This summer, OPEN CINEMA founder and program director Mandy Leith is heading across Canada for the documentary pilgrimage of a lifetime! She will explore Canada’s documentary legacy, share OPEN CINEMA’s hybrid event model and build community along the way. And you’re invited to join her, either in person or virtually!

Get on the Doc Bus!

Travelling from Mile 0, Victoria, BC to Mile 0, St John’s Newfoundland in her VW westfalia bus, Mandy will connect with filmmakers, film lovers and community screening programs across the country to talk about the future during a time of unprecented transition for the entire media industry.  The goal is to seed a nationwide community cinema network and discuss other ways to connect and keep the struggling documentary genre alive and well.

Watch this video to find out more…

Documentary Needs Your Help!

In the spirit of community building, we are calling on the community to help crowdfund the expenses for this project. We need money to buy gas, travel expenses (food, campsites, parking) and to build a website that will serve as a map-based database and travelogue.

Please share this video and donate to our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. Our campaign ends at midnight on Wednesday May 15th and we’d love your support to help spread the word. If you can contribute financially even better!

We are offering perks in return for your contribution of $10 or more: personal postcards, creative photographs, lovely calendars, cool t-shirts, and great promotional opportunities. All the details on the Indiegogo campaign site.

YOU’RE INVITED TO THE SEND-OFF PARTY

Full Circle Studio Arts, 1800 Store Street.

Please join us at the Doc Bus Send-off Party at 5.30pm on Wednesday May 29th, 2013 at Full Circle Studio Arts, 1800 Store Street.

We’ll have Hoyne beer, nibbles, wine and 10% off everything in the store. It’s a Fun-Raiser, so owner Valerie Pusey will donate 5% to the Doc Bus.

Find out more at the Facebook event page.

DOWNLOAD THE MEDIA RELEASE HERE:

Find out more about this exciting project:

Visit the project website.

www.GetontheDocBus.com

Film, food & fun(d)raising!

Elemental tells the story of three individuals united by their deep connection with nature and driven to confront some of the most pressing ecological challenges of our time.

Post-screening discussion

• Briony Penn, writer, artist, activist;
• Caitlyn Vernon, Sierra Club BC; and
• Jesse Baltutis, POLIS Water Project.
  

Grand Prize Draw & Silent Auction

Grand Prize – a luxury night for 2 at Sooke Harbour House

Tickets $5 each, 3 for $10, 8 for $20.

Check out this partial list of silent auction items! Wow.

• Kaleidoscope Theatre-  2 tickets
• Ballet Victoria – 2 tickets to Dances with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Victoria Jazz Society – 2 tickets to John Pizzarelli
• Victoria Symphony – 2 tickets to any concert
• Intrepid Theatre – 2 tickets to any Uno play
• Story Theatre – family pass to Story Theatre Fringe show
• Cinecenta – 4 tickets
• Il Terrazzo – $75 gift certificate
• Avalon Books – 1/2 hour Tarot reading
• The Make House – $50 gift certificate for any class
• Prince of Whales – $220 gift certificate for Whale Watching
• Aitan Roubini – 2 hours of computer consulting
• Janice LaCouvee – 2 doz truffles
• Hemp and Company – gift bag
• Simply Tea – gift bag
• Turtle Express – shirt and sweater
• Whirrled Arts – scarves, necklaces, earings
• High Road Fashion – scarf and $50 gift certificate
• Ava Cristl – painting
• Barbara Burns – photograph

If you would like to contribute to our fundraiser by donating a silent auction item, please contact mandy@opencinema.ca, thanks!

The true story about a Swedish filmmaker and a banana corporation.

Dirty tricks, lawsuits, manipulation and the price of free speech.

In 2009, Fredrik Gertten’s documentary BANANAS!, chronicling a lawsuit against controversial food giant Dole, was set to premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Dole responded with an aggressive media and public relations campaign to quash the film’s release and discredit the reputation of the filmmakers. The filmmaking team refused to be bullied, filing a counter-suit and launching their own media strategy. A true documentarian, Gertten picks up his camera again to capture his fight for free speech.

BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS is an unparalleled thriller about a David and Goliath battle with a corporate machine. This personal film reveals precisely how a multinational will stop at nothing to get its way. As Dole’s PR company puts it, “It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than a bad reputation”.

POST-SCREENING DISCUSSION

ROB WIPOND journalist, Focus Magazine

PETER GOLDEN, Human Rights Lawyer, Central American Support Committee

CHRIS TOLLEFSON, UVIC Environmental Law Centre

Join the conversation virtually via #opencinema Tweetchat!

The discussion will also be livestreamed on our website.

Cash bar, local pizza by The Joint, goodies by Bubby Rose’s Bakery, free Fernwood coffee, door prizes, more!

Suggested Donation $10-20 at the door

VICTORIA EVENT CENTRE

1415 Broad Street (elevator access)

Doors open at 5.30pm

Big Boys Gones Bananas media release: BananaMediaRelease

A Hybrid Event Map

Preparing for a hybrid event can be a little mind-bending – a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time! It’s all about coordination! To help me get it all straight in my head, I drew a Venn diagram to map out the live and virtual elements and the ways they will interact, well er hybridly (is that a word?). Talking of language, during our tweetchat meetings, Angela Hemming and Marylou Wakefield and myself kept marveling at the ways new social networking concepts and vocabulary can be strung into complex sentences — that we all understand!

Live and Virtual Guests

Velcrow Ripper self-portrait during #opencinema tweetchat

Adding a virtual guest into the mix was a dynamic addition to this event, that made it more complicated than our previous hybrid events. We were beyond excited when Velcrow Ripper agreed to participate in our #opencinema tweetchat from his home in New York City. And we knew it would also mean a more complex engagement strategy. So we were thrilled when the folks at Social Coast agreed to help us out by providing a couple of talented tweeters to join our team.

The #opencinema Tweetchat Team

I’d like to take this opportunity to say what a delightful pleasure it is to work with the #opencinema tweetchat team, pictured above sitting at the so-called Power Bar. Our regular tweetchat team, Angela Hemming (above, right) and Marylou Wakefield (above, third from the right) were joined by Social Coast volunteers Stacy White (above, left) and Carol-Lynne Michaels (above, second from right). I love working with these talented digital peeps!

Ready, Set, Tweet!

So the stage is set in the live and virtual spaces, all synced and ready for our cinematic hybrid event: the Blu Ray player and powerpoint prezi are hooked up to the main digital projector, the tweetchat window with the #opencinema hashtag stream is refreshing every 10 seconds on another side-wall projector, the Ustream channel camera feed is ready to broadcast the post-screening discussion live to our website and facebook page, the tweetchat team are locked and loaded, the candles are lit and phew, even the Fernwood Coffee is brewed!

Standing Room Only

You know it’s going to be a busy night when you sell out of advance tickets 3 weeks ahead of time and there’s a line-up to buy the few remaining tickets when the doors open at 5.30. The energy in the packed room was alive with excitement and anticipation, for the film, the post-screening discussion — and the hot pizza from The Joint! We sold 150 slices to the capacity crowd of about 175 peeps.

It was a special treat for us to have Co-Producer Ian Mackenzie (far left) in attendance at the event, along with our fascinating post-screening discussion speakers Layth Matthews (left), Michelle Buchanan and moderator Rachelle Lamb.

Tweetchat Surprises

During the film screening, the tweetchat team discretely tweet about the film and invite tweeps to join the post-screening discussion. Don’t worry, they are neatly tucked up at back, well away from viewers so that it’s not a distraction.

One thing we didn’t anticipate was how powerful it was to be in virtual conversation with the filmmaker during the film! While Velcrow offered a virtual director’s commentary (DVD extra’s style, only in 140 character bytes!), the tweetchat team were sharing cinematic moments and audience reactions with the twittersphere: laughter, applause, pin-dropping silence and waves of recognition and understanding that rippled through the room. Velcrow was really moved: “I can feel the love from here in NYC!” he tweeted!

