We're in the Citizen today...

A profile of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012...

The Muslim Brotherhood in Canada....

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Please join us for an exclusive presentation by Marc Lebuis - the proprietor of Le Point De Bascule Canada blog - on the Muslim Brotherhood in Canada.

Marc's presenation will follow the film "Losing Our Sons".

Losing Our Sons (Film)
The Muslim Brotherhood in Canada (Presentation by Marc Lebuis)
November 1st, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission:  $20 or with Festival Pass.  Tickets available at the door.
Private reception to follow Q&A.

A searing true story from America’s heartland, Losing Our Sons tells of two American families whose lives intersected through a shattering act of violence. Melvin Bledsoe, a small business owner in Memphis, watched with pride as his son Carlos went to Tennessee State University in Nashville to better his life through education. Daris Long, an ex-Marine, felt honored that his son, Andy, chose to follow in his footsteps by joining the military. But when Carlos Bledsoe murdered Andy Long in Little Rock, Arkansas, both fathers are forced to confront a new kind of American nightmare. As Melvin traced the trail that led Carlos from Nashville to Yemen and then to Little Rock, Daris confronted an American government that seems to be in denial about what happened to his son. This powerful documentary provides a moment of clarity for people who care about their families and their country’s future.

“Heartbreaking and infuriating … an anguished wake-up call.”
    Jeff Jacoby, Columnist, Boston Globe

“Riveting, powerful, educational and a must see for every American”
    Brigitte Gabriel, Founder President of ACT! For America

Books, Books, Books..

5 Book Launches at the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Don't miss these exciting book discussions.


For further information, please visit our website.

Death By China - Canadian Premiere!

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Death By China
November 2, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada, Main Auditorium
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission:  $20 or with Festival Pass.  Private reception after Q&A with co-producer Greg Autry.

Death by China is a new film based on the book by Peter Navarro and Greg Autry which challenges the dominant paradigm of a “Chinese Miracle” – the one featuring a modernizing, progressive Chinese state heading toward political reform and driving global economic growth with its new found embrace of capitalism and freedom. Tearing this delusion away, Death by China documents the myriad ways that a powerful, wealthy, and corrupt Chinese Communist Party emboldened by a growing nationalistic frenzy is becoming the biggest threat to global peace, prosperity, and health since Nazi Germany.

Speaker: Greg Autry, author of “Death by China”.

“A truly life-changing, mouth-dropping documentary film…Peter Navarro’s ‘Death by China’ grabs you by the throat and never lets go.”
     -Francesca McCaffery, Blackbook Magazine

Just one week to go!

The 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Please e-mail your friends and colleagues.

November 1-4th, 2012
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Please visit our website for more details!

Don't miss our exclusive presentation on the Muslim Brotherhood in Canada and the Canadian Premiere of the film, "Death By China".....and lots more.

Please Re-Post This Trailer...

3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Watch, Re-Post.  Share.  And Attend.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Canada

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Please join us for an exclusive presentation by Marc Lebuis - the proprietor of Le Point De Bascule Canada blog - on the Muslim Brotherhood in Canada.

Marc's presenation will follow the film "Losing Our Sons".

A searing true story from America's heartland, Losing Our Sons tells of two American families whose lives intersected through a shattering act of violence. Melvin Bledsoe, a small business owner in Memphis, watched with pride as his son Carlos went to Tennessee State University in Nashville to better his life through education. Daris Long, an ex-Marine, felt honored that his son, Andy, chose to follow in his footsteps by joining the military. But when Carlos Bledsoe murdered Andy Long in Little Rock, Arkansas, both fathers are forced to confront a new kind of American nightmare. As Melvin traced the trail that led Carlos from Nashville to Yemen and then to Little Rock, Daris confronted an American government that seems to be in denial about what happened to his son. This powerful documentary provides a moment of clarity for people who care about their families and their country's future.

"Heartbreaking and infuriating ... an anguished wake-up call."
    Jeff Jacoby, Columnist, Boston Globe

"Riveting, powerful, educational and a must see for every American"
    Brigitte Gabriel, Founder President of ACT! For America

Losing Our Sons
November 1, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Tickets available at the door.

Admission:  $20 ($10 for students).  Marc Lebuis will present right after the film.  There will also be a private reception after the Q&A.

 Don't miss this important and exclusive presentation!

