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Friday October 1, 2010
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Dean’s Board
Room,
12th Floor, OISE-UT, 252 Bloor St. W.
(directly above
the St. George subway station)
Jon Braeley's Tour de Force Documentary on traditional
Chinese martial arts:
 A sequel to his
acclaimed documentary The Empty
Mind, Jon Braeley presents a sweeping epic travelogue across
China focused exclusively on the martial arts of China. It examines many of the major
styles of kung-fu and how they are taught in the training grounds of
temples, parks and halls.
...Filled with fascinating interviews
of some of China’s top masters, Warriors of China features both external and
internal styles of Chinese boxing, including Shaolin
Kungfu, Wudang
boxing, Tai Chi Chuan, Baguazhang,
Xingyiquan and Yiquan.
...Highlights include a full contact
showdown between Shaolin’s two largest Kungfu schools, a visit to the famous Wudang Mountain temple, and a rare outsider visit to
a Yiquan ("Mind Fist") training
centre deep in a remote province.
Besides revealing the impact of the martial arts on several
outstanding masters, the film documents the encounter of traditional
fighting arts with modern culture in China and abroad.
discussion to follow,
all are welcome to participate
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Friday April 30, 2010
Dean’s Board
Room,
 12th Floor, OISE-UT, 252
Bloor St. W.
(directly above the
St. George subway station)
"Jon Brailey has yet again done a terrific job with The Empty Mind
in bringing the
philosophical and psychological side of the far east to
us in this
terrific film showcasing some of the top masters of the
martial arts. Names
like Ueshiba, Kanazawa, Okazaki and many more
show the art the
way it is meant to be practised. Hats off to yet
another fabulous
film I enjoyed from the beginning to the end."
--Don Warrener
"I saw The Empty Mind and I was very
impressed. It was excellent."
--Gene Ching, Asst.
Publisher, Kung Fu/Tai Chi Magazine.
discussion to follow,
all are welcome to participate
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One of the best introductions to martial arts from an 'internal' perspective, this documentary tour de force travels across China and Japan to provide revealing and often exciting glimpses into some of the best practitioners of karate, kendo, aikido, Shaolin kung-fu, tai chi, and qigong. Besides giving us access to storied locations like Shaolin Temple, Wudang Mountain, and Japan's Budokan, the film showcases some of the Asian arts' top masters including Moriteru Ueshiba, Masahiko Tanaka, Masao Kagawa, Monk Shi De Yang… and many more. Written and directed by Jon Braeley, the film also features a haunting soundtrack by Richard Brookens (Yellowbell). Film Trailer Empty Mind Films website |
Friday March 26, 2010
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Dean’s Board
Room,
12th Floor, OISE-UT, 252 Bloor St. W.
(directly above
the St. George subway station)
"Ghost
Dog
is simply one of the coolest movies
to come down the
pike in years."
--eFilmCritic.com
"...It
reminded me how vibrantly original an
honest-to-God
independent film can be."
--Cincinnati Enquirer
"Forest
Whitaker carries the movie. His subdued, expressive
performance is
nothing short of amazing."
--Eugene Novikov, Film Blather
"My fave martial arts film is Ghost Dog."
--Tai Chi Master Sam Masich
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Jim Jarmusch's
1999 Classic
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"No other filmmaker has
made such a bold statement about the parallels of societal violence that
exist between cultures, whether Ancient Eastern, Mafioso, or Urban gangster.
Fans of any of the three genres will be sure to enjoy this one."
--Athan
Bezaitis - Filmcritic.com
discussion
to follow, all are welcome to participate
Jim Jarmusch's spiritual gangster film tells the story of an
inner-city hit man who lives on a rooftop, training himself as a samurai in
the strictest sense. Forest Whitaker plays Ghost Dog, samurai disciple,
carrier pigeon keeper, and for ten years the devoted retainer to an aging
mafia foot soldier named Louie (John Tormey). When
one of Ghost Dog's contract murders goes wrong — the don's daughter
Louise (Tricia Vessey) is a witness — her
father, Vargo (Henry Silva), decides that to save
face, he must have the killer "neutralized." The rest of the film
follows Ghost Dog's calculated efforts to survive, as he takes out the gang
members while attempting to maintain his ceremonious, mutually respectful
relationship with Louie. The film's acclaimed score and soundtrack was produced
by the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA.