Revolution: Right Here, Right Now

The post-screening discussion was nothing short of inspiring, as each speaker shared their perspectives on love, revolution, spiritual practice, transformation, communication and how to engage the 1%.“The revolution is happening right here, right now.” commented one speaker. What a power panel! Left to right: Rachelle Lamb, Mindful Communication facilitator; Layth Matthews, Financial Advisor and Victoria Shambhala Centre Director; Ian Mackenzie, Producer; and Michelle Buchanan, writer, media activist and People’s Assembly of Victoria (Occupy Victoria) member.

The Beauty of a Hybrid Event: It’s Archived!

As if we need another good reason to love the hybrid event format – not only can you engage people live across oceans, boundaries and time-zones, but it also serves as an archive of the event! So you can check out the livestream and the tweetchat yourself, which I have compiled into a Storify timeline, along with photos.

Read, watch, click and scroll through the whole multi-media archive of the evening here.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about cinematic hybrid events. We think it’s just the beginning of a very exciting new model…

 NEXT UP: January 23rd, 2013 “In Organic We Trust”

See below for how to participate in our event virtually…

WATCH the trailer of In Organic We Trust.

Post-screening discussion guests:

Carolyn Herriot, farmer and author of ‘The Zero MIle Diet’ , Heather Stretch, Saanich Organics founder and co-author “All the Dirt” and Angela Moran, Mason Street Urban Farm, with moderator Peter Sandmark, MediaNet.

Books will be on sale, along with our usual food concession: pizza, brownies, coffee and cash bar.

In Organic We Trust January 23, Victoria BC.

JOIN US LIVE or VIRTUALLY

If you can’t make it to our event in person, watch the film on iTunes starting on January 22nd, 2013!

Then join the livestreamed post-screening discussion or follow the #opencinema twitterchat with VIRTUAL GUEST: Producer/Director Kip Pastor, who will join us virtually from California on the tweetchat!

We’re taking a small risk by promoting the online screening, as we depend on your donations at our events to keep going, but we feel so excited at the possibilities of closing the virtual engagement loop, that we feel it’s worth it.

Please join us in person if you can, but if you can’t, we hope you enjoy our virtual offerings!  We’d appreciate a tweet or a facebook shoutout if you end up watching online, thanks!

See you at the movies, live or virtually!

On Wednesday November 7th, following a screening of the most excellent documentary Play Again, we amplified our usual post-screening discussion by livestreaming it with an accompanying moderated Twitterchat #OCchats. We were very encouraged by the results! According to Hashtracker, an application that tracks the reach of hashtags, 179 tweets generated 190,637 impressions, reaching an audience of 19,531 followers.  Not exactly sure what that means in real terms, but it suggests that we made some virtual waves!  The impact was made real when a tweeter from Toronto asked if she could use the twitterchat stream as a research resource for her Masters thesis! Nice!

If you’re curious, I’ve compiled all the tweets, photos, trailers into a storyline via an application called Storify here.

What is a hybrid event anyway?

The event started as it usually does, with folks coming early to mingle over a a glass of wine and a slice of hot pizza from The Joint Pizza and Deli.

We love it when people come early to mingle

A happy crowd gathers at OPEN CINEMA

Meanwhile, our tech meister Kirk Schwartz wrangled the AV feed and the livestream channel, to allow folks to watch the discussion from the comfort of their home.

OPEN CINEMA looks different from up in the tech booth

During the film, the twitterchat team start to prime the twittersphere by sharing a few choice quotes from the film itself. We plan to develop a video-on-demand option next year, so that virtual audiences will be able to watch the film from home as well! We’re very excited to make that happen.

The Twitterchat team start tweeting. Photo by Angela Hemming

Once the post-screening discussion is underway, the twitterchat team begin tweeting in earnest.  Angela Hemming and Marylou Wakefield busily summarize the conversation and engage the twittersphere, adding the hashtag #OCchats to every tweet to make it searchable.

Angela and Marylou livetweet the post-screening discussion

The #OCchats twitter feed

It’s an intense hour for the twitterchat team: they’re listening to the conversation, summarizing it in tweets, welcoming and responding to the virtual audience on both twitter and the Ustream channel and voicing  questions from tweeters into the live conversation. Talk about multi-tasking divas! We thrilled that our recent grant success from Vancity allows us to pay them a small honorarium in exchange for their digital storytelling smarts.

