Face 2 Face With David Peck

Adam, Sarah and Face2Face host David Peck talk about paradox, their new film Great Great Great, why love and relationships are never linear, why nothing lasts forever and what might lie below the surface. Biography Adam Garnett-Jones - Co-writer and Director Adam has written and directed a series of award-winning films that toured the international film circuit from Toronto to L.A., Sydney, Berlin and Beijing. Not content to work only in film, Adam has also distinguished himself as a television writer. He wrote scripts for the series “Cashing In” and “Mohawk Girls" He also had a hand in creating the upcoming series, The North End with Big Soul Productions. Adam released his first dramatic feature-length film, Fire Song, at the Toronto nternational Film Festival in 2015. Fire Song went on to win the Air Canada Audience Choice Award at ImagineNATIVE, the worlds largest Indigenous Media Arts Festival. FireSong also won the Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature at Reel Out, the People's Choice Award fo

Steve and James and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their new history television series Hunting Nazi treasures, Hitler’s obsession with art, complicity, the nature of evil, trading art for lives and the greatest heist in history. Synopsis The new investigative series Hunting Nazi Treasure takes viewers on an epic search across four continents to locate valuable objects and artwork missing since the Second World War and return them to their rightful owners. The series chronicles the systematic looting by the Nazis, and provides new insights into the motivations of top Nazi leaders like Hitler and Goering, and explores how artwork and cultural artifacts are targets during times of war. With hundreds of thousands of stolen treasures still missing to this day, including a painting by Italian master Raphael estimated to be worth upwards of $100 million, a $2 billion hoard of stolen Italian gold, and the legendary Amber Room from the Catherine Palace in Russia, the search into these historically significant “c

Erin Millar and Face2Face host David Peck talk about radical transparency, trust in journalism, community engagement and why millennials are the key to the future of media. Biography Erin Millar is Discourse Media’s editor-in-chief and CEO. She has received multiple awards for journalism innovation, including being named 2015 Bob Carty Fellow by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Storyteller-in-Residence at Ashoka Canada, and an AmEx Emerging Innovator. She has hosted talks and workshops across Canada and internationally, including at the Canadian Association of Journalists national conference and Italy’s International Journalism Festival. She has reported from over a dozen countries for Canadian and international publications. She taught journalism at Quest University Canada and Langara College. She is a trustee of the Uncharted Journalism Fund and serves on the board of the National Magazine Awards Foundation. ---------- For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking

Rolfe Kent and Face2Face host David Peck talk about Alexander Payne’s new film Downsizing, creating chemistry though music, experimentation, writing by walking and relentless enthusiasm. Biography Unexpected texture, sounds and a signature musical personality are the hallmarks of British film composer Rolfe Kent, who has scored more than 50 films, including Academy Award nominated Up in the Air (for which he won a Golden Satellite award), Sideways (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award in 2007), Labor Day, Bad Words (Jason Bateman’s directorial debut), Dom Hemingway, About Schmidt, Election, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde and Legally Blonde II, Wedding Crashers, The Matador, Reign Over Me, The Hunting Party, and Thank You for Smoking. Kent also composed the Emmy-nominated main title theme for the Showtime hit, Dexter.  In 2012, he received the Richard Kirk award for career achievement. Born in England into a non-musical family, Kent intuitively felt at age 12 that he wanted to be

Barry Stevens and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Undercover Jihadi, gang violence, terrorism, the Toronto 18, oppression, marginalization of others, similarity through difference and reconciliation.   Biography Toronto-based director and screenwriter Barry Stevens, who has also worked as an actor, has extensive experience in writing TV drama, and has successfully transported his storytelling skills to his documentaries. He won the Writers Guild of Canada Award and the Audience Award at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival for Offspring, an entertaining account of the search for his biological father.  The Bomber’s Dream, a critical examination of aerial bombing, was also inspired by an unusual family fact: during WWII some of his British relatives were bombed by German members of his extended family. He co-wrote the International Emmy Award-winning documentary Gerrie & Louise, about the South African Truth Commission and was Executive Producer and directed all 24 episod