Festival Passes - How to Buy Them!

3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Here's how you buy Festival Passes (Just $75 for all events).

You can buy them from the following retailers:  Compact Music (785 Bank, 190 Bank), Collected Works (1242 Wellington), and Ottawa Festivals (47 William).

You can also buy them online here.

Tickets will also be available at the door as well.

Join us for a party in Ottawa!

Hammer & Tickle

October 21st, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada, 395 Wellington
Ottawa

Admission:  $15 (Students $8), tickets available at the door.

The story of a political system that was laughed out of existence.

Special Free Thinking Film Festival Party!

It's time for a party and for all of us to have some fun. At the same time, hopefully raise some funds for the Free Thinking Film Festival.

On October 21st, we will showing an amazing film, Hammer & Tickle. It's terrific history and there's some truly good jokes in the film.

Tickets will be $15, but everybody who buys a ticket can buy a Festival Pass for the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival for just $55! A savings of $20.

Beginning with the tongue-in-cheek claim that jokes were the only good thing to come out of Communism, Hammer & Tickle recounts a humorous history of the Soviet Union and its satellite states through the jokes that flourished under the oppressive regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe. Jokes, the film contends, were a language of truth under Communism; a language that allowed people to navigate the disconnect between propaganda and reality and provided a means of resisting the system despite the absence of free speech. Using animated sequences, manipulated archival footage, and sketches to resurrect the jokes, the film offers an ironic take on the history of Communism while simultaneously investigating the social and political impact of jokes under Soviet rule. Interviews with Solidarity leader and former Polish president Lech Walesa, hard-line Polish leader General Jaroszelski, German actor Peter Sodann, German satirist and author Ernst Roehl, East German newspaper editor and Politburo member Guenter Schabowski, and academics Christie Davies and Roy Medvedev address the role that jokes played in challenging and weakening the Communist system from the inside even as joke-tellers faced censure or time in the Gulag for voicing their humor. Light and irreverent in its tone, Hammer & Tickle is really about the ultimate seriousness of joking and the use of the power of laughter to overcome hardship.

"Marvelously original."
Sunday Times

How to buy tickets for the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Festival

Here's how to buy tickets.

1.  Tickets will be available at the door during the event.

2.  Festival Passes and tickets can now be bought at the following locations (Compact Music 785 Bank, 190 Bank), Collected Works (1242 Wellington), and Ottawa Festivals (47 William).

3.  Tickets are also available online at Ticketweb.

Click here to buy a full Festival Pass.

You can also buy a Saturday Pass, a Sunday Pass, or individual films.

4.  You can buy a discounted Festival Pass for just $55 at our next event!  On October 21st, we will be showing the film, Hammer & Tickle, and you buy festival passes then.

Hammer & Tickle
October 21, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada, 395 Wellington
Ottawa

Admission:  $15 ($10 for students).  Reception to follow film.

Why Is It Hate?

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival

Why Is It Hate?
November 3, 2012, 11:00 AM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission:  $12 or with Festival Pass.  Ticket includes the film "The Invisible Men" as well.

Speaker:  Producer Martin Gladstone will be on hand to answer questions.

An examination of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and why they bring a message of hate to Toronto’s Gay Pride March. For more information, please visit our website.

Commemoration of the Birthday of Raoul Wallenberg

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Society - in association with the B'nai Brith.

When a Diplomat makes a difference...

Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Raoul Wallenberg - the first honourary Canadian Citizen.

November 4th, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission: $20 or with Festival Pass. Private reception to follow the program.

Music: Floralove Katz, Soprano; Natasha Guuiller, Piano

Key Speakers: David Matas, Counsel for B'nai Brith

Film: The Angel of Budapest features the extraordinary herosim of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who during the latter months of the Holocaust and WWII, saved the lives of thousands of Hungarian Jews.

Tickets will be available at the door, or at the following retailers: Compact Music (785 Bank, 190 Bank), Collected Works (1242 Wellington).

 

For more information, please visit our website.

The Communist Joke Film!

HAMMER AND TICKLE
The Communist Joke Book
The story of a political system that was laughed out of existence.
90 mins

October 21, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission:  $15 ($10 for students).  All attendees can buy passes to the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012 for only $55 (a savings of $20).




What would happen if they introduced Communism to Saudi Arabia? – Nothing at first but soon there would be a shortage of sand.

