Katherine Knight

Architect Todd Saunders’s buildings on Fogo Island, Newfoundland embrace the excitement of being on the edge of nature and contemporary design while fulfilling the goal of doing ‘new things with old ways’. Saunders and commissioner, Zita Cobb, provide a personal account of the ideas and traditions that inspire this bold and socially ambitious architectural venture. Gorgeously photographed over the Island’s seven seasons, the film is a flowing, visual narrative that unfolds over time as the principal stage of the project, the Fogo Island Inn, approaches completion.

Life and art intersect on a spectacular Newfoundland farm where visual artist Colette Urban mounts thirteen art performances in the fields and barns of her property. Resilient, determined, self aware and funny, Colette embraces the transformative power of art as she restages the significant art performances of her thirty-year career. With the camera as her audience she transforms the quotidian into a playful world of the imagination with elaborate costumes and idiosyncratic self invented rituals.

The love between Canadian artists Spring Hurlbut and Arnaud Maggs is tested by impending illness.

"All of my work has been affected by my life and my being. It's not an abstraction. It's about my reality." True to his word, Canadian artist Max Dean's latest creations take the artist's prostate cancer diagnosis as subject. Striving to visualize the physical and psychological manifestations of his disease, Dean ponders the interrelated themes of time, aging and illness in a number of new works. When his partner, artist Martha Fleury, is diagnosed with an aggressive form of ovarian cancer, he folds her threatening tumour into his installations as well. Creating works of various scales, including defunct animatronic figures from a decommissioned Ontario Place amusement ride, he evokes a sense of wonder and awe. Through the journey of his artistic exploration, Max Dean confirms he is Still Max—always curious and thoughtful, always seeking to know himself. Aisha Jamal