Ashley, David and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their brilliant new film Do Donkeys Act, mutual appreciation, living poems, the sentience of animals, the environment and our relationship to it and why we all might need a break from humans every now and then. Biography Filmmaking duo David Redmon and Ashley Sabin together produce, direct, photograph and edit critically acclaimed cinematic documentaries that have screened internationally in festivals and on television worldwide at Sundance, Toronto, Cinema du Reel, Rotterdam, Visions du Reel, RIDM, MoMA, and Viennale Film Festivals and on PBS, POV, BBC, CBC, DR, ARTE, and NHK. Their body of work includes four recent “animal ethnography” films based in the world of donkeys and funded by the Leverhulme Trust: Sanctuary (2017), Do Donkeys Act? (2017), Choreography (2014), and Herd (2015); two dream/memory cinema poems Sentient 1 & 2 (2015/2016); a 6 minute snowbound ballet mécanique, Neige (2016); a suite of U.S. post-industrialization themed films set

Mila and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Let There Be Light, fusion energy, yeast excrement, plasma physics, Don Quixote and why science is about getting things wrong. Biography Mila Aung-Thwin is co-founder of EyeSteelFilm. After completing his studies at McGill University in 1998, he began working with maverick filmmaker Daniel Cross on the feature documentary S.P.I.T: Squeegee Punks in Traffic, learning the ins and outs of documentary filmmaking on the streets of Montreal with a squeegee punk named Roach. In order to take advantage of Canadian tax incentives, they founded a production company and called it “EyeSteelFilm” because it seemed like a good idea at the time.  After flirting with other titles such as “cinematographer” (Too Colourful for theLeague), “co-director” (Chairman George), “director” (Bone, Music for a Blue Train) and “Office Drywall Consultant” (various walls), he has decided to just go with “Producer”and stop worrying about it.  Most recently, Aung-Thwin produced the fe

Amanda Lang and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new book The Beauty of Discomfort, meaning, addiction-based science, head to toe joy, change that we choose and why curiosity drives progress. Her new show Exponential will be on Sirius XM (channel 167) and her new podcast on the Antica Network. Look for it and listen in. Biography Award-winning business journalist and best-selling author Amanda Lang has been covering business in North America for 25 years. Lang is the host of Exponential with Amanda Lang, airing on Sirius XM and as a podcast. She has also been an anchor for Bloomberg Television Canada, on Bloomberg North with Amanda Lang. Lang was CBC’s senior business correspondent, reporting for its flagship nightly news program, The National, and host of The Exchange with Amanda Lang, a daily business program airing on CBC News Network. For five years before that Lang hosted The Lang and O’Leary Exchange, with Kevin O’Leary. Prior to that the pair co-hosted SqueezePlay, on BNN, for 6 years. Lang is

Pat Mills and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Don’t Talk To Irene, gender disparity, bullying, random ideas, freedom and non-conformity and why Geena Davis portraying God is important. Biography Pat Mills’s first feature film, the dark comedy GUIDANCE, which he wrote, directed and starred in, had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Picked up by Strand Releasing in the US and Search Engine Films in Canada, Guidance was theatrically released in Summer 2015. Hailed as a “GRADE A” comedy by the Los Angeles Times and a New York Times Crit ics’s Pick, it currently holds a 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Guidance is now available on DVD, Netflix, Vimeo, Amazon, TMN, HBO and itunes. His performance as David was nominated for an Actra Award for Outstanding Male Performance. An alumnus of TIFF’s Talent lab and TIFF Studio, Pat was named winner of TIFF’s Pitch This! for his second feature DON’T TALK TO IRENE. The screenplay won BEST COMEDY SCREENPLAY at the Austin Screenp

Under Pressure with Andrucha Wadddington, Mini Kerti and Lucas Paraizo   Andrucha, Mini, Lucas and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their new medical TV series Under Pressure, public versus private health in Rio de Janeiro, infrastructure, science versus faith, corruption and why there is hope.  Synopsis An ambulance siren marks the beginning of another tough day for the medical staff of a Rio de Janeiro public hospital. In between patients, they struggle with the constant challenges of the chaotic environment of an ER in the outskirts of the city, crossing every line to keep patients alive in a hospital that is running out of supplies. Anguish and personal drama are bubbling over among the people who come to hospital looking for help. The desire to save lives is what drives the doctors in Under Pressure, an authentically Brazilian medical drama. Amid the daily struggles, two people tormented by the ghosts of their past, find solace in one another the soothe their ailing souls. Under these rough condition

