From Lauren La Rose of The Canadian Press:
Link: Lawren Harris film captures acclaimed painter’s life and times
“He was a very, very disciplined man. It didn’t come easy. He worked at what he did. I think that was the other thing that was revealing, is how determined he was. . . . He got up every morning and had a daily routine at which he worked. It wasn’t that this just happened to him. I think he worked hard to get where he did.†Continue reading.Â
From Bill Brioux of Briouxtv:
Link: Lawren Harris comes to life in “Where the Universe Singsâ€
…re-tracing the footsteps of Canada’s most acclaimed landscape painter, someone who had the means of travel thanks to his family’s Massey-Harris fortune. The film follows the artist, who died in 1970 at the age of 85, to the north shore of Lake Superior as well as the peaks of the Rockies. There are also stops in Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Algoma, ‎the Arctic, Vancouver and New Hampshire. Continue reading.
From James Bawden:
Link: Lawren Harris receives his due in new TV portrait
Film makers Nancy Lang and Peter Raymont faced a seemingly insurmountable obstacle in their new documentary Where The Universe Sings: The Spiritual Journey Of Lawren Harris. Harris, a Group of Seven Artist died in 1970 aged 85 and all the contemporaries who knew him have died as well.
Harris’s grandchildren are interviewed but even they are elderly.
Still,  Harris’s remarkable journey springs alive and his odyssey is both dramatic and poignant. You can see for yourself: Where The Universe Sings premieres on TVOntario Saturday June 25 at 9 p.m. Continue reading.
From a media release:
This July, TVO and Sinking Ship Entertainment have joined with Cineplex Entertainment to bring Odd Squad: The Movie to theatres across Canada. A live-action educational series, Odd Squad features kid agents who solve math-related mysteries CSI-style. This is the first film for the award-winning series, designed to help kids aged 5 to 8 build their math, problem-solving, and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) skills.
Odd Squad: The Movie jumps off from the Season 1 finale, with agents Olive and Otto joining forces to defeat Odd Todd, a former agent turned villain. When the two leave to run their own squad, two new agents, Olympia and Otis, take their place. In the movie, Olympia and Otis are rivaled by a group of grown-ups, Weird Team, who are led by Weird Tom, played by 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer. Armed with their wits, math abilities, and problem-solving skills, Olympia and Otis devise a plan to take back what’s theirs.
Odd Squad: The Movie will play in 90 theatres across Canada on Saturday, July 16 at 11 am and is part of Cineplex’s Family Favourites program. Tickets are available at cineplex.com.
Leading up to the film’s release, Odd Squad: Season 2 premieres on TVO beginning on Tuesday, June 21 at 4:55 pm. Season 2 features more creatures, gadgets, and odd occurrences to investigate, and agents Olympia and Otis, who are ready to solve the case. With math concepts embedded in each of their assignments, the agents problem-solve together and use their STEAM skills to set things right. Throughout the summer, episodes of Odd Squad: Season 2 will air on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:55 pm and repeat Saturdays and Sundays at 9:15 am. Odd Squad: Season 2 will also be available on tvokids.com and on TVOKids’ YouTube channel.
The release of Odd Squad: The Movie and Odd Squad: Season 2 are part of TVOKids’ Summer of Odd. Kids can stay entertained while learning throughout the summer months, with new episodes of popular children’s series airing in new time slots. TVOKids’ full summer schedule is available on tvokids.com.
Odd Squad is produced by Sinking Ship Entertainment in association with TVO.
The statistics don’t lie, and they’re pretty darned depressing. Millennials are the most-educated generation ever. Since 1981, there has been a 58 per cent increase in the percentage of 25-29 year olds with post-secondary degrees or diplomas. Nearly half of millennials are underemployed in low-wage, dead-end jobs and unemployment for recent grads is double the national average.
Amid those, stunning, crushing numbers comes TVO’s My Millennial Life, which follows five twenty somethings struggling to find jobs—and an identity for themselves—today.
It’s easy to watch something like Saturday’s documentary—produced and directed by Maureen Judge—with a jaded eye. After all, these are all twentysomethings who want money, cars, houses and fame right now rather than work the decades it took generations before them to get there. It used to be folks got an education, graduated and then worked at one company until retirement. Today’s society is different, with 40-year-olds looking for work; where do kids half their age go to find a gig?
Hope saw herself living in NYC and working for a high-end magazine, going to parties and meeting celebrities. She dreamed of buying Louis Vuitton bags on a whim. Her reality? Buying knockoffs from a street vendor and living at home in Pennsylvania. James has a start-up company but is cash-poor; Meron wanted to be a MuchMusic veejay but cleans hotel rooms; Emily sits in her kitchen and listens to music in the apartment her dad pays the rent for and enrols in college to get the real-life skills she didn’t acquire in university; and Tim moved from Moncton to Toronto to make it as a musician but transcribes court testimony for money. There are plenty of tears as they describe the frustration of working in menial, low-paying jobs.
“I don’t know why I haven’t been hired,” Emily says at her lowest point. “I keep trying and trying, and I just need a chance. I just need that break and I don’t know what to do. At this point, I think there’s something wrong with me.”
My Millennial Life isn’t a total downer. Judge introduces the family, friends and loved ones’ of those featured, showing the support systems in place when things aren’t going well. And there is good news for a couple of the kids featured. But the fact remains: it isn’t getting any easier for millennials to realize their dreams.
My Millennial Life airs Saturday, May 28, at 9 p.m. ET on TVO. It can be seen on TVO.org following the broadcast.