Film
Trailer
Wikipedia
on Ghost Dog
Interview
with actor Forest Whitaker
Friday November 27, 2009
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Dean’s Board
Room,
12th Floor, OISE-UT, 252 Bloor St. W.
(directly above
the St. George subway station)
a captivating look at
cinema history through the lens of the Chinese American experience.
"Overt racism collides with
the economics of an industry and the perceptions of a culture in Hollywood
Chinese, a provocative critical survey of the first century of American
cinema and the ways that Chinese and Chinese-Americans have been depicted
by the industry...GROUNDBREAKING!!"
--S. James Synder, NY Sun
discussion
to follow,
all are
welcome to participate
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Directed by triple Sundance award-winning filmmaker,
Arthur Dong, this documentary is a voyage through a century of cinematic delights,
intrigues and treasures. It weaves together a wondrous portrait of actors,
directors, writers, and movie icons who have defined American feature films,
from the silent era to the current new wave of Asian American cinema. At once
entertaining and enlightening, Hollywood Chinese reveals long-untold stories
behind the Asian faces that have graced the silver screen, and weaves a rich
and complicated tapestry, one marked by unforgettable performances and
groundbreaking films, but also by a tangled history of race and
representation.
Sample clip from the film
Interview with director
Arthur Dong
Official
Film Website
Friday October 30, 2009
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Room
5-260 (260 on the 5th floor)
OISE-UT, 252 Bloor St.
W.
(directly above
the St. George subway station)
a
documentary film classic on the fascinating world of women's boxing,
featuring perhaps the greatest woman boxer, Lucia Rijker
Directed by Katya Bankowsky
discussion to follow, all are
welcome to participate
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Shadow Boxers is a documentary about women who train as fighters to enter the boxing ring. Directed by Katya Bankowski, the film enters into the world of fighting through intersections of gender, race, class and sexuality, exploring fighting as an embodied politics of anti-violence. The documentary begins with the narratives of several women, but slowly focuses on Lucia Rijker and her rise from small bouts to become a world champion. Like Graciela Casillas— another world-class boxer—Rijker was a martial artist before she trained as a boxer. The film spends some time examining how martial arts discipline enters into Rijker's boxing, giving us insight into boxing as a form of moving meditation.
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Links
review
by Ken Eisner, Variety, June 22,
1999
Women Boxing Archive Network (WBAN)
Wikipedia: Women's
Boxing history
International Women's Boxing Assn.
National
Women’s Martial Arts Federation (NWMAF)
Links: Women in the Martial
Arts
International Association of Gay and Lesbian
Martial Artists
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Host & Facilitator Dr. Jamie-Lynn Magnusson Jamie has earned a 3rd-degree black belt in Goju Ryu karate, and also studies Aikido and Filipino martial arts systems. A professor at OISE, she teaches equity theory in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies. |
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Friday February 27, 2009
 Best British Film, 2002
Asif Kapadia's powerful
first feature film
When
his conscience awakens, his journey begins. The
Warrior is a poignant look at the choices people are forced to
make in order to survive. Irfan Khan is
unforgettable as Lafcadia, a man who works as an
executioner for a heartless warlord (Anupam Shyam). When a poor village is unable to pay him tribute,
the warlord orders an old man to be instantly executed and the village burned
and pillaged. For the first time, Lafcadia shows
hesitation in carrying out his duties, and after a young girl (Sunita Sharma) shows him mystical snow-covered mountains,
he considers running away with his young son (Puru Chhibber). But as he puts down his sword and seeks a
peaceful, quiet life, his men (led by the stellar Aino
Annuddin) are ordered to bring back his head,
leading to horrific loss and a thrilling chase scene through the desert
landscape of Rajasthan in India (known as the Land of Death). Part swordfighting epic, part spiritual quest, THE WARRIOR is
an Eastern Western reminiscent of the films of Akira Kurosawa and Sergio
Leone. Lafcadia's search for inner peace represents
the conflicts that tear through the souls of all men and women, a universal
desire for the beauty and simplicity of life
See the
Trailer for this film
After the film, join us for a wide-ranging discussion
of the film and relevant issues of social change and transformative martial
arts.
