The Pass System, directed by York graduate film student Alex Williams, is a powerful documentary that illuminates Canada’s hidden history of racial segregation. The film investigates how, for over 60 years, the Canadian government illegally denied many Indigenous peoples of the prairies the basic freedom to leave government-assigned reserves, and forced them to carry a pass when they did so.
The Pass System is a result of a five year investigation involving extensive, pan-Canadian archival research and elders’ oral history testimony. Cree, Saulteaux, Dene, Ojibwe and Blackfoot elders tell their stories of living under and resisting the pass system, and link their experiences to today’s struggles for Indigenous rights.
[caption id="attachment_99827" align="alignright" width="150"]
Alex Williams[/caption]
Williams researched, wrote, shot, directed and produced the film, which is narrated by acclaimed Cree actor and activist Tantoo Cardinal. The Pass System is currently in the running for two 2016 Canadian Screen Awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. It has been nominated for Best History Documentary Program or Series (APTN – Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) and for the Barbara Sears Award for Best Editorial Research.
Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion with Alex Williams, Osgoode Hall Law School/Environmental Studies Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice Deborah McGregor, Theatre Professor Michael Greyeyes, History Professor Carolyn Podruchny, Education Professor Celia Haig-Brown and Environmental Studies Lecturer Lisa Myers.
Admission is free. All welcome. | Campus Maps & Directions
This event is presented by Cinema Politica York, the Department of Cinema & Media Arts, Graduate Film Student Association, Centre for Aboriginal Students Services, Office of the Vice Provost Academic and OPIRG York.
“Worlds of Exile,” Theatre @ York’s 2017-18 season, culminates in Christopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage, an epic story in an intimate and innovative new production directed by acclaimed director, dramaturg and playwright Peter Hinton.
Shadowed by war, Dido, Queen of Carthage is the original tragic love story with its hero Aeneas, the exiled prince of Troy, compelled by Fate to leave his beloved Dido, Queen of Carthage to fulfil a political destiny. Aeneas, the son of Venus, is one of the Trojans who escapes from the city after it is destroyed. In his exile he seeks refuge in Carthage. Learning of Aeneas’ experience and loss, Dido falls in love with him, only to be forsaken shortly after. Torn between her personal abandonment and national sacrifice, Dido performs an ultimate act of resistance.
Dido, Queen of Carthage is Marlowe’s first play, written when he was just 19 and still a student at Cambridge. Inspired by the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid, the story of Dido and Aeneas has stimulated artists for two millennia; from Ovid to Henry Purcell to modern-day science-fiction like Battlestar Galactica, with its exiled travellers seeking a prophesied new home. It isn’t hard to see the story’s appeal.
Performance Schedule: March 18 to 23 at 7:30pm
Box Office Information: Tickets are available online or over the phone 416-736-5888
Previews: $7.00 March 18 & 19
Relaxed Performance: $5.00
Thursday March 22 7:30pm
All Other Performances:
Tickets: $20.00
Student/Senior $12.00
(Group price applies when all group tickets are purchased at once for a single performance. Not available online, please phone or visit the box office)
We’re working with the lovely local business Succuterra to bring the students of Winters College a fun experience at this term’s “stressbuster” event. Choose and pot your very own succulent to keep in your bedroom, or gift to a friend. Come discover your green thumb!
**limited plants available – provided on a first come, first served basis**
50 years since its founding, Theatre @ York opens the 2018-2019 season with the premiere of rochdale, a new play by David Yee under the direction of Nina Lee Aquino, featuring the fourth-year acting ensemble.
Opened in 1968, Rochdale College was an experiment in student-run alternative education and co-operative living. The project ultimately failed when it could not cover its financing and neighbours complained that it had become a haven for drugs and crime.
“We are delighted to open our season with a new Canadian play that embraces the same spirit of experimentation and social advocacy that guided the founding of the Department of Theatre at York 50 years ago,” commented department chair Marlis Schweitzer. David Yee and Nina Lee Aquino have collaborated on a play that not only gives voice to the youth, energy, and passion of the 1960s but also resonates with students today. We are incredibly fortunate to have such Canadian innovators kick off this season, as we reflect on the past 50 years and look ahead to the future.”
David Yee is a Canadian actor, playwright and the artistic director of fu-Gen Theatre Company. His play carried away on the crest of a wave won the 2015 Governor General Award.
Nina Lee Aquino is an award-winning director and dramaturge, and the Artistic Director of Factory Theatre. She is committed to the development of new works, and to the manifestation of interculturalism in theatre.
Performance Schedule:
7:30 p.m. on November 17, 19-23
1:00 p.m. on November 21 & 23
2 p.m. on November 24
Tickets $7- 20
Online Box Office or call 416-736-5888
Catch a rising wave of electrifying film talent!