This is the first ever film about Communist jokes, the most extraordinary cultural legacies of eighty years of socio-political experimentation in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Under the oppressive Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its satellites, ordinary people told thousands of jokes about the society they lived in and the political system they suffered under. Denied free speech, and confronted daily with the gap between political propaganda and everyday reality, jokes became the language of truth in the world of Communism. They were a way for ordinary people to resist the regime – but the Communist regimes also used to jokes, to diffuse opposition. Jokes were thus the real battleground between state and people under Communism.

Using this unique folkloric archive, this funny and insightful feature-length documentary tells the real history of Communism through the jokes. On the way it tells the stories of what happened to the joke-tellers, some of whom ended up in the Gulags, while others became stars of the stage and screen. This Monty-Python-esque history of Communism recreates the jokes using sketches, tricked archive and special animations. There are interviews with the legends of Communism and legendary Communist joke-tellers including Solidarity Leader and former Polish president Lech Walesa, the hardline Polish leader General Jaruselski, German actor Peter Sodann, , German satirist and author Ernst Roehl, East German newspaper editor and Politburo member Guenter Schabowski, and Britain’s own Professor of jokes, Christie Davies.

The film unearthes never-seen-before archive – of the jokes that President Reagan told at Press Conferences, of the only anti-Communist comedy show ever broadcast on a Communist state television channel, and of the jokes and cartoons that the Czechs graffiti-ed on their town square when the Russians invaded in 1968.

Uncovering extraordinary stories never before told on television, director Ben Lewis met the man who collected jokes for Ronald Reagan, the Polish prankster who gave away toilet paper to deprived fellow citizens, and the Romanian amateur statistician who collected and analysed Communist jokes scientifically to reveal the part they played in the downfall of the system.

For more information, please visit our website!

Hammer & Tickle!

A Free Thinking Film Society Party!

The story of a political system that was laughed out of existence.

Special Free Thinking Film Festival Party!

It's time for a party and for all of us to have some fun.  At the same time, hopefully raise some funds for the Free Thinking Film Festival.

On October 21st, we will showing an amazing film, Hammer & Tickle.   It's terrific history and there's some truly good jokes in the film.

Tickets will be $15, but everybody who buys a ticket can buy a Festival Pass for the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival for just $55!  A savings of $20.
 

Hammer & Tickle
October 21, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Tickets available at the door.

Admission:  $15

Beginning with the tongue-in-cheek claim that jokes were the only good thing to come out of Communism, Hammer & Tickle recounts a humorous history of the Soviet Union and its satellite states through the jokes that flourished under the oppressive regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe. Jokes, the film contends, were a language of truth under Communism; a language that allowed people to navigate the disconnect between propaganda and reality and provided a means of resisting the system despite the absence of free speech. Using animated sequences, manipulated archival footage, and sketches to resurrect the jokes, the film offers an ironic take on the history of Communism while simultaneously investigating the social and political impact of jokes under Soviet rule. Interviews with Solidarity leader and former Polish president Lech Walesa, hard-line Polish leader General Jaroszelski, German actor Peter Sodann, German satirist and author Ernst Roehl, East German newspaper editor and Politburo member Guenter Schabowski, and academics Christie Davies and Roy Medvedev address the role that jokes played in challenging and weakening the Communist system from the inside even as joke-tellers faced censure or time in the Gulag for voicing their humor. Light and irreverent in its tone, Hammer & Tickle is really about the ultimate seriousness of joking and the use of the power of laughter to overcome hardship.

"Marvelously original."
     Sunday Times

For more information, please visit our website.

We're in the Ottawa Sun!

Some nice coverage in the Ottawa Sun...

Major announcement next week!

We'll be making one major announcement next week regarding the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012.

Stay tuned.

Here's the trailer one more time.

Visit our website for more details.

Support? System Down

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Support? System Down
November 3, 5:15 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission:  $12 or with Festival Pass.

This American film looks at the everyday issues of stress, family, struggle and suffering that families experience when they are put through the detrimental maneuvers of the family court system. This shocking documentary shows how fathers are forced to pay exorbitant amounts of money for child support and how many fathers lose access to their children.

Trailer for the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festvail 2012

For more information, please visit our website.

Visit our Free Thinking Film Society page on Facebook...

