Dany Laferrière, a Haitian-born Montrealer known for his provocative and thoughtful novels, has won the 2010 Blue Metropolis Literary Grand Prix, CBC news reported. The $10,000 award announced Tuesday recognizes both literary achievement and an international reputation and is given as part of the annual Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, which is scheduled for [...]

The cover of Fleet Foxes’ debut album Fleet Foxes shines light at the intricate yet simple beauty the band wants to convey through their art. The cover is a a painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder from the 16th century. According to Wikipedia, ‘There are around 100 identifiable idioms in the scene (although Bruegel may [...]

Left write, Right left?
When it comes to a child’s education, literacy is and will be defined as the ability to write legibly and meaningfully to express thoughts. Art literacy is considered dispensable and looked upon more as a play than learning. But what if they learn more during playing than during learning, and to make [...]

Away We Go is a touching, funny, and nearly perfect comedy about a young couple expecting their first child and trying to sort out their place in the world. Unfortunately, it’s interrupted at frequent intervals by annoying cartoon comedy routines detailing the lives of families in the US and Canada, whom the main characters encounter [...]

The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity, written by James M. Cain, an exponent in the hardboiled school of writing, were two of the great masterpieces in American literature, and sources for famous film noir adaptations. Both featured gripping tales of lust, murder, double crosses and betrayal, and abounded in nihilism and wry cynicism.

G.M.B Akash is a documentary photographer from Bangladesh, practicing photography for the past 13 years. Akash grew up in a home far removed from his passion and profession until the photographer found his family’s old camera and his life took a whole new direction. Akash’s passion for photography was uncontainable and his desire to capture [...]

Gangs of New York is in many ways Martin Scorsese’s most ambitious film but it is also his most undisciplined. This is an example of filmmaking gluttony, of an artist given leave to indulge himself to the extreme without being held back. In certain respects Scorsese’s attention to detail is admirable but this isn’t a [...]

Wolf Hall, a vividly told tale of Tudor intrigue by Hilary Mantel, has won the Man Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in English literature, CBC news reported. Mantel, a favourite going into the awards ceremony Tuesday evening in London, takes home the equivalent of $85,600 Cdn and a guaranteed surge in book [...]

Nuri Bilge Ceylan has made it a point to discuss the matters closest to his heart – estrangement and stagnancy of human lives, especially in cities - with a certain intimacy and panache. No wonder, most of his films have garnered awards at Cannes film festival, and the Oscars. An engineer by degree and a [...]

With the U.S. Academy Awards deadline approaching, international film bodies have announced their country’s official candidates for foreign language Oscar consideration, CBC news reported. China has entered with Forever Enthralled, the latest from acclaimed filmmaker Chen Kaige — making it the director’s third film to be chosen for the Oscar (after Farewell My Concubine and [...]