Chandler, Jesse and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their new film We Forgot to Break Up, identity, memory and sexuality, anger, selfishness, relationships, and the messiness of intimate friendships. Biography Chandler Levack is an award-winning writer and director. After being selected for a screenwriting seminar at the University of Toronto taught by Semi Chellas (Mad Men) and Patricia Rozema (Grey Gardens, Into the Forest), she wrote the coming-of-age comedy Felt Up, based on an article written for her college newspaper where she investigated the world of professional pickup artists. A music journalist for SPIN and The Village Voice whose writing has been nominated for multiple National Magazine Awards, Chandler transitioned into filmmaking after graduating from the CFC Writer’s Lab in 2012, where she wrote the short film Lunchbox Loser, which has screened at festivals world-wide including the Portland Women’s Festival, Cannes Short Film Corner, Canadian Film Festival, and the Lahore International Chi

Mina Shum and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film Meditation Park, neighbours, Buddhism, the falsity of capitalism, underwear, the obstacles and triumphs we face and why we’re constantly coming of age. Biography Mina Shum is a Hong Kong–born, Vancouver-raised filmmaker who studied theatre and film production at the University of British Columbia. Many of her films have played at the Toronto Film Festival, including her short Me, Mom and Mona, which was awarded a Special Jury Prize; her feature debut, Double Happiness, which won the award for Best Canadian Feature; the films Drive, She Said and Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity; and the Canada's Top Ten Film Festival selection The Ninth Floor.  Synopsis “Mina Shum directs an all-star cast — including Cheng Pei Pei, Sandra Oh, Tzi Ma, and Don McKellar — in her latest feature, about a devoted wife and mother (Pei Pei) who is forced to reassess her reverence for her husband after she finds another woman’s thong in his laundry. In Meditation Park,

Arshad Khan and Face2Face host David Peck talk about similarity through difference, his new film ABU, Pakistan, immigration, puritanism, regret and why librarians matter. Khan is a filmmaker, film festival director, festival strategist and film educator from Canada. Born in Pakistan, Khan believes in cinema as a catalyst for change. He hopes to make films that shed light on subjects that are ignored by the mainstream media. He is interested in realism in cinema and the new wave in South Asian cinema, yet not restricted to any one cinematic genre. As a gay man, Filmmaker Arshad Khan explores his troubled relationship with his devout, Muslim, Pakistani father Abu. Khan documents his struggles with his sexual identity as his Muslim parents attempt to fit into Canada. Using family archives, pictures and movies, ABU is a revealing and deeply affecting portrait of a family’s tug-o-war between conservatism and liberalism that has greater implications for those choosing the west as their home. ABU is a journey to the

Sherwin Haji and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film The Other Side of Hope, immigration, voice and identity, fear of the other, history, memory and the extreme right wing. Biography Sherwan Haji (born 1985) plays the role of Khaled, a Syrian refugee. Haji, who came to Finland from Syria in 2010, graduated from Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus in 2008. Haji acted in several TV series in Syria and continued his studies in Cambridge School of Art – Anglia Ruskin University in 2015, graduating last year with a Master of Arts degree. Since 2012 Haji has, in addition to acting, also written and directed several short films and video installations for Lion’s Line, his production company. This is Haji’s first main role in a feature film. The film’s soundtrack also includes music performed by Haji on saz, a traditional stringed instrument. Synopsis The film consists of two stories that by chance intersect at the forty-minute mark. The first one is about Khaled, a young Syrian refugee who ha

Boris Ivanov and Face2Face host David Peck talk about propaganda, international adoptions, state sponsored hate, political complicity, LGBTQ issues in Russia, independent media and Pussy Riot. Biography Boris Ivanov’s directing credits include theatrical recreations for History channel’s Beyond Top Secret, which earned two News and Documentary Emmy nominations. He co-directed Loving a Stranger, TV documentary on the complexity of cross-cultural relationships. He has directed several narrative films including Seven Storeys, winner of Los Angeles Short Film Festival, and Princess Castle. Recently Boris directed an online documentary In The Monument on the evolution of Holocaust memorialization. Boris is also the producer behind Sundance premiered Family Portrait In Black and hite (VIFF 2011), Love Translated (VIFF 2010), High Five: A Suburban Adoption Saga (VIFF 2012). Synopsis On Putin’s Blacklist presents the reality of how an adoption ban of Russian orphans to US citizens came about and how it was the first

