Parkour is a

Could improving animal rights help improve human rights? Some in Bosnia are hoping this might be the case. I was in Sarajevo, Bosnia in Sept-Oct 2010 and did this piece for CBC Dispatches.

CBC Cool Summer Jobs – Jazz by gillianbcarr

During summer 2010 CBC Island Morning had a series of radio pieces on “cool” summer jobs. This is one I did for them on working as a jazz musician on Victoria Row, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

CBC Cool Summer Jobs – Plovers by gillianbcarr

During summer 2010 CBC Island Morning had a series of radio pieces on “cool” summer jobs. This is one I did for them in July 2010 where I interviewed students working as piping plover monitors in Prince Edward National Park.

CBC Romantic Evening by gillianbcarr

A piece I did for CBC Radio’s Island Morning show about “romantic evenings” on PEI. July 2010

STAR News May 3 by gillianbcarr

STAR (St Andrews Radio) daily news bulletin, May 3, 2010.

STAR News May 4 by gillianbcarr

STAR (St Andrews Radio) daily news bulletin, May 4, 2010.

STAR News May 5 by gillianbcarr

STAR (St Andrews Radio) daily news bulletin, May 5, 2010.

STAR Kate Kennedy Club Interview Clip by gillianbcarr

Clip from the interview I did for STAR (St Andrews Radio) where I spoke with Tom Kadri, the president of the Kate Kennedy Club for the 2009-2010 year at the University of St Andrews. The Kate Kennedy Club has had a controversial history within St Andrews, particularly in 2009 when the university president Louise Richardson, broke official ties because of the club’s policies to only admit male students to its ranks. (April 2010)

STAR – Rector’s Assessor Interview Clip by gillianbcarr

Clip from the interview I did for STAR (St Andrews Radio) where I spoke with James Shield, who acted as the 2009-2010 Rector’s Assessor for the University of St Andrews. Kevin Dunion was the Rector at this time. (May 2010)

Artist – Carr – VOI by gillianbcarr

St Patrick’s Day Voicer – Carleton University, 3rd year radio class (March 2008)

Basketball – Carr – VOI by gillianbcarr

National CIS Basketball Championships Voicer – Carleton University, 3rd year radio class (February 2008)

Made for a “flash battle” of invisible buttons between a fellow journalism friend and myself – July 2010. The clips/music used are for creative commons purposes only and no monetary value was gained in producing it.

How it works – click on the photo above to get to the stage. Once there, slide your mouse over the different spots on the stage to activate the different invisible buttons which will play music, video or change the scene. Discover what the different buttons do by trying them out, or highlight the list below for a summary of what each one does.

List of Buttons
1. Spotlight One
2. Spotlight Two
3. Phantom of the Opera animation/song
4. Gordon Lightfoot piano song
5. Boooooo
6. “All the World’s A Stage” Speech
7. Applause
8. Muppets – Statler and Waldorf’s as critics
9. So You Think You Can Dance – “Fix You”
10. Hamlet 2 – “Rock Me Sexy Jesus”

In 1955, Rebel Without A Cause’s James Dean slouched across the silver screen in his red jacket, smirking out of the side of his mouth and defining forever the iconic Hollywood ‘bad boy’. To coincide with the film’s 50th anniversary, Warner Brothers has ordered a flashy new DVD re-release, with plenty of extras to tempt those who already own a copy. And while it may sell well among an older generation who remembers mourning a young actor who died before his time, I can’t help but think there’s a shrewd calculation behind the studio’s decision, a sort of experiment to see if they can still cash in on the popularity of fifty year old movie with another audience.

After all, one of the most sought-after markets today is teenagers, which a recent marketing study has revealed have an average of 94 dollars of disposable income a week to spend. This generation is constantly hungry for new (or old, but new to them) material, and what better way to draw them in, but to showcase the film that brought about their popularity in American entertainment culture?

When it was first released in 1955, Rebel was raw, a story stolen from dramatic headlines found in newspapers and whispered with unease in homes across America. A new epidemic was sweeping across the nation – juvenile delinquency and gang violence was on the rise in the unlikeliest of places – middle class suburbia. Nicolas Ray’s film was a window into the psyche of the American teenager, and in an era where paranoia ruled (think McCarthyism and the Red Tide) and the image of a perfect nuclear family was everything, Rebel and other films like it such as The Wild One and The Blackboard Jungle, were a shock, opening up the theatre to an audience who could see their own struggles and anxieties reflected back at them on the screen. “It is a violent, brutal and disturbing picture of modern teen-agers,” wrote Bosley Crowther, the New York Times film critic in his original review.

Nowadays, with a surface glance, one can look at the film and see it as a cultural monument to its time. “Yeah, I bet you’re a real yo-yo,” The language is antiquated, the mannerisms of the main characters (James Dean’s attempts to squeeze out tears are laughable) and the melodramatic underpinnings of its script are some of the things that stand out as not having aged well. Its plot is hardly shocking to anyone today who has grown up watching Hollywood movies.