Now in its 16th year, CineSiege presents a collection of short films – riveting fiction, cutting-edge alternative works and provocative documentaries – selected by leading lights of Canadian film and media culture.
Screening one night only, this juried showcase features the best productions created in 2018-2019 by undergraduate students in York University’s Department of Cinema & Media Arts. The films selected for CineSiege 2018 were chosen from a shortlist, culled from 186 productions made last year.
The nominees were reviewed by five jurors: Adam Cook, Elise Cousineau, Debbie Ebanks Schlums, Peter Mohan and Myrocia Watamaniuk. The jury picked the productions to be shown at CineSiege, with “best of” awards for each genre and craft area (directing and screenwriting, cinematography, production design, and editing and sound).
The best first year film was selected by the Department’s Production Committee. The best second year films were selected by the second year students through anonymous vote.
Jurors will be in attendance at CineSiege to introduce the winning films and explain why they were selected.
CineSiege is made possible through the generous support of 
Theatre @ York presents Middletown by Will Eno, featuring the acting students in the MFA program and directed by the esteemed Jackie Maxwell.
Lives of the inhabitants of Middletown transect in an emotional journey that takes them from the local library to outer space and beyond. The moving and funny play emerges as a meditation on loneliness, birth, death, and the anxieties of our contemporary lives.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, January 24 7:30pm Opening
Friday, January 25 2pm & 7:30pm
Saturday, January 26, 2pm
Stressed out? Come and hang out with us and our furry friends from Hands on Exotic for a fun and stress relieving time!
Theatre @ York presents Orlando by Sarah Ruhl, directed by MFA candidate Lindsay Bell and The Balcony by Jean Genet, directed by MFA candidate Margaret Legere. The two shows will be performed in repertory and feature the MFA and fourth-year actors.
Orlando is a dramatic adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s feminist classic by contemporary playwright Sarah Ruhl. It investigates the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history.
The Balcony uses the setting of an unnamed city and a distant background of a revolution and counterrevolution to explore strains of power in a society. The play compelling examines the delicate equilibrium of reality and illusion.
Performance Schedule:
Orlando
Sunday, March 24 at 7:30pm (Preview)
Tuesday, March 26 at 7:30pm (Opening)
Wednesday, March 27 at 1:00pm
Friday, March 29 at 7:30pm
Saturday, March 30 at 1:00pm
The Balcony
Monday, March 25 at 7:30pm (Preview)
Wednesday, March 27 at 7:30pm (Opening)
Thursday, March 28 at 7:30pm
Friday, March 29 at 1:00pm
Saturday, March 30 at 7:30pm
Tickets $7- 20
Buy online or call 416-736-5888
Catch a rising wave of electrifying film talent!
Now in its 17th year, CineSiege presents a collection of short films – riveting fiction, cutting-edge alternative works and provocative documentaries – selected by leading lights of Canadian film and media culture.
The films selected for CineSiege 2019 were chosen from a shortlist, culled from 186 productions made last year.
The nominees were reviewed by five jurors: Maya Bankovici, Franci Duran, Stuart Hands, Adina Pintilie and Ravi Srinivasan.
Jurors will be in attendance at CineSiege to introduce the winning films and explain why they were selected.
CineSiege is made possible through the generous support of
After Party
Immediately following screening (approx. 10:30pm)
The Monarch Tavern
12 Clinton St, Toronto, ON M6J 2N8
Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) is a beloved feminist revisioning of two of Shakespeare’s most well-known plays, Othello and Romeo & Juliet. Written by Canadian playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald, the play explores the hypothetical question: what if Shakespeare’s tragedies were actually intended to be comedies? To learn the answer to this question, please join us November 16-23 in the Joseph G. Green Theatre to find out.
Performance Schedule:
Sat, Nov. 16 (preview 1) @ 7:30 pm
Sun. Nov. 17 (preview 2) @ 7:30 pm
Tues. Nov. 19 (Opening) @ 7:30 pm
Wed. Nov. 20 @ 1:00 pm
Wed. Nov. 20 (Relaxed Performance) @ 7:30 pm –Plan your visit
Thurs. Nov. 21@ 7:30 pm
Fri. Nov. 22 @ 1:00 pm
Fri. Nov. 22 @ 7:30pm
Sat. Nov. 23 @ 2:00 pm
Tickets $7- 20
Online Box Office or call 416-736-5888
The Department of Dance presents
Dance Innovations 2019 – the near distance – pathways towards discovery
Dance Innovations 2019 – the near distance – pathways towards discovery features the concise creations of 25 fourth year BFA choreographers performed by students engaged in all levels of York’s programs in Dance. Students and faculty involved in creation, performance, lighting design and production collaborate in the successful realization of Dance Innovations. Series A of the two series program comprises a new creation by Assistant Professor and intermedia artist Freya Björg Olafson for York’s third year Performance class. In harmony with the themes explored elsewhere in the Department’s 2019/20 events, performances and workshops – issues of identity, navigation and acknowledgment – our show title celebrates the certainty that curiosity, open ness and creative engagement lead to imminent and ongoing discovery and transformation.
