This fall, we begin a new film screening series at the TRANZAC (292 Brunswick Avenue), featuring documentaries and narrative films that tackle current political and social issues. The series kicks off on September 25 with WAL-TOWN, director Sergeo Kirby’s NFB-produced look at the business practices of mega-retailer Wal-Mart and the ongoing debate of the company’s effect on towns across Canada.

With Wal-Mart Canada eyeing Toronto’s historic Kensington Market neighbourhood for future development, public attention has again turned to Wal-Mart and the radical effects of the retail giant’s business practices. When RioCan announced plans to install a 125,000-square-foot Wal-Mart in the former site of Kromer Radio (just beside the distinctive, fabled Kensington Market), the Friends of Kensington Market formed to oppose the deal, and Toronto City Council passed a bylaw to freeze current development on the Bathurst strip.

The screening of WAL-TOWN will shed some light on the current Kensington situation, as well as tie into the September/October issue of This Magazine: our annual Corporate Hall of Shame issue. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by This Magazine editor Lauren McKeon, debating some of the issues raised by the documentary and the current Kensington Wal-Mart proposal.

The Every Film Is Political series is a fundraiser of This Magazine‘s Red Maple Foundation. Tickets, to raise much needed funds for the ongoing print operations of the nearly 50-year-old publication, will be $15 at the door for the screening and include a copy of the Corporate Hall of Shame issue. Event is on Sept. 25, doors open at 6:30 p.m.

This Magazine would like to thank CUPE Ontario for their support of this event. For information about their Stand Up for Fairness Campaign please visit standupforfairness.ca.

You can also buy tickets in advance at our online shop and get the 2013 Corporate Hall of Shame issue now, plus last year’s Hall of Shame as a free bonus issue!

The NFB is, in my opinion, one of the most successful government-supported cultural institutions in this country, consistently producing an extraordinary breadth and depth of artistic work, and it’s also recently become one of the most innovative, finding new ways to send that work back out to its supporters — i.e., every Canadian citizen — in a wide variety of ways, including, as of this week, the iPhone. This kind of free programming is part of that mission, and I think it’s important to acknowledge the high calibre of work that the NFB does. Maybe see you at a screening this week.

Documentaries about drug use and life on the street can easily become depressing cautionary tales. The NFB’s website Playing It Safe avoids this type of tired cliche by offering at-risk youth a chance to make their own films. The project paired at-risk youth and peer filmmakers from Vancouver and Edmonton. As Vancouver prepares for the 2010 Olympic Games, these aren’t the  kinds of stories the city wants to the world to hear.

Being at once the filmmaker and the subject of the documentary, the people in these films tell honest, thoughtful stories. They talk about the different paths that led them to the streets, and speak openly about both the positive and negative aspects of their lifestyles. Some want to keep using drugs and living on the street, others are going to school and working with other at-risk youth.

Many of the films don’t offer a happy ending, and can’t try to sum-up difficult issues in a simple package. The goal isn’t to scare at-risk youth straight, but to reflect their lives and remind them that they’re not invisible.

There are currently eight films on the site, and more are posted each week.

• Véronique Marino (INIS)
• Geraldine Cahill (The Real News Network)
• David Beers (The Tyee)
• Laurent Mauriac (Rue 89)

The second panel of speakers, above, featured three speakers presenting case studies of some groundbreaking media projects:

• Paulina Abarca-Cantin & Stéphanie Lagueux : Studio XX
• Wayne MacPhail : Rabble.ca
• Reisa Levine & Véronique Maléfant  : CitizenShift/ Parole citoyenne