Friday January 30, 2009
Transformative Martial Arts and Body Politics:
A Queer Perspective, featuring...
He fights like a man,
so he can
become a woman
 Believing he's a girl trapped in a boy's body
since childhood, Parinya Charoenphol
(affectionately known as Nong Toom
in Thailand) sets out to master the most masculine and lethal sport of Muay Thai (Thai boxing) to earn a living and to achieve
his ultimate goal of total femininity. Touching, funny and packed with
breathtaking Thai kickboxing sequences, Beautiful Boxer traces Nong Toom's childhood, teenage
life as a traveling monk and grueling days in
boxing camps. Shot in 9 provinces across Thailand and in Tokyo, the film also
features a series of explosive matches where Nong Toom knocks out most of his opponents in Thailand and
Japan.
Directed and
produced by Ekachai Uekrongtham,
the film stars Asanee Suwan,
a real-life kickboxing champ as Nong Toom. The role earned him the 2004 Supannahongsa
Award (Thailand's equivalent to the Oscar) for Best Actor. Beautiful Boxer
also features compelling performances by Thailand's award-winning actor Sorapong Chatree in the role of
Nong Toom's coach and
former Miss Thailand Orn-Anong Panyawong
as Nong Toom's mother.
Kyoko Inoue, one of
Japan's top female wrestlers plays herself in the film. She has fought with Nong Toom in real life back in
1988. That historical match was reenacted for the
film in a dramatic sequence shot at Toyko Dome.
Nearly all of Nong Toom's
opponents in the film are also professional kickboxers
in real life.
This movie session will be of interest to
queer martial artists and anyone interested in martial arts as embodied
politics.
Note: Discussion following the film will be
somewhat abbreviated due to the feature's length (almost two hours), but we
still aim for some discussion of important issues raised by the film.
See the Trailer for this
Film
 Host and Facilitator Jamie Magnusson
Jamie has earned a 3rd degree black belt in Goju Ryu karate and also
studies aikido. She encourages
practitioners from gay-positive clubs to bring literature and flyers to share
with others searching for supportive clubs and training spaces.
 Links /
Resources
Beautiful
Boxer website
International
Association of Gay and Lesbian Martial Artists
Outsports.com
Links:
Women in the Martial Arts
National
Women’s Martial Arts Federation (NWMAF)
Roxana Ng, "Embodied
Pedagogy as Transformative Learning: A Critical Reflection,"
Proceedings, Canadian Association for the Studies of Adult Education (CASAE)
24th Annual Conference, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, May
28 to May 31, 2005
Lang Liu, A Very Brief
History of Capoeira
Ann Phillips in Vitality magazine: “Classical Martial
Arts: An Eastern Inspired Path to Wellness and Empowerment”
Friday November 28, 2008
Qigong:
Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century
Narrated by James Shigeta
(Star of Flower Drum Song and Disney's Mulan)
Directed by award winning television
producer and graphic designer Francesco Garri Garripoli
Post-film discussion facilitated by Roxana
Ng
 Qigong (pronounced
"chee-gung") is a 5,000 year old Chinese
healthcare modality that has both endured the test of time and is making a
tremendous resurgence at the threshold of the 21st Century. Literally
millions practice Qigong in China
and around the world each day to successfully treat diseases ranging from
hypertension to cancer. The purpose of this one-hour documentary is to
provide a unique look into the world where the elder Masters of this medical artform dwell. Viewers will be taken on a journey deep
into the Chinese and Tibetan countryside to visit monasteries, temples,
schools, and homes of these Masters like the 93 year old female bone-setting
Master Lao and the spry 92 year old Wushu Master Duan Zhi
Liang; seeing them perform and teach their exercise and healing
techniques and hearing them speak in their original homeland settings to gain
historic perspective.