Angela Hemming and Marylou Wakefield tweet up a storm

To close the live/virtual loop, we project the twitterchat stream onto the wall in the Victoria Event Centre, so that the live audience can follow the virtual conversation. Some people in the room were also tweeting, which creates a cool hybrid dynamic online.

The tweetchat screen brings the virtual convo into the live event

And all the while, a very engaged conversation is taking place in the room. This is really what OPEN CINEMA is all about. The post-screening discussion guests were Lisa Lockerbie, Sooke Nature Kindergarten; Todd Carnahan, Habitat Acquisition Trust; David Segal, Power To Be and moderator by Dr Rick Kool, School of Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University.

Todd Carnahan (HAT) and David Segal (Power To Be) rocked the post-screening discussion

Rick Kool and Todd Carnahan listen to Lisa Lockerbie talking passionately about Sooke Nature Kindergarten

David Segal (Power to Be) believes that Nature Education is pure storytelling

Dr. Rick Kool was an awesome moderator

As the conversation drew to a close, we were thrilled to discover that our online engagement had served a real purpose for Liz Beattie, a Masters student in Toronto

This made us feel that our efforts were worthwhile

It was a fabulous evening, we are still getting great feedback from both the real and virtual audience. Please join us at our next event, the Victoria Premiere of Occupy Love on December 5th!

You can also read our Twitter chat guidelines here.

If you’re curious, you can read through all the tweets, photos, trailers via an application called Storify here.

Did you attend the event, either live or virtually? We’d love to hear your feedback!

BREAKING NEWS:

Velcrow Ripper will be our very special VIRTUAL guest on the post-screening Tweetchat, live from Toronto Island! Starting at about 8.45pm PST, follow hashtag #opencinema and watch the livestream of the IRL post-screening discussion with producer Ian Mackenzie in attendance, along with guests Layth Matthews (Victoria Shambhala Centre), Michelle Buchanan (writer, media activist and People’s Assembly of Victoria member) and moderator Rachelle Lamb.

From the Arab Spring to the European Summer, from the Occupy Movement to the global climate justice movement, a profound shift is taking place: humanity is waking up to the fact that the dominant system of power is failing to provide us with health, happiness or meaning. The old paradigm that concentrates wealth, founded on the greed of the few, is collapsing. Endless growth on a finite planet cannot be sustained. The resulting crisis has become the catalyst for a profound transformation: millions of people are deciding that enough is enough – the time has come to create a new world, a world that works for all life.

Woven throughout this moving and inspiring film, is a deep exploration of the heart of the movement, the meaning of love, and concrete examples of just what “another world” could look like, featuring some of world’s key visionaries on alternative systems of economics, sustainability, and empathy.

This is the third film in Velcrow’s Fierce Love trilogy, including ‘Scared Sacred’ and ‘Fierce Light’. This final chapter captures the vibrant spirit of the Occupy movement,  moving beyond party politics to offer a hopeful vision for our collective future. It also is a call to action for each one of us to think about what this moment is asking of us.

POST SCREENING DISCUSSION

Producer Ian Mackenzie will be in attendance, along with Michelle Buchanan (writer and media activist), Layth Matthews (financial advisor and Victoria Shambhala Centre Director) and moderator Rachelle Lamb, NVC facilitator and educator.

Starting at approximately 8.45pm PST post-screening discussion will be livestreamed, along with a moderated twitterchat – follow hashtag #opencinema

Join the Facebook event for news, updates and last minute info.

Rave Reviews!

“What the film shows, triumphantly, is that love can unite as much as greed can divide.”  – Vancouver International Film Festival

“Visually stunning, politically incendiary, audaciously inspiring. Occupy Love is a masterpiece.” Read Ethan Cox’s great review of the film.

Filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia introduces the Canadian premiere of ‘Symphony of the Soil’ at OPEN CINEMA October 3, 2012

For details about the film Symphony of the Soil, along with event poster, media release, links to the livestream broadcast and the Tweetchat, click here.

