Canadian Films on the Screen in Your Community

In addition to finding Canadian films in libraries and video stores, visit The Film Circuit website to find movies that are being screened in your community. The Film Circuit, a division of the Toronto International Film Festival, has been helping to bring Canadian and world cinema to communities across the country since 1995. Circuit groups are usually non-profit organizations who typically use the screenings as an income stream and awareness builder for their cause. Working with The Film Circuit staff, community organizers develop a program of films, promote and sell tickets to the screenings, and in many cases create special events or mini festivals as part of their program. Over the past fifteen years The Film Circuit and their community partners have helped tremendously to develop new audiences for Canadian film, brought back to the screen Canadian classics like Goin' Down the Road, The Rowdyman, and The Grey Fox, and introduced Canadians to many of the talented actors and directors working to develop a unique voice and Canadian identity, through the motion picture. With a little searching, I'm sure you'll find a Film Circuit group in your community.

Cozy Up With a Canadian Film this Winter

Last weekend the busy awards season was launched with the Golden Globes. As you find yourself inundated in the next two months with the relentless marketing of overblown Hollywood movie product, seek out a Canadian film.

Whether you stumble upon a film on a television movie channel, rent one from your video store, or borrow from your local library (many have a world cinema section) you'll immediately sense that you are watching something previously undiscovered.

Under-stated, under appreciated, and for the most part under-watched, a Canadian movie shares a unique perspective partially derived from dwelling in our vast and diverse country. These ten films are just a sampling, but a good place to start.

Wilfrid Laurier Campus Helps Revitalize Brantford's Core

Proclaimed "the worst downtown in Canada" in the early 1990's, downtown Brantford is slowly being established as a center for post-secondary education, thanks largely to the commitment of Wilfrid Laurier University. As a twenty-year resident of the Telephone City I have witnessed the core, and collective community self-esteem, at its lowest.

The above photograph of downtown by Stephen Colwill is an accurate representation.

Earlier this week Brantford Expositor reporter Michelle Ruby talked to Laurier Dean Leo Groarke about his new book, Reinventing Brantford - A University Comes Downtown.

Read the article, and better yet, you might want to seek out Leo's book, available from the Laurier Brantford Bookstore.

Thomas Jefferson's Ten Vital Principles to Live By

I just came across a slip of paper (source unknown) that lists 10 vial principles to live by, included in Thomas Jefferson's "Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life."

I thought they would be better published here, than lost again at the bottom of a desk drawer.

1. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

3. Never spend your money before you have it.

4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.

6. We never repent of having eaten too little.

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

8. How much pain have cost us the evils which never have happened.

9. Take things always by their smooth handle.

10. When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.