Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

Bidding Deadline Extended    By Stephen Weir Deadline for interested parties to submit written letters of intent with respect to the purchase of the station was Friday, August 7. But A.Farber & Partners Inc., the court-appointed receiver of the company that is currently operating Radio Station G98.7-FM, said earlier this week that the deadline for purchase proposals has been extended to Sept 25, as requested by the bidders in good standing Little information has been released about the proposed sale beyond a list of what the successful buyer will receive.  It consists of the broadcast studio and equipment at 34 Kerns Road in North York, the station’s advertising list, all accounts receivable, the lease for the downtown broadcast antenna and the station’s Canadian Radio and Television Commission licence to broadcast. The estimated price for the station that tags itself as “The Way We Groove,” will be in the range of $2 -5-million dollars. Business and Community interes...

  The Cu-Bop Drop. Q&A with the Japanese director who took a NYC Jazz man home to Cuba to jam! By Stephen Weir   Cu-Bop is about to drop large and the Caribbean Camera knows why. Last week the paper printed Stephen Weir’s story about a Japanese made movie   which will be premiering at the 2020 CaribbeanTales Film Festival.    The feature length  Cu-Bop Across The Border  is a Jazz Tale of Two Cities.  Axel Tosca plays piano in Harlem while Cesar Lopez is Cuba’s beloved virtuoso saxophonist. Filmmaker  Shinichi Takahashi  brings Tosca across the border to hold a Cu-Bop jam with Lopez and music magic is made. ( Cu-Bop refers to a popular 40’s style of music based on Afro-Cuban rhythms that have been mashed up with American jazz harmonies. ) Films director and self confessed jazz bar fanatic  Shinichi Takahashi  talked, online, with Stephen Weir about how he came to make this musical documentary about Cu-Bo...

Montreal International Black Film  Festival goes online Sept. 23- Oct. 4 The  annual Montreal International Black Film Festival (MIBFF) will be held online from September 23 to October 4. For 16 years,  the MIBFF has presented films from all over the world, providing a platform to thousands of Black artists who otherwise would not have been seen or heard . The  MIDFF usually alternates  yearly between Montreal and Toronto. The Toronto Festival  is scheduled to be held next February.  This is the first year that Toronto audiences will be able to take in the Montreal movie fete. The Festival  opens on Wednesday, September 23 at 7 P.M. with a Canadian film, Sergio Navarretta’s The Cuban starring Louis Gossett Jr. Then from 11P.M. 120 uncut films from 30 countries, will be available online. There will be movies from Jamaica, Cuba, Colombia, the United States and Canada.  There will also be films from Africa and the United Kingdom. Foreign movies...

              Don’t let Queer Coolie-tudes slip under your movie watching radar By Stephen Weir Just make sure that you don’t get popcorn grease on your keyboard. You are going to need your online devices to catch all the movies for this year's CaribbeanTales Film Festival. Last night (Wednesday_ the 15th annual Toronto based festival began, not with a red carpet, but with an online presence that has the potential to reach thousands and thousands of movie lovers. “ In spite of what’s happening in the world right now, we have continued to forge ahead,” wrote festival founder and moviemaker Frances-Anne Solomon. “ In our new online programming we are able to reach an even wider, global audience than the traditional theatre film festival … Necessity truly is the mother of invention.” Last night (Wednesday) the festival’s kick-off theme was “The Trini In Me” with a focus on Trinidadian filmmakers and the International Premiere of Grace & Saleem directe...

Film about Notting Hill Carnival coming to CaribbeanTales Film Festival  By Stephen Weir  The Notting Hill Carnival was born out of race riots and murder way back in the sixties. A new movie about the UK’s bad boy of festivals takes a look through the eyes of a young British woman as she heads down the road in costume to find out the truth about the famous 4-day annual August fete. A People's Art – The Genesis of Freedom is a documentary by England’s Tony Oldham.  The hour-long film will make its Canadian debut this fall as part of the CaribbeanTales Film Festival here in Toronto. Ayesha Casely-Hayford is glad she didn’t listen to her mother’s advice to stay away from Notting Hill. No, the young British/Ghanaian actress and lawyer now says that she is the better person for buying a modest mas outfit and jumping up both at a chocolate throwing J’ouvert party and the grand parade through the ancient streets of London (the Notting Hill area is near Kensington). Photo ...

FILM MAKER, ACTRESS AND COMEDIAN HAS  LEARNED TO  PLAY THE GUITAR DURING THIS  LONG LONG SHUTDOWN Wow.  But You’re Not Black is travelling to cities this fall we Canadians can’t get to. Earlier this month the Caribbean Camera printed my story about the short autobiographical movie by Scarborough’s  Danielle Ayow which will be showing at next month’s CaribbeanTales Film Festival.   What we didn’t say was that even though the movie has never been shown to a paying audience before, and while most theatres and film festivals have had to go online – Ayow’s funny and brave story is already making waves! Why is there so much interest in the 30-minute film about Ayow’s struggle to be seen not as a Chinese woman but as a Trini! As part of the paper’s semi-regular feature about how members of the Caribbean Canadian community is handling the Pandemic quarantine, I went back to ask Ayow a few questions about how she is doing these days and dig a little bit m...

New Programme to deal with the Justice System It is not easy for young people to navigate the Canadian justice System (CJS) especially when they aren’t white! Just someone’s opinion or is it a matter of fact? Well, in Toronto it is a fact, at least according to both civic and community groups. Recently, Toronto, Mayor John Tory, several community leaders