But shock value aside, what relevance and appeal could this film have to today’s youth? Despite living in a post-9/11 world which some draw similarities to the doomsday era of the 1950s, there doesn’t seem to be the same anxieties of living in end times, playing out in adolescent rebellion. Maybe because today’s teens have seen it all before, being played out on screen? While the problem of gangs is still an issue, its stage and impact on society has largely moved on from the result of rebellion and boredom in suburbia, to being a result of economic and social class tensions today.

But the deeper issues of the film, of the characters feeling like they don’t fit in, that no one is listening, or even cares, (Plato) that everything they knew is changing around them and they don’t know how to act anymore (Judy) , that no one has any answers (Jim)– these are questions that teenagers are still perennially struggling with and constantly asking themselves. I dare anyone to say that they haven’t asked these very questions during their own adolescent years. These are universal struggles.

And that’s why the ideas and characters presented first in Rebel still resonate today and attract audiences today. Rebel was one of the first of its kind to show teenagers that they’re not the only ones who struggle with these questions and problems. And because it’s so familiar, filmmakers have returned to the same subject material over and over again, as have the film-goers. Teen issue movies/television shows have a timeless quality to them, even if some of the material may eventually seem dated. They’re constantly being produced.

Fifty years later and James Dean’s role as the misunderstood boy with a heart of gold has been imitated countless times in various movies, television shows and stage plays. Indeed, it’s become a plum role for many a young, upcoming actor to launch their career on – one only has to look at the resumes of John Travolta, Johnny Depp, Christian Slater, and more recently, Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You, to see that a similar role can win them fans and guarantee their status as a high school locker pin-up.

And Dean’s role wasn’t the only one that has become an archetype of teen movies. Natalie Wood’s character of Judy, the spoilt, rich girl who sees in the bad boy a way to rebel from her place in society, has long been a staple of teen flicks. And Sal Mineo’s tortured Plato can find modern day counterpoints in such characters as Sean Patrick Leonard’s Neil in Dead Poets Society.

To take a recent example, the hit teen television show The O.C. owes the very premise of its existence to Rebel. Stoic, misunderstood outsider Ryan, played by Benjamin MacKenzie arrives in town, catching the attention of rich, wild party girl Marissa (Mischa Barton) and capturing the friendship of awkward, lonely Seth (Adam Brody). Sound familiar? There’s even an homage in the second episode of the show, where Ryan, Marissa and Seth run away and hide out in an abandoned house, similar to Rebel’s famous scene.

The O.C. is not a carbon copy but rather an updated version of the story told in Rebel. Some things have to change, after all, and in particular, the tension between the teenagers and the adults to whom they look to for guidance seems largely resolved in The O.C. But the fundamental story remains the same.

Despite appearances otherwise, Rebel Without a Cause’s legacy doesn’t depend on the cult appeal of James Dean, nor on the nostalgic value of the past era it recreates. No, its appeal is one that is subconscious for the most part but that is part of every filmgoer’s own history. What it did was draw attention to the inherent drama in a teenager’s life, magnifying the microscope on this familiar sub-culture and we have remained fixated and fascinated, unable to look away ever since. That’s a powerful draw for audiences of all ages, and especially for today’s youth.

By Gillian Carr

A horrific event can define a community for a long time, particularly in cases when the details are so unimaginable and unthinkable in their brutality. In 2001, a small village in the northern cape of South Africa skyrocketed to international attention when it was reported a nine-month-old girl had been viciously raped and that her injuries were so severe that doctors weren’t sure she would survive. The aftermath of this event is dealt with in the NAC’s new play, Tshepang.

This hour and ten minute production is quite obviously not for those looking for a light evening’s entertainment, but neither is it the dark miasma of despair the subject matter might first suggest. Instead, it offers stark insight without sugarcoating or resorting to shock value, and is leavened with flashes of humour and hope, giving the audience much to contemplate after they leave the theatre.

While newspaper stories and television reports focused on the stomach-churning details of the rape and the arrest of the 6 men accused of committing the crime, South African director and playwright Lara Foot Newton’s script takes the story past lurid details to the emotional core. The story is centred on two individuals at the heart of this tragedy, Ruth (Constance Didi), the mother of “baby Tshepang” (as the child became known) and Simon (Mncedisi Shabangu), the man who has loved Ruth from afar since childhood.

Crushed by her failure to prevent the rape of her daughter, Ruth has chosen not to speak in three years, spending her time working diligently in her village, in hopes her daughter might one day be returned to her from foster care. Shunned by others in the village, she has only Simon to rely on.

