The Pulse: Oct. 13, 2022

Edmonton has given birth to another festival — the Broad View International Film Festival debuts in November to amplify the voices of female filmmakers.

The festival is the brainchild of award-winning filmmaker Geraldine Carr and a board of like-minded women who wanted to create more space in a field that remains male-dominated.

"The fact is that women have had to struggle for a place in the film industry as active participants, and film festivals still tend to be dominated by male creative work," said Beth Wishart MacKenzie, an independent filmmaker and a member of the board. "So this is a festival that seeks to give a platform and a space for women to tell their stories."

Part of the vision of the festival is to create a dedicated space for films directed by women, to appreciate the nuance of the female perspective, and to honour historic, groundbreaking work as well as contemporary films, MacKenzie said.

"In film theory, there's a distinction made between the male gaze and the female gaze, and that there is a qualitative difference in the way women tell stories and nuance and perspective," MacKenzie said. "And so I think by setting aside a festival designated for the female gaze, it allows people to see that nuanced difference. And it's not that women are only telling stories about women, it's how they tell the story that will be amplified in this festival."

MacKenzie's own film, Lana Gets Her Talk, is one of the 10 films being shown at the festival, which runs Nov. 11–12 at Metro Cinema.

The festival will open with distinguished Canadian filmmaker Anne Wheeler's 1981 docudrama, A War Story, an apt choice given that opening night coincides with Remembrance Day. It also shows the festival directors' intention to shine a light on important work regardless of when or where it was made.

"My belief is that year of production will not necessarily be a determining factor for some time, because we are trying to bring forward the work of women who have contributed to the cinematic landscape of our communities and the world over the years and their voices have not been amplified enough," said MacKenzie. "So we are hoping to do that too, to use to showcase both past and present works created by women."

• City council's executive committee unanimously requested a report examining market demand and affordability at Blatchford after hearing that the original timelines for development were "too aggressive" in hindsight. Coun. Andrew Knack noted the average home price at Blatchford is $650,000. "Is this going to be an urbanist Glenora essentially, a spot that no regular person can afford to live in?" he asked.
• The city plans to change its approach to encampments after city council's community and public services committee heard from members of the public who indicated there are issues with the dismantling process. "People are sometimes moved without being given options of where to move to," said Kristine Kowalchuk, chair of the Edmonton River Valley Conservation Coalition. It can take 59 days on average to move someone from staying outside into permanent housing and much longer for people with more complex needs, CBC reports. "There's not enough resources currently in the system to provide appropriate housing for everyone currently living in encampments," said Ingrid Hoogenboom, a manager at the City of Edmonton.
• Following Mayor Amarjeet Sohi's comment on Oct. 11 that the model of the Edmonton Police Commission is "outdated," commission chair John McDougall explained and defended the commission's work in a statement to CTV News. "Police commissions exist to ensure there is a separation between municipal elected officials and police services, and this separation is codified under provincial legislation," said McDougall, adding that the commission publicly reports monthly budget updates. Meanwhile, criminology professor Temitope Oriola chimed in to agree with Sohi. "Police chiefs can basically pick and choose which of the recommendations of the civilian oversight that they wish to accept," he said. "That is outdated."
• Edmonton is Canada's ninth-most wild partying city, according to Uber's first-ever Nightlife Index, which drew up rankings based on Uber Rides and Uber Eats data. The list was topped by London, Ontario. No other Alberta cities made the top 10.
• The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) released reports on two incidents in Edmonton: a case of police use of force involving the Edmonton International Airport detachment of the RCMP that occurred in 2019, and the death of a person detained by police that occurred in 2020. The reports state that there are no grounds to believe officers committed a criminal offence in either incident. The 2020 incident involved a peace officer who broke EPS policy and two other others who "appear to have tried to hide this," but no action was taken as peace officers are beyond ASIRT's mandate.
• The Jewish Federation of Edmonton was one of many organizations to criticize Premier Danielle Smith's comments shortly after taking office that unvaccinated people are the most discriminated-against group she's "ever witnessed in (her) lifetime." Smith tried to clarify her comments but did not apologize. "My intention was to underline the mistreatment of individuals who chose not to be vaccinated and were punished by not being able to work, travel or, in some cases, see loved ones," she said, adding her office will reach out to "minority community stakeholders" so she can "better understand the different concerns of their individual communities."

The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) is putting on a three-day extravaganza of tech-focused programming to both build its pipeline of talent and raise money for a couple of good causes.

TechAid features three events:

• Oct. 20: Reverse Expo: A collaboration with the department of computing science at the University of Alberta in which students present their research in poster sessions;
• Oct. 21: TechTalks: A chance to hear from Amii's researchers about the power of AI and machine learning;
• Oct. 22: DevCon: A student developer conference featuring opportunities to learn about AI, gaming, design, and career planning.

It's kind of like a charity run, without the sweat. Admission is free, but participants are encouraged to donate to two local causes: the United Way of the Alberta Capital Region's Period Promise initiative and Boyle Street Community Services.

"We wanted to have the opportunity to give back to a great community that's been very supportive of us for a long time," Amii CEO Cam Linke told Episode 33 of Bloom. "If you look at a lot of people in technology, they're often a little bit utopian and want to be able to help give back and be able to realize that utopia."

In-person tickets are sold out for the Reverse Expo and TechTalks, but you can still register for the virtual version of TechTalks, and applications to DevCon are open until Oct. 13. Donations will be collected until the end of the month.

The event comes on the heels of a successful AI Week in May, which saw more than 500 people attend on talent bursaries and more than 2,100 at dozens of events.

"It blew away our expectations, and this is something we're going to be running every year now and having as an ongoing thing to gather that community here together every year," Linke said.

TechAid happens during Edmonton Startup Week. Learn more about Amii's plans as well as the companies coming to Launch Party 13 in the Oct. 13 episode of Taproot's podcast about innovation in Edmonton.

Photo: Cam Linke sits in the front row (third from the right) of an event at AI Week. (Facebook)