Gustavo Salmerón and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Lots of Kids, A Monkey and A Castle, emotional intelligence, hoarding, death, fascism and family and why you need to record your parents on video – soon. Biography Gustavo Salmerón, actor and director, (Madrid, Spain, 1970) has worked as an actor in over thirty films by internationally renowned directors like Julio Medem, Agustín Villaronga, Manuel Gómez Pereira, J. Luis García Berlanga, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón and Mario Camus, among others. In 2001 he directed the short film Desaliñada (Salad Days) which won the Spanish Film Academy’s Goya for Best Short Film. It also won numerous international awards including: Best Short Film at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, the Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best Short Award (Brest) of Canal+ France. Since 2002 he has been directing, over the course of 14 years, the documentary Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle. The film has been selected for competition at the

Karim Sayad and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Of Sheep and Men, ram fighting, Eid al-Adha, Algeria, colonization, democracy and the Arab Spring, empathy and gender injustice.  Biography Karim Sayad was born in Lausanne, Switzerland and completed a master's degree in international relations at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He has directed the short film Babor Casanova.  Of Sheep and Men is his debut feature documentary. Synopsis “Sixteen-year-old Habib dreams of training his prized sheep to become a fighting champion and middle-aged Samir just wants to sell enough sheep before Eid to make ends meet, in this emotive profile of two men in an impoverished Algerian community. It's a tale of two men, one country, and many sheep. Habib is 16 years old, working as a bus conductor although he had once dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. He is the proud owner of El Bouq, a ram he hopes to raise to become a champion fighter. Samir is 42 years old, having seen e

Leslea Mair and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film Losing Our Religion, trauma, atheism and non-belief, the power of community and preachers who have no faith. Biography Leslea Mair is a writer and producer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has been the President and CEO of Zoot Pictures Inc. since 1998. Following completion of her BFA at the University of Regina, Leslea spent a number of years honing her skills as a writer, participating in the PRAXIS writers' workshop in 1992. She joined the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, serving as president twice. Leslea produced several experimental shorts and directed the experimental documentary Jigsaw, receiving nomination in the Experimental category at the Yorkton International Short Film Festival. She has also written multi-threaded educational multimedia products. In the field of documentary, Leslea researched and wrote the treatment for Two Gun Cohen in 1999, and wrote A Count's Colony for White Pine Pictures in 2000. In 2001 she produced, resea

Mouly Surya and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film Marlina The Murderer in Four Acts, multiple possibilities, writing with images, violence, stillness and why women need to fight back. Biography Born in Jakarta in 1980, Mouly Surya is considered one of the most promising female filmmakers in Indonesia. Surya had a degree in media and literature before studying film in Australia. She directs her first feature film in 2008, FIKSI. The film opens at Busan IFF and wins numerous awards including Best Director at JIFFEST. Her second feature WHAT THEY DON’T TALK ABOUT WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT LOVE (2013) screens at various film festivals including Sundance competition and Karlovy Vary. It receives The NETPAC Award at Rotterdam. MARLINA THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS is Surya’s third film. Synopsis “Powerful, provocative, and visually stunning, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is a luminous new entry in the feminist western subgenre. Mouly Surya's accomplished third feature is one of a kind: a contemporary rew

Alanis Obamsawin and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film Our People Will Be Healed, the Sundance ceremony, remnants of colonialism, indigenous peoples, the power of story and why hope isn’t a big enough word. Biography Alanis Obomsawin was born in New Hampshire and raised in Quebec. A singer, songwriter, printmaker, and engraver, she has also written and directed many documentary features, including Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, Rocks at Whiskey Trench, Is the Crown at War with Us?, Hi-Ho Mistahey!, Trick or Treaty?, and We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice.  Our People Will Be Healed is her latest film. Synopsis “Norway House Cree Nation sits more than 450 km north of Winnipeg. One of Manitoba's largest First Nations communities, it is also among the most innovative on Turtle Island. With a focus on self-determination and sustainability, Norway House is home to a remarkable education centre and a range of community-managed industries. But the legacy of colonial policies, the trauma of r