Gavin Poolman is a London-based film producer. Interview by Rebeccah Love Many people see film producers as being strictly business people. Do you consider yourself an artist at all? In what ways does film producing require creative thinking? The best producers are very creative. Take the film Drive, for example - the main producer read the James Sallis book (which is terrific, by the way), bought an option on it, found a screenwriter (Hossein Amini) that shared and added to

Jake Byrne is a Montreal-based poet. Interview by Rebeccah Love You have recently graduated from Concordia University in their creative writing program. How did you enjoy your time there? What courses will really resonate with you as you continue onwards as a writer? Concordia’s program changed my life. Or rather, I changed my life at the same time I attended Concordia. It wasn’t all sunshine and roses – all programs have their frustrations, but ultimately I can’t speak highl

Ann Walmsley is a Toronto-based writer and the author of The Prison Book Club. Interview by Rebeccah Love You started your first book club at age nine! Wow. What was the first book that you remember resonating with you? I was very young and the book was Herbert the Lion, a picture book by Clare Turlay Newberry from 1931 about a girl and her pet lion. In the illustrations, the girl's curly locks looked like my corkscrew hair, and also like the lion's mane. The story spoke to m

Kaili Kinnon is a Toronto-based singer. Interview by Rebeccah Love When did you realize that singing was something you really enjoyed? Did you take part in any extracurricular singing-related activities in your youth? I think singing has always been synonymous with enjoyment for me. I grew up in a very musical family and I’d guess that I started singing along to music during long road trips as a very small child. So, there has just always been this deep love in my life for si

Jessica Thalmann is a Toronto-based visual artist. Interview by Rebeccah Love In high school your work really stood out at your final art show, particularly your pieces capturing travellers on the TTC. What themes were you exploring as a teenager? It's funny to reflect on my work made 10 years ago and thinking about my mindset when I started as a painter. Without really knowing or understanding it, I think I was interested in the ways cities and urban environment physically o

Barry Hertz is the Deputy Arts/Film editor at the Globe and Mail. Interview by Rebeccah Love How would you describe your movie-watching experience growing up? What were some of your favourites? I was lucky enough to have parents who never really checked in on what I was doing with my afternoons, mostly, and at least three video stores within walking distance that didn’t pay much attention to the ratings of tapes or DVDs. This meant I was pretty free to explore almost anything

David Bradford is a poet and MFA candidate at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Nell Zink Is Damn Free (Blank Cheque Press, 2017) and the forthcoming Call Out (Knife|Fork|Book, 2017). He splits his time between Montreal and Toronto. Interview by Rebeccah Love Can you tell me about Knife Fork Book in Kensington market? Knife|Fork|Book is Canada’s only poetry-only bookshop, located inside of Rick’s Café in Kensington, and it’s a new chapbook imprint I help edit. Als

Ash Ainsworth is a singer, songwriter and producer from Toronto. Interview by Rebeccah Love What was life like growing up with two musical parents? At what age were you first attracted to music making? How do you remember the trajectory of your life as a musician since then? Growing up with musical parents was great. I was exposed to a lot of music and it absolutely pushed me in a creative direction. According to my dad, I was already recording music before I was 4 years old.

Eric Rowe is a Toronto-based cinematographer. This week he launches his cinematography reel, a two minute video that captures his quiet appreciation for simple gestures but also for the epic, for the magnificent, for the divine. Watch here. #cinematographer #film #filmmaker #toronto

Jenn Brown is the executive director of the St. John's International Women's Film Festival. Interview by Rebeccah Love 1. Can you tell me about the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival? What’s it all about? How did it get started? The St. John's International Women's Film Festival is one of the oldest women’s film festivals in the world, hosted in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Festival has been dedicated to screening films made by women for nearly 28 ye