Hey, we've got a page on Facebook, so please check in and like our page!

This Hour Could Have 10,000 Minutes

Tonight!  A debate on the CBC!

Debate on the CBC put on by the Macdonald Laurier Institute
War Museum, 7 PM
Ottawa

We'll be having a table tonight to sell our documentary on the CBC.

If you haven't picked up a copy of "This Hour Could Have 10,000 Minutes", well you'll have your chance tonight.  Our documentary covers CBC bias against conservatives and against Israel.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Canada

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Losing Our Sons
November 1, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street, Ottawa

Admission:  $20 or with Festival Pass.  Private Reception after Q&A.

After the film, Marc LeBuis will be giving a presentation on the Muslim Brotherhood in Canada.  Marc is the proprietor of the LePointdebascule blog.

A searing true story from America’s heartland, Losing Our Sons tells of two American families whose lives intersected through a shattering act of violence. Melvin Bledsoe, a small business owner in Memphis, watched with pride as his son Carlos went to Tennessee State University in Nashville to better his life through education. Daris Long, an ex-Marine, felt honored that his son, Andy, chose to follow in his footsteps by joining the military. But when Carlos Bledsoe murdered Andy Long in Little Rock, Arkansas, both fathers are forced to confront a new kind of American nightmare. As Melvin traced the trail that led Carlos from Nashville to Yemen and then to Little Rock, Daris confronted an American government that seems to be in denial about what happened to his son. This powerful documentary provides a moment of clarity for people who care about their families and their country’s future.

“Heartbreaking and infuriating … an anguished wake-up call.”
    Jeff Jacoby, Columnist, Boston Globe

“Riveting, powerful, educational and a must see for every American”
    Brigitte Gabriel, Founder President of ACT! For America

 
Here is our trailer for the entire Festival.

A Tribute to Raoul Wallenberg

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

Tribute to Raoul Wallenberg
November 4, 2012, 7 PM
Library & Archives Canada, 395 Wellington
Ottawa

In association with the B'nai Brith Canada.

Admission:  $20 or with Festival Pass.
Evening includes a film (Angel of Budapest), speakers, and private reception.

This is the extraordinary story of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during WW II, presented through the personal experiences of four Canadians: Susan Vadnay of Montreal, Dr. Erwin Koranyi of Ottawa, and Maria Gomori of Winnipeg, all of whom survived Budapest’s Jewish ghetto, and David Matas, a Winnipeg-based human rights lawyer.

Speaker: David Matas from the B’nai Brith will update us on the latest information on Raoul Wallenberg; and Floralove Katz will sing some songs from the Holocaust.

For more information, please visit our website.

I Sleep in Hitler's Room

Part of the 3rd Annual Free Thinking Film Festival 2012

I Sleep in Hitler's Room:

An American Jew Visits Germany

I am proud to announce that Tuvia Tenenbom will be at our Festival to talk about his book, "I Sleep In Hitler's Room."  Tenenbom, a son of a Holocaust survivor, travels throughout Germany talking to a wide range of people, and finds that their crushing awareness of their dark history coexists with virulent anti-semitism and a stubborn obsession with Israel.

November 4, 2012, 5:00 PM
Library & Archives Canada
395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission:  $12 or with Festival Pass.

"a stunner!"
     WABC

"An alarming account of anti-Semitism in Germany."

     Haaretz

"Tuvia Tenenbom comes off as a Jewish Hunter S Thompson, describing cringing encounters in Germany that strip away the veneer of sanity from his subjects . . . Every encounter with an interview subject is an experimental drama, redolent sometimes of Pinter or Beckett, more often of Brecht or the Marx Brothers . . . To understand Germans, one has to learn their language and live with them - or read Tenenbom's book."
     Asia Times

"Hugely entertaining -- terribly funny, sarcastic, powerful . . . A tremendous book."     
      National Review

"It's a book in a category all its own--deeply sobering, depressing even, in its observations of the darker side of Germany, yet at the same time so chatty and engaging and laugh-out-loud funny that it's hard to put down. Tenenbom is an acute observer of his fellowman, but also a born entertainer, a comedian, who approaches his interview subjects--of whom there are dozens, ranging from leading political and cultural figures to folks he runs into on the street--as a combination inquisitor and tummler . . . A stunning account . . . Tenenbom is brilliant." -
     PJ Media

For more information please visit our website.