All posts by Claire

About Claire

Claire is an Information Assistant at Vaughan Public Libraries. Avid cooker, concertgoer, coffee drinker, TV and movie watcher, washi tape enthusiast, and unabashed fan of romance in all its varieties (even Hallmark movies).  |  Meet the team

Shining a Light on Democracy in Canada

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If you saw the title of this blog post and immediately felt like discontinuing, I understand. Right now, we are being bombarded with politics on the news, from outreach workers and politicians at our doors, from family at the dinner table, and on social media (those YouTube ads much?). There seems to be nowhere left to hide. Well, fear not. This post is not about politics. The public library’s role is always impartial and non-partisan. However, a group of my colleagues and I have come together with the goal of beefing up our resources and information on how to participate in our democracy, as well as providing opportunities to get involved in election-related programming. If you will indulge me, I’m sure there will be something here that will grab your interest. There’s a lot to engage with on this topic. It affects so many facets of our everyday lives, even if those effects are hard to see sometimes. I hope you take a look at the many offerings VPL has this federal election season and that you find something that tethers you to this vital subject.

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Film History Books for Cine-Nerds

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My Film Studies courses were some of my favourite classes during my liberal arts degree. Building on a love of movies that’s been with me since I was a kid, I love applying an analytical mindset to the medium. Cinematography techniques, editing terms and styles, the history of silent film, and the invention of the “Talkies.” This juicy knowledge allowed me to better understand the choices writers, directors, and actors make — all of which affect the final product. It turns out we have plenty of books about the history of cinema in our collection. I thought I would share the most intriguing ones for me in the hopes that you are inspired to learn about the avant-gardists and the innovators, the great craftspeople of the movies who have been creating amazing works of art for over a century now. Let us start with some of the best directors that have ever existed. I took out Andy Tuohy’s alphabetically organized, slender reference book A to Z Great Film Directors a year or two ago. I remember savouring the condensed morsels of information on each page. I was familiar with some of the collected auteurs, but more often I had heard their name without knowing much about them at all. As a trivia enthusiast, I was also hoping to find out some tidbits and little-known facts that might come up during Jeopardy. I had to return the book before finishing, stopping somewhere around Hitchcock or Iñárritu. I will get back to this one someday. I’m sure of it. The bright and colourful graphic illustrations of directors make each entry fun and keep you turning the pages.

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The Anti-Oscars

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Welp, it’s that season again. No, I don’t mean the lingering frigid temperatures and precipitation of February. I mean award season. Is it just me or do The Oscars nominees seem particularly far removed and uninteresting in comparison to what us plebs are actually watching? I’m intrigued by The Brutalist, now being heralded as Adrien Brody’s greatest work since The Pianist, but I have a feeling my interest in architecture won’t be enough to keep me in my seat for over three and a half hours. Do you ever get the feeling that the teams behind these often bloated, slow-moving marathon pieces are in some kind of secret competition to make the longest movie possible? Whenever a film exceeds two and a half hours, I generally wish the editor had stepped in with their metaphorical (and anachronistic) scissors to cut large swaths of unnecessary film from the picture. If you’re like me, and you look for award competitions that honour plucky, underdog ventures, look no further. I found some awards that have applauded what I’ve actually been watching and what I hope you’ve been watching too! In the tradition of anti-proms, I hereby dub this the Anti-Oscars. Last year around this time, I introduced you dear readers to the Dorian Awards — a competition run by GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. Read more about the Dorians here, but suffice it to say, there are traditional award categories like Film of the Year, and there are also ones you don’t see everyday, like LGBTQ Film of the Year and Visually Striking Film of the Year. This time around, more than one of the nominations for Unsung Film of the Year are movies I’ve seen and very much enjoyed. Let me tell you a bit about them.

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