Great Feedback!

“We were so thrilled to have our Canadian Premiere with Open Cinema. They had an excellent tech setup, which made our film look fantastic. We were especially pleased with the audience turn out and dialogue that ensued the film. Great crowd, great conversation. Thanks Open Cinema!” – Jessy Beckett, Lily FIlms, “Symphony of the Soil”, Mill Valley, California

Virtual Cinema

It was our first hybrid event (live + virtual), so if you’re curious, please watch the livestream video of the post-screening discussion.

We also put together a Storify stream of the event, which includes photos, tweets and the livestream link compiled into a virtual story record of the night. We’ll be doing this every month, so tune into www.opencinema.ca/Live on November 7th for our next screening ‘Play Again’. More about that event here.

A decade of OPEN CINEMA Birthday Cakes

By the end of the evening, the packed house had eaten every crumb of Bubby Rose’s Bakery chocolate cake. Apparently it was delicious, but I’m not eating wheat (feeling better for it, though), so sadly I didn’t taste it myself.

Just for fun, here’s a photo celebrating OPEN CINEMA’s first birthday alongside this year’s photos.

It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating OPEN CINEMA’s 1st Birthday!
Top: OPEN CINEMA Founder and Director Mandy Leith
Bottom Left: 2004 Board of Directors: Sandy Mayzell, Erin Skillen, Zsolt Sandor, Spencer Estabrooks, Linda Desormeaux and Garfield Lindsay Miller (not pictured)
Bottom Right: OPEN CINEMA team: Kirk Schwartz, Catlin Lewis, Mandy Leith and Peter Sandmark.

 Chocs for Docs!

One of OPEN CINEMA’s best birthday presents was a box of branded Belgian chocolates that #OCchats Twitter chat volunteer Angela Hemming gave us!

CHOCS FOR DOCS! Aren’t these branded Belgian chocolates fabulous? Thanks Angela Hemming!

It was a big night all round, everyone left feeling re-inspired about the value of composting and we had a lot of fun! Thanks to our event partner FoodRoots and to the speakers as well as everyone who came out to the event.

See you at the movies!

Good ink for OPEN CINEMA!

Good ink in the Times Colonist and CVV Magazine

Last week, film reviewer Michael D. Reid wrote a pun-filled review of the film in the Times Colonist. You can read it here.

And today, CVV Magazine’s John Threlfall published a positively glowing piece online.

On Sunday at 2pm,  listen to an interview I did with Adam Sawatsky on CFAX Radio’s Arts Beat.

See you wednesday, live or virtually!

We hope to see you on Wednesday at the Victoria Event Centre, but don’t forget, if you can’t make it to the event, you can watch the post-screening discussion live on Ustream on the Live page.

And you can also participate in the moderated Twitter chat – just follow hashtag #OCchats to follow the conversation!

See you at the Movies!

PLAY AGAIN: What are the consequences of a childhood removed from Nature?

At a time when children play more behind screens than outside, PLAY AGAIN explores the changing balance between the virtual and natural worlds. Is our connection to nature disappearing down the digital rabbit hole? This moving
and humorous documentary follows six teenagers who, like the “average American child,” spend five to fifteen hours a day behind screens. PLAY AGAIN unplugs these teens and takes them on their first wilderness adventure – no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality. Visit www.PlayAgainFilm.com for more details and join our Facebook event page for ongoing updates, links and news.

Post Screening Discussion guests

Post-screening discussion speakers include Lisa Lockerbie teacher from the Sooke Nature Kindergarten. Todd Carnahan, Habitat Acquisition Trust, David Segal, Power To Be and moderator Dr. Richard Kool (Associate Professor, Environment and Sustainability, Royal Roads University).

Livestreamed Discussion with moderated Twitter Chat

The post-screening discussion will be livestreamed on our Live page and on our Ustream channel. In addition, there will be a moderated Tweetchat about the topic of Nature education and environmental education  – please follow the hashtag #OCchats. The tweet chat and livestream will start at 8.45pm PST on November 7th. If you have questions about the tweet chat, please feel free to contact us.

Here’s the trailer for the film.