Living in these quarantine times can be heavy since our lives have drastically changed. With all the disturbing news reports, sometimes a laugh is in order, and the sillier, the better. You’ll find an abundance of LOL silliness with Stephen Ohl’s first feature, Useless Humans. Brian (Josh Zuckerman) is turning thirty and looking forward to... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Indigenous Representation
I'm furious about an editorial piece in a Toronto newspaper with an inflammatory headline asking why racism against Indigenous people isn't getting more attention. The editors cite that there has been more reporting on anti-Black racism, and that's the most divisive thing I've heard during the uprising. I'm not adding a link to this... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Octavia E. Butler and Black Futures
Octavia E. Butler’s birthday was on June 22, 1947. She is the mother of black futures and would have been 73 years old this year. Her worlds explored Black people and situations where race, sexuality, and hierarchy determined the fates of her characters. She never sugar-coated scenarios, often bringing the worst of human nature to... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: The Girl with All the Gifts
The zombie genre has been played out and regurgitated for a long time now, leaving horror fans jaded and looking for a new angle. In 2014, Mike Carey (as M.R. Carey) wrote The Girl with All the Gifts, a book about a zombie plague instigated by a fungus. In 2016, he wrote the screenplay for... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Brown Girl Begins
Afrofuturism is a term coined by cultural critic Mark Dery, but I tend to lean towards writer and filmmaker Ytasha Womack’s definition which states: “Whether through literature, visual arts, music, or grassroots organizing, Afrofuturists redefine culture and notions of blackness for today and the future. Both an artistic aesthetic and a framework for critical theory,... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Hot Docs 2020-Coded Bias
What happens if you want to create a fun project for your MIT class only to find that you don’t exist to your own project? This happened to then graduate student Joy Buolamwini when she wanted to create a facial recognition mirror, the “Aspire Mirror”, that would project fun filters to start your day. Because... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: She Never Died
As a programmer for The Blood in the Snow Film Festival, I have the privilege of seeing some fantastic films created here in Canada, and I feel even luckier when we acquire them. One such film, She Never Died, screened in 2019 to great acclaim. Directed by Audrey Cummings, it’s not exactly a sequel to... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Afrofuturism and Inclusivity Series
On a rare 29th day of February 2020, I gave a lecture for Toronto’s Black Museum: Lurid Lectures for the Morbidly Curious on The Omega Man and the inadvertently Afrofuturist themes called The Omega Man’s Utopian Dystopia. I spoke about how this classic film has an Afrofuturistic bent without seemingly trying. Sure, it was... Continue Reading →
In Plain Sight: Fast Color
Filmmaker Julia Hart was inspired to write a film about motherhood and finding your strength in the face of adversity. What she was able to accomplish is her 2018 sci-fi drama Fast Color, a universal story about a woman with extraordinary powers who must protect her daughter while also including a deeper theme of diversity... Continue Reading →

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