By Mikhail Saavedra
Little Ashes :
As it often happens with films about artists, Paul Morrison’s “Little Ashes” is quite the visual feast. A fairly revisionist story about the supposed nature of the relationship between one of the leading lights of Surrealism Salvador Dali (Robert Pattison) and one of the greatest Spanish poets of all time Federico Garcia Lorca (Javier Beltran).
By Valentina Saavedra
May is our CITY ISSUE and after much thought and discussion and after receiving some great entries we’ve picked the winner of our Expose your Toronto Contest:
With her image of Toronto capturing the essence of the Alternavox experience - it’ll turn you upside down -
SEATTLE DREDGE - Toronto photographer
The winner of the challenge will receive:
* A $50 gift certificate from Henry’s
* A profile in our June issue in the Paintbox section
* The winning photo will also be incorporated into a design for the official Alternavox t-shirt
by: Hannah Koh
When was the last time you really looked at your surroundings as you walked around in downtown Toronto? If you did, you would find that there’s actually a lot of short but interesting pieces scrawled on the concrete and brick facades alongside the graffiti tags and shredded remnants of old posters.
by: John Chidley-Hill
I grew up in North Toronto, near the intersection of Yonge and Lawrence. After the second grade, my family moved north of the city to the suburban town of Thornhill. To help me pass the time while my parents unpacked, my dad went to the corner store and bought me some comic books.
At first, they were just Disney Comics; Tale Spin, mainly. Every day my dad would buy me one or two more to occupy me for the day, and after two weeks of unpacking, I was hooked on Marvel Comics.
Later that summer, my limited knowledge of Spider-Man and Wolverine were enough cultural currency to win me the respect and friendship of kids at summer camp, and then classmates at my new school.
Comic books became a big part of my life, a hobby that has lasted nearly two decades.
After grade six, we moved back to North Toronto where I reunited with some friends who had also discovered comics. They took me to their store: Paradise Comics. It had had opened in 1991, just after my move to the suburbs, and had since become a focal point for school boys in the neighbourhood.
By Mike Davis, The Guardian (UK)
The Spring Break hordes returned from Cancun this year with an invisible but sinister souvenir.
The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the fecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever. Initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection rate already traveling at higher velocity than the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.
Stealing the limelight from our officially appointed assassin - the otherwise vigorously mutating H5N1, known as bird flu - this porcine virus is a threat of unknown magnitude. Certainly, it seems far less lethal than SARS in 2003, but as an influenza, it may be more durable than SARS and less inclined to return to its secret cave.
498 Queen St.W.
May1-31
Contact: Open Exhibition
AKA Gregory Majster. Grew up in Toronto moving here from Poland in 86. He studied film at Centennial College and after that went to The Art Center, part of Central Tech. where he studied drawing and painting.
Leonardo Galleries
www.leonardogalleries.com believer the online
133 Avenue Road, Toronto 416 924 7296 Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 10-5
(Open until 8pm the first Thursday of every month)
May 1-23, reception Thursday 7 May, 7-9pm:
CONTACT 2009. John Long & Mira Zdjelar:
Stereo photography! What an amazing way to view John Long’s images. I was transported to glistening brooks looking up to the majesty of a mountain precipice. I was in a sense standing along with the photographer more than a viewer in what this artist calls hyper realistic photography.
Howard Park Institute
2088 Dundas St. W.
“Jodie-Monkey planet of the apes movie
“
Monday May 11, 2009 to Sunday May 31, 200
Coinciding with the opening of the Contact Toronto Photography Festival, OCAD Faculty Rae Johnson has a new photo-based painting on exhibition at the Howard Park Institute window gallery.
By Mikhail Saavedra
Filmmakers Bio:
Who is Steven Cerritos?
I am an independent filmmaker living in Toronto, Canada. Just like many independent filmmakers, I write, direct and edit most of my projects. Over the last couple of years, I have created two shorts ‘Cerritosis’ and ‘In Darkness’. I am currently developing and promoting my newest project, ‘The Mister Serial Killer Web’ Series. The first webisode can be seen at www.enityfilms.com/misterserialkiller. My style can be summarized as dark and absurd. Garth Ennis’ writing, Mark Ryden’s artwork, Joel-Peter Witkin’s photography, and Clive Barker, Beatrix Potter and Kentaro Muira’s dark and imaginative worlds have been big influences in my life.
by Valentina Saavedra
An interview with Michael Willems – Toronto Photographer
Show featured: IV – Intravenous
Show: CONTACT Photo Festival
Publisher-Creator Mikhail Saavedra began life down by the deepest tip of southern Latin America. He started life with a deep curiosity for all things, with music and books being at the forefront, a curious child by all accounts. As he grew and opened his eyes to the world, he developed a sense of justice and dignity in part as a reaction to growing up in a military dictatorship. Alas, this did not fill him with fear or cynicism but a more rebellious spirit, which led him to being incredibly popular at the principal’s office and the local riot police department….
Then came Canada and it was here that he was able to formulate his deep desire to learn about the world, with Toronto being the kind of multicultural soup that could engage his need to know and embrace. It started with writing, then moved on to what became Toronto’s first Latin Alternative radio show, followed by an all-English show in the same vein. It was this desire to find the true “crossover” among people, which led him to the concept of “Alternavox”
He is a lover of wine, good food, Neruda, Eduardo Galeano, rebel music, revolutionaries, dancing, family and beautiful people. Believes that kindness in this much too cynical world is revolutionary, that you are a better person when able to give a little without asking for the change and that on the same token you should laugh at yourself and the madness surrounding you as often as possible as you set out to change the world bit by bit. 