Artistic Director: Julia Sasso for 4th year choreography course
Director: Freya Björg Olafson for 3rd year Performance course
Production Manager: Jennifer Jimenez
PERFORMANCES Nov 20-22
Series A – 7:00 pm
Series B – 8:30 pm
Admission:
Advanced tickets: $12
After November 20: $18
Box Office: 416. 736.5888 | ampd.yorku.ca/boxoffice
The York University Jazz Festival, running November 18-21, showcases rising young talent directed by leading lights of the Canadian jazz scene.
Catch the next generation of outstanding jazz artists, right here on campus – and with no cover charge!
Wednesday, November 20
7:30-10:00pm
Small ensembles directed by Kevin Turcotte, Jim Vivian and Frank Falco
Hollywood Old and New: ReDesigns for Student Engagement in eLearning with Gillian Helfield & Dan Becker
Thursday, March 12
12:00 – 1:30 PM
AMPD Faculty Lounge (GCFA 214)
Free
RSVP
Join us for this lunchtime talk about the evolution of “Hollywood Old and New”, a fully online class that offers students an understanding of Hollywood film genres from a historical and social perspective. In this talk, the presenters will discuss their pedagogical strategies for the new course redesign to facilitate student engagement in a large format class. This course is offered by the Department Cinema and Media Arts in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design.
Gillian Helfield lectures at York University, in Cinema and Media Studies in AMPD, Humanities in LAPS, and Canadian Studies at Glendon College. Though she has specialized in Canadian and Quebec Cinemas, other areas of academic interest include Genre Studies, Cultural Studies, Women’s Cinema, National Cinemas, Diasporic and Exilic Cinemas, Middle Eastern Cinemas, and Rural Cinemas. In 2006, her book Representing the Rural: Space Place and Identity, in Films About the Land, was published by Wayne State University Press.
In collaboration with AMPD, Gillian has developed and redesigned two large-enrolment online film courses, which have earned recognition from international eLearning associations (IELA) and the Teaching Commons at York University (York’s nomination for the STLHE Brightspace /D2L Innovation Award). In 2017, she received the AMPD eLearning Teaching Award.
Dan Becker is the Educational Designer and Developer for the Faculty of Education. He works extensively with instructors to operationalize educational theory and current research within courses that utilize technology. Dan develops learning experiences that engage students, build communities of inquiry and employ meaningful assessment strategies, while avoiding excessive effort on the part of the instructor. His approach of simplicity and depth has produced a variety of courses that are enjoyed by instructors and students alike.
Theatre @ York presents Elizabeth Rex by Timothy Findley directed by ted witzel
Timothy Findley’s Elizabeth Rex shares Good Night Desdemona’s interest in the Shakespearean canon.
Here, Findley imagines an intimate meeting between a group of players and Queen Elizabeth I, who has ordered a command performance of Much Ado About Nothing as she awaits the execution of a former lover, the Earl of Essex. With wit and poetry, Findley explores the entanglement of love, desire, and gender identity.
Performance Schedule:
Tuesday March 17th at 7:30 p.m. (Preview)
Wednesday March 18th at 1:00 p.m. (Preview)
Wednesday March 18th at 7:30 p.m. (Opening)
Thursday March 19 at 7:30 p.m. (Relaxed Performance)
Friday March 20th at 1:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Saturday March 21st at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday March 21st @ 7:30 p.m. (Closing)
Box Office Information
Previews: $7.00
All Other Performances:
Tickets: $20.00
Student: $12.00
Senior: $12.00
Groups of 10 or more: $10.00
(Group price applies when all group tickets are purchased at once for a single performance. Not available online, please phone or visit the box office)
Buy online or call 416-736-5888
Relaxed Performance: Thursday, March 19th at 7:30pm
A Relaxed performance is intended specifically to be sensitive to and accepting of audience members who may benefit from a more relaxed environment. The performance is designed to reduce anxiety and provide a safe, enjoyable experience, taking into account variable sensory, communication or learning needs and abilities. This means that there is a more casual-than-usual approach to front-of-house etiquette and we ask audience members to be aware of people’s needs to move or make involuntary noise.
