Archive for the 'Video' Category

Mask update: a call to action

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

After it was announced here and other places that the city of Montreal was seeking to ban masks at protests, people opposed have not been silent and it seems that this issue will not go away. And why should it? This incursion on our rights to free expression has even garnered opponents in more conservative [...]

Cars, stories and people

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Of all the projects OTL has created, Car Stories is most certainly the longest-running, at times has been the most controversial and if it wasn’t for the infringement Festival, a true viral phenomenon, it would undoubtedly be the best known. In a nutshell, Car Stories is a play containing several shorter plays, a piece of [...]

Outlawing theatre activism in Montreal? City attempts new “anti-mask” bylaw

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Theatre activists, like actors in a theatre, rely on a gamut of artistic accessories – props, scenery, costumes, make up, and especially masks – to conduct performances on the streets, sometimes during demonstrations. Masks constitute important props in this theatrical arsenal, as they have the power to transform the actor into a different entity, which [...]

Consulate occupation: Judy Rebick arrested

Friday, January 9th, 2009

Preceding yesterday’s presentation of an eviction notice by activists to the Israeli consulate in Montreal, a group of Jewish women were arrested for occupying the Israeli consulate in Toronto on Wednesday in protest of the Israeli attack on Gaza, among them were filmmaker BH Yael, psychanalyst Judith Deutsch and professor Judy Rebick. Rebick, a prominent [...]

Where to sleep

Monday, January 5th, 2009

Anyone who’s been outside in Montreal lately will be able to tell you that it’s cold out there.  This is obviously most relevant to the city’s homeless. There are some in Montreal who are compassionate about their plight and others who take steps to empower them through art, namely those involved in the annual État [...]

2008 in the Optative Theatrical Laboratories

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

It’s New Year’s Eve, so what better time to look back on the past year and the year ahead.  2008 was a busy one for OTL on several fronts: Sinking Neptune II: We adapted our verbatim theatre critique of Canada’s “first play” Lescarbot’s Theatre of Neptune in New France and those remounting it, racism against [...]

Sunday shoppers meet angry chorus

Monday, December 29th, 2008

Sunday shoppers on Ste. Catherine street were startled by a cacophony of voices. Rising above the din of consumerism, a chorus of profound human anger and frustration arose, voiced by hundreds of demonstrators furious with the overnight death of over 270 people in Gaza, killed by Israeli bombs. Traffic snarled as the street was transformed [...]

A letter from the city

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

Last week, OTL finally got a letter from the Ville Marie borough.  If this is their idea of a Christmas present, it’s definitely one that we’d like to exchange.  It’s in response to our question about the giant billboard from Time2Ad on The Main, asking just what the city was going to do about it. [...]

Revolutionary theatre in Rimouski

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

I’ve played in many culture-jams, but never as a videographer and never in a city I was visiting for the first time in my life.  That changed last spring, when I was part of a culture-jam at Tim Hortons in Rimouski. Since 2002, OTL has offered a workshop called Revolutionary Theatre: Culture-Jamming and Theatrical Activism.  [...]

If the shoe fits…

Friday, December 19th, 2008

By now everyone has seen the video or at very least heard the story of how Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi threw not one but two shoes at George W. Bush.  Most people have probably also seen some of the parodies and offshoots (forgive the pun) circulating around the internet.  There’s even a game! What you [...]