Category: Shameless
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Movie Reviews: Inside Out and Hot Docs Film Festivals
I wrote the following reviews for Shameless Magazine. They originally appeared here: Hot Docs reviews, Inside Out reviews THE LEGACY OF FRIDA KAHLO DIRECTOR: TADASUKE KOTANI 2015, JAPAN, 89 MINUTES This hypnotic film captures the convergence of two unique women, Frida Kahlo, the Mexican artist famous for her searing and allegorical self-portraits, and Japanese photographer Ishiuchi…
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It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War
IT’S WHAT I DO: A PHOTOGRAPHER’S LIFE OF LOVE AND WAR Lynsey Addario [Penguin Press] Throughout her memoir, It’s What I Do, photojournalist Lynsey Addario reiterates the reason why she has risked her life – time and again – to capture images in the world’s most dangerous places. Her goal has been to bring awareness…
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How Poetry Saved My Life
HOW POETRY SAVED MY LIFE: A HUSTLER’S MEMOIR Amber Dawn [Arsenal Pulp Press] Midway through How Poetry Saved My Life, Amber Dawn’s memoir of her life as a sex worker, she recalls a client telling her “Now I feel human again.” A few pages later she asks “What would I pay to feel human again?” This…
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Canadian History through the Stories of Activists
GENDER AND SEXUALITY: CANADIAN HISTORY THROUGH THE STORIES OF ACTIVISTS & RESISTING THE STATE: CANADIAN HISTORY THROUGH THE STORIES OF ACTIVISTS Scott Neigh [Fernwood Publishing], http://talkingradical.ca/ History is often described as being written by the victors; a single story in which voices of struggle and resistance are often lost. Scott Neigh’s pair of books, Resisting…
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Venus With Biceps
VENUS WITH BICEPS: A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF MUSCULAR WOMEN David L. Chapman and Patricia Vertinsky Arsenal Pulp Press For David L. Chapman, the bodybuilding women of 1950’s-era Muscle Beach inspired a fascination with muscular women that has lasted for decades. This passion led him to amass a collection of rare postcards, photographs, and broadsides depicting…
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Counter Culture Classics: Bikini Kill
This summer I found myself standing in the narrow aisles of the stacks of New York University’s Fales Library, reaching inside a shallow cardboard box to touch the thin fabric of a musty dress. “That,” exclaimed the excited librarian of the Riot Grrrl Collection, “is the dress from the cover of Bikini Kill’s Pussy Whipped.”…
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Unpersons
UNPERSONS The Pack a.d. [Mint Records] Unpersons is an unrepentant breakup album, with all of The Pack a.d.’s quieter, gentler tendencies drained away and distilled into tight, angry rock. Drummer Maya Miller bangs out backing rhythms as vocalist Becky Black howls out the pain of a broken heart. But even in their sadness, The Pack…
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Love is a Hunter
LOVE IS A HUNTER Rae Spoon [Saved By Radio/Vinyl], www.raespoon.com Abandoning the spare country folk of 2008’s superioryouareinferior, Rae Spoon’s latest album, Love is a Hunter, pulses with barely contained dance beats. Backing their signature high tremolo with electronica makes for an odd, but enthralling combination of vulnerability and bravado. Singing “You can dance with…
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Butch Hagiography
ELISHA LIM & THEIR ILLUSTRATED GENTLEMEN Elisa Lim Feminist Art Gallery Tucked away behind the home of Toronto-based artists Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue is the brand new Feminist Art Gallery (FAG). Not quite able to believe that such a magical place could actually exist, I went on a fact-finding mission this spring. Entering through…
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Rage: The Toronto Bathhouse Raids
Last night I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Track Two, a 1982 documentary on the Toronto bathhouse raids. After nearly being lost to time and decay, the film has finally been digitized and made available in its entirety for free online, thanks to the generosity of Xtra! and the Pink Triangle Press.…