Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

FIRST COMEDY FOR TORONTO’S FILM AND OPERA DIRECTOR By Stephen Weir  (from Huffington Post ) Photographs by Stephen Weir and George Socka http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/atom-egoyan-opera_b_4674959.html#es_share_ended It is night-time in downtown Toronto. The opera,  Cosi Fan Tutte , has just ended and the subway platform is crowded. Amongst the post show murmur two names are overheard -- Atom Egoyan and Superman. The Canadian director of movies and tonight's opera is juxtaposed with the Man of Steel. “ Egoyan takes a Superman view on facial recognition,” one 20-something woman lectures her group of friends.   “ When Superman puts on glasses everyone thinks he is Clark Kent – they just aren’t able to see the Man of Steel behind those horn rims.” In Egoyan’s COC production of Cosi Fan Tutte, the movie producer turned opera director admits that the big challenge for this Mozart opera buffa is to make the audience forget some of the silli...

Harold Levy and John Artis Photo by George Socka TWENTY YEARS OF SAVING THE INNOCENT.  AIDWYC SET TO GO BACK TO THE FUTURE Originally published in Huffington Post.  http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/wrongful-convictions_b_4256461.html#es_share_ended     BY Stephen Weir.      Over the past 20 years, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) have quarterbacked 18 post-conviction exonerations of people convicted of murder here in Canada. As AIDWYC gets set to mark its 20th anniversary, there are appeals before the courts that could cause that successful case count to rise. On Friday morning, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered that Leighton Hay , a Toronto man found guilty of first-degree murder in 2004, will have a new trial. For 12 years Mr. Hay and AIDWYC have been fighting to clear his name and the Supreme Court of Canada's decision is an important step towards establishing his innocence. A...

VIDEO: Stephen Weir interview Atom Egoyan. A short film by George Socka  . Headless in Judeau – Atom Egoyan Dials Back the Kink By Stephen Weir   Curtain Call - Dress Rehearsal For Salome - Canadian Opera Company - Toronto Photo by George Socka Article appeared  first in Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/headless-in-judea-atom-eg_b_3132312.html Atom Egoyan believes it wasn’t adolescent angst that made a young princess demand the head of a   prophet as payment for dirty dancing in front of her stepfather.   No, says the Canadian filmmaker ( Exotica, The Sweet Hereafter , Chloe ) who is back directing the revival of the opera Salome, it is all about voyeurism, frustrated desire, paranoia and the decay of the human soul. The Canadian Opera Company’s 8-performance run of Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss’s Salome, at the Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts in Toronto, marks the return of the celebrated Canadian di...

. Curtain Call for the cast of Salome Photograph - George Socka Photographs from the Salome Dress Rehearsal  Toronto Canadian Opera Company Directed by Atom Egoyan . Atom Egoyan - Four Seasons Centre For the Performing Arts. Photograph by Stephen Weir Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils. Salome danced by  Linnea Swan    Space Time Continuum impacts the costumes.  photograph by Stephen Weir Atom Egoyan - Four Seasons Centre For the Performing Arts. Photograph by Stephen Weir Salome Dress Rehearsal Jochanaan ( Martin Gantner) emerges from his cell Photograph Stephen Weir Erika Sunnegardh - Salome with the head of John the Baptist Photograph George Socka Erika Sunnegardh - Salome Photograph George Socka