From James Bawden:
Link: Having Our Baby: Surrogacy On Trial
Having Our Baby is the challenging new look at surrogacy that premieres on the Documentary Channel Tuesday night at 10. It answers many of the basic questions about this boom and there are facets I’d never even thought about. Continue reading.
From a media release:
So you think you could be a chef? Home Chef to Pro Chef, a brand new original Canadian series on Makeful —a lifestyle brand that celebrates the maker community and the creation of one-of- a-kind, handmade goods—is giving several passionate home cooks a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live up to the challenge. Premiering Monday, March 6 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, during a nationwide free preview, the 14-part, half-hour series pairs home cooks with restaurants that serve their favourite cuisines, ranging from Italian to Indian to French-bistro.
After a crash course on managing a professional kitchen from restaurateurs and head chefs, the aspiring amateurs are given a shot at running a full dinner service for real, paying customers, while their mentors watch from a monitor and offer advice remotely via a tablet. At the end of each episode, the rookie chef will be critiqued by the customers, who have been unaware of what has been going on behind the scenes. If the home cook’s dishes get a passing grade, their signature dish will be added to the restaurant’s menu.
Coinciding with the launch of the series, Makeful will also roll out Cook Like a Pro Chef, a series of one-minute digital videos offering valuable cooking tips from the professional chefs themselves. The eight videos each feature a different chef and offer up cooking advice that ranges from a fool-proof method of getting pizzeria-style pizza to marinating Atlantic Cod with maple and spruce leaves. The videos will be available on Makeful’s social media feeds, including Facebook and Twitter as well it’s YouTube channel.
Home Chef to Pro Chef is premiering during Makeful’s free preview event, which gives 10 million subscribers across Canada free access to the brand’s inspiring lineup of shows that bring to life creative ideas focused on food, design and style.
I’ve spent time in Yellowknife. I was lucky enough to visit the city in 2010 during a press junket for Ice Pilots NWT. It was winter, and the city was a ruggedly beautiful place full of welcoming citizens happy to host folks from Ontario.
Yellowknife is the focal point of Thursday’s episode of CBC’s documentary series Firsthand, as “The Missing Tourist,” delves into the story of Japanese tourist Atsumi Yoshikubo, who disappeared in 2014. Award-winning producer, writer and director Geoff Morrison presents the facts surrounding the case, and they become more spooky, odd and downright strange as the hour unfolds.
It all begins very straightforward and factual: Yoshikubo, two days after arriving from Japan, entered a visitors’ centre and asked about aurora borealis tours. It being October, the high season for aurora watching is the winter, tours were closed. She then visited an art gallery and bought coffee mugs. It’s one thing to deliver the facts in a dry, journalistic way; it’s another to see security camera footage of Yoshikubo, decked out in a bright pink coat and white boots in the visitors’ centre and art gallery. It adds a personal connection for the viewer. That makes it all the more stark and heartbreaking when it’s revealed that, five days later, Yoshikubo walked out of town and disappeared.
People saw her on Old Airport Road that final day, walking alone and towards the city dump, but thought nothing of it. After all, the 45-year-old had a camera and was dressed for the weather. Search and rescue took on the case, using a helicopter, while citizens from the city of just over 20,000 chipped in to help.
The fascination with true crime and missing person cases has never waned—there is a proliferation of podcasts on both subjects—and “The Missing Tourist” is an addictive watch. You can’t help but wonder, as TV news presenters, crime reporters and witnesses weigh in, what happened to Yoshikubo. Was she kidnapped? Did she slip and fall somewhere in the woods? Was she killed by a bear?
The documentary doesn’t just cover the case in Yellowknife, but jets to her home—a small prefecture in Southern Japan—to do more investigating and spotlight how big the story became there. Why would a Japanese tourist not only travel on her own to Yellowknife (most do it as part of a travel group) but in the off-season. Was she fleeing someone or something by coming to Canada? Was she looking for a new start?
By the end of the hour, the answers are given. And the journey to get there is dramatic and very well done.
Firsthand airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.
Image courtesy of Catherine Lutes.
It’s hard to believe it’s been two decades since Student Bodies hit the airwaves. And yet here we are, with star Ross Hull taking to Facebook to not only celebrate but to hint fans could help bring the cast together for a reunion.
The below video looks back on those innocent times, when cell phones were big, problems were small, the school newspaper was a comic book and Green Day’s “(Good Riddance) Time of Your Life” was the soundtrack to life. Now Hull is asking fans to head to the show’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages for support in hopes a reunion project can happen.
Created by Alan Silberberg, Judy Spencer and Michael Klinghoffer, Student Bodies aired on Global and YTV in Canada as it showcased the lives of students at the fictional Thomas A. Edison High School. It ran for three seasons and—aside from Hull—starred Nicole Lyn, Katie Emme McIninch, Miklos Perlus, Jessica Goldapple, Mark Taylor, Jamie Elman, Victoria Sanchez, Dino Valiotis, Erin Simms, Jennifer Finnigan and Katheryn Winnick.
What do you remember about Student Bodies? Who were your favourite characters? Do you want to see a reunion happen? Comment below!
From a media release:
Just for Laughs, one of the world’s most acclaimed comedy brands, will receive this year’s prestigious Icon Award as announced by The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television today. The Icon Award will be presented by another comedy icon, seminal comedian Dave Chappelle on Sunday, March 12 at the Canadian Screen Awards, broadcast live on CBC from Toronto’s Sony Centre for the Performing Arts at 8 pm (9 pm AT; 9:30 pm NT).
Founded in 1983 in Montreal, Just For Laughs has launched the careers of some of the biggest names in comedy including Russell Peters, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart, Louis CK and Dave Chappelle himself. As of late, the festival has added events in Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney and London. The Just For Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival is the most prestigious comedy event in the world, welcoming over 300 artists a year, with an average of 1.7 million visitors to Montreal each summer.
One of television’s leading comedy producers with over 1,000 hours of television standup, scripted and variety programming, as well as the phenomenally successful Gags franchise, Just For Laughs specials and series have aired in over 130 countries, including on all major Canadian, U.S. and International broadcasters including CBC, Comedy, HBO, the CW, Showtime, Fox, BBC Channel 4 and ABC, to name a few.
A true trailblazer and a good friend of Just For Laughs, comedian Dave Chappelle will present this award to JFL founder, Gilbert Rozon and COO, Bruce Hills. Chappelle’s relationship with the festival dates back to 1992 when he did his first set, launching his extraordinary career.
Starting his standup career at the age of 18, Chappelle went on to become one of the most revered and successful comedians in the world. The wildly popular and groundbreaking Chappelle’s Show on Comedy Central became a smash hit in the early 2000s for which Chappelle, who created and starred in the sketch comedy series, received two Emmy Award nominations. He recently signed an unprecedented deal with Netflix for three new comedy specials.
Presented by the Academy Board of Directors, the Icon Award marks important achievements in Canada’s screen industry.
