules to follow as a filmmaker, when you don't want your work to be...
2020 has seen major investments in "games-as-a-service," as new players enter the ring, with an eye on 2021.
On-demand, streaming entertainment has gone from a niche segment of the market to the dominant force for TV, movies, and music – and now, the video game industry is preparing for the next round of "streaming wars." Last year, the Canada Media...
To kick off the new year, we asked CMF staff for their thoughts on their favourite Canadian TV series for 2020. Their recommendations for discovering or rediscovering some of the many nuggets on Canada’s audiovisual landscape are below.
Schitt’s Creek
The No. 1 employee pick for top Canadian series for 2020 was no surprise. Schitt’s Creek, created by the father-son duo...
It’s been a year in which coming up with creative solutions to pressing problems has taken on a whole new meaning for the screen-based industries. And season 3 of the Now & Next podcast has made it a priority to explore the range of ways in which people in film, TV, games, and digital content creation have been keeping...
What a year it’s been! In many ways, our lives have been turned upside down. The screen industries have been hit hard and are recovering very gradually. We can definitely speak of a "before COVID-19" period, but we cannot yet really talk about an "after". This is reflected in the most popular articles on CMF Trends over the past...
The day she saw The Matrix, the cyberpunk novel that morphed into a monster movie franchise, was the day Alice Bédard decided to dedicate her life to film. Years later, in August 2020, Matrix co-writer and co-director Lana Wachowski claimed the film was really an allegory about being trans. It was a total revelation for the 25-year-old Montrealer and...
Working from home: for better or worse, gaming industry professionals, like most of us, have experienced it in 2020. On this episode of Now & Next, host Leora Kornfeld chats with Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan and Jim Munroe, who have been tasked with finding out exactly how that transition has been like for those working in the game industry.
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On this episode of Now and Next, we meet Jacob Pratt, an Indigenous film producer from Saskatchewan, now based in Los Angeles. He explains to host Leora Kornfeld that the best way to fight stereotypes perpetuated by the media, is to use the same medium to break them.
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Fighting for better representation from within
As a child growing up in...
As a part of the CMF Trends feature on co-creation, co-creative projects from the Toronto mediascape take the spotlight.
What is Co-Creation and How is it applied?
According to the first of its kind MIT study titled Collective Wisdom, co-creation is an alternative to top-down production, conventional media, and meaning-making. Its predominant function is to challenge a singular author or process...
Like the rest of the country, Alberta has been hit hard by the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 health crisis. Its digital media sector includes companies that have suffered indirectly from the historic drop in the price of oil earlier this year. However, others have managed to do well and seize new opportunities during this very particular year.
When non-essential...
Ever wondered if there is such a thing as delivering a perfect pitch? Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach, the idea of empathy is most often overlooked by project developers, even though taking into account precisely what the person you're pitching to is looking for, is the first step towards success.
When you pitch your project, the goal is NOT...
On this episode of Now & Next, host Leora Kornfeld speaks to Hilary Henegar and Fiona Rayher, two women who are making it possible again to watch a movie with other people and have a discussion afterwards, just like old times but... virtually. This new trend is proving to be both appealing to individuals and profitable to film producers.
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Virtual reality can be a lot more than just a new-fangled way to entertain yourself. It can also be used as a therapy for treating symptoms of apathy, anxiety, and depression associated with degenerative disease. In this way, VR technology can play an effective role in mitigating the effects of social isolation on seniors during lockdown. What follows are...
Originally from Lebanon and based in Montreal since 2011, Eli Jean Tahchi has directed a number of films ("La cassette migrante"/The Migrant Mixtape, "La femme migrante"/The Migrant Woman, "Jours de rage"/Days of Rage) that have won awards at mainstream and LGBTQ+ film festivals alike. A supporter of socially engaged cinema, Tahchi’s goal as a filmmaker is to tell and...