With Ruth mute, Simon is the sole voice to the play, storyteller of his own views and those of the other villagers. A veteran of numerous worldwide productions of Tshepang, including in his native South Africa, Mncedisi Shabangu offers a powerful performance as Simon. He cycles between light-hearted humour, tenderness, confusion and blinding rage in attempts to verbalize his emotional response to the rape, leaving the audience feeling slightly whiplashed, but ultimately his conviction sells the role.

A lesser actress might be overshadowed by Shabangu’s performance, especially in a non-verbal role, but Constance Didi holds her own as Ruth. The emptiness of her face, and mechanical motions of one who has lost all hope are unsettling to watch, but no less captivating than Simon’s often manic actions.

The NAC’s Studio Theatre is appropriately intimate for this production. Built in the shape of an amphitheatre and with a 300-person capacity, the stage offers the audience a close space with the actors, but it is also large enough that there is room to look away if necessary, for certain brutish scenes. The set is sparse but effective, offering only props relevant to the story – Simon’s hand-carved statues, a salt mound, small houses signifying the village, and the tiny bed that Ruth ties to her back as penance for her failure.

After seeing this play, it is difficult to think well of humanity – baby Tshepang was not a unique case, as 20,000 children are estimated to be victims of child rape in South Africa every year. Despite this, Newton’s script is as much about the human capacity to forgive and the path to redemption as it is about documenting the atrocity. It’s a difficult balance to strike, but taking a cue from the real-life story, baby Tshepang survived the attack and still lives in South Africa today.

Her name, in Tswana, means hope.

On a clear wintry night, red bloodstains on a pristine white landscape are terrifying, unnatural and yet, strangely beautiful. The same description can be applied to the Swedish vampire movie “Lat Den Ratte Komma In.” Unlike recent Hollywood fare on the subject, this is a film that doesn’t shy away from the subtle horror of vampire legend. It combines requisite scenes of blood-sucking with scenes examining the deeper psychological toil of living in an ageless body sustained only by killing other humans.

In a snowy, muted, northern Swedish town Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a shy, retiring 12-year-old boy who is bullied at school. Dreams of one day standing up to his tormenters and getting revenge are all that sustain Oskar until he meets Eli (Lena Leandersson) , the lonely girl who moves in next door. Both Eli and Oskar are drawn to each other by their outsider status and they strike up a friendship. But Eli, as she softly confesses to Oskar, is not a girl, and she has been 12 for an awfully long time.

And that poses the question: how does friendship work when one friend is a vampire and the other is the prey she would normally hunt? Very carefully, and not without its pitfalls, as Oskar discovers when he unwittingly sets off Eli’s bloodlust, forcing her to attack a neighbor’s wife with dire consequences.

Based on his 2004 novel of the same name, screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist takes themes of alienation, loneliness and first love and weaves them together in a story that tugs at the heartstrings but also terrifies similarly, thanks to Eli’s vampiric nature. Lindqvist’s title, with its English translation being “Let the Right One In”, refers to the idea that Eli cannot enter a dwelling unless the owner invites her in. On another level, it comments on Oskar’s journey as he slowly emerges from social isolation and lowers barriers he had set up to avoid being hurt by others.

Director Tomas Alfredson illustrates Lindqvist’s themes with subtle, beautiful cinematography, particularly in showcasing the sparse winter landscape that surrounds the action. With still shots of snow-covered trees, muted colours and characters’ breaths freezing in the air and drifting up to the dark night sky, the somber mood is effectively set. However, there are times where it feels like art and beautifully composed shots triumph over substance and plot. As a result, the pacing suffers slightly and the story only becomes absolutely gripping halfway through the film.

Also of note is how effectively Alfredson sets up and shoots the horror aspects, without resorting to buckets of blood or cheesy special effects that mar many other vampire films.

This is the first feature film for the two young actors playing Oskar and Eli, and their performances are natural and unaffected. Hedebrand, with his pale colouring, almost blends in to the background as he plays the unsure and often-wishing-to-be-invisible Oskar. Leandersson has the hard task of playing Eli as both a 12-year-old girl and an age-old monster suffering from massive loneliness. She strikes the right balance, as the viewer both empathizes with her but also recoils at her more savage actions. Per Ragnar also stands out in his role as Hakan, the sad-sack older man who finds victims and kills them for Eli. It’s not exactly clear what his role is in relation to Eli, but it can be assumed that he is not doing it out the kindness of his heart.

“Lat Den Ratte Komma In” is a film that bucks conventions of the modern horror and should appeal to both fans of the genre as well as a wider audience. Unlike most commercial horror films, it understands that high body counts and bloodstained canvases aren’t necessary to strike terror into the hearts of viewers. The terror can be found instead in something as simple as a friendship between two lonely children.

Produced for The Charlatan‘s last issue for 08/09, April 9, 2009. Can also be seen on charlatan.ca