 Qigong:
Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century is produced and directed by Garripoli,
Emmy award winning graphics and special effects
designer, author, and longtime Qigong
practitioner. Author of "Qigong - Essence of the Healing
Dance," his expertise ensures a sensitive treatment of this subject
while making it accessible to the Western viewer. The natural Chinese
settings including Beijing,
Datong, Luoyang, the Shaolin
Temple, Xian, Chengdu, and Shanghai will provide
viewers with an insight into the wonders of the Chinese culture. Footage
from the country of Tibet
will captivate you with its magic. The insights into the wonders of
Qigong's medical implications will be a unique offering for the growing
number of students, medical doctors, and healthcare professionals from around
the world. For all, it will be exciting to learn of the history and current
practice of this exciting cultural gift from China which may hold the answer
to better healthcare in the next century.
See a Clip
from this Film
Host and Facilitator
Roxana Ng teaches in the
Adult Education and Community Development Program at the  Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
She has written extensively on issues pertaining to immigrant women;
globalization and work restructuring; and marginality and equity in
education. Dissatisfied with theories and practices that privilege the
intellect (simplistically equated with the mind) over the body-spirit, in
1990 she began to explore eastern philosophical thoughts that do not create
this bifurcation. Using Chinese medical theory and qi
gong as a starting point, she has developed a form of transformative
education, which she calls “embodied learning”, that she is
integrating into her teaching and writing. She has practised tai chi and qi gong for over 15 years, and continues to study these
healing and martial art forms.
Links / Resources
Wudang Qigong
Five
Animal Frolics Qigong
Miraculous
Energy Projection: from Bill Moyers documentary Healing and the Mind
More
Crazy Qigong demonstrations
Roxana Ng, "Embodied
Pedagogy as Transformative Learning: A Critical Reflection,"
Proceedings, Canadian Association for the Studies of Adult Education (CASAE)
24th Annual Conference, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, May
28 to May 31, 2005
Tai
Chi and Meditation Centre / Emerge Internal Arts
Friday October 24, 2008
Mestre Bimba: A Capoeira Iluminada (The Enlightened Capoeira)
The Rise of Capoeira Regional
Introduced by Lang Liu of Filhos de Bimba-Toronto and Bavia Arts .
 The Film: The captivating and inspiring
biographical documentary of Mestre
Bimba, one of the founding fathers of
contemporary capoeira. In 1899, in deepest Bahia,
Manuel dos Reis Machado, the Master Bimba, was born. He would become the most
important name in Capoeira in Brazil and
over 150 other countries where this Brazilian fight/game/sport is practiced.
Determined to change its criminal status to which it was condemned by the 1890
Penal Code, Bimba modernised capoeira,
founded the first academy and became one of the most important popular
educators of the Americas.
Through accounts given by some of his old students and never seen before
images, the documentary tells the story of this humble, illiterate Brazilian,
who is today known, sung about and respected in all capoeira
rings. Inspired by the book Mestre Bimba: Corpo de mandinga, by Muniz Sodré.
  Director: Luiz Fernando Goulart
Born
in Rio de Janeiro
in 1941. He graduated in law from PUC. He has written and directed over 150
films, business and training videos, TV series, DVDs and TV documentaries.
Assistant director, production director, executive producer, screenwriter and
director of 40 national and international short and feature-length films. He
directed the features Marilia
e Marina
1975), A rainha do rádio
(1979) e Tropclip (1984).
See the Trailer
Discussion: Lang Liu chief instructor of Filhos
de Bimba-Toronto,
will be on hand to facilitate discussion and answer questions about capoeira, the regional style, and Mestre
Bimba.
Lang trains with the son of Mestre Bimba, Mestre Nenel and
his Salvador-based group, "Filhos de Bimba" (Children of Bimba). Lang is also researching capoeira and indigenous knowledge for her doctoral work
at OISE-UT.
All topics and
issues raised by the film or the series are open for discussion: the nature
of martial arts, non-violence and social change, women in martial arts,
embodied knowledge, mind-body transformation, etc.
Links / Resources
A Very Brief History of
Capoeira by Lang Liu
Demonstration
Roda at the Mother School of Mestre Nenel in Salvador
Filhos
de Bimba, Toronto (Lang Liu)
Bavia
Arts
Fundacao
Mestre Bimba (Mother
School, Salvador)
Filhos
de Bimba, Sao Paulo Filhos de Bimba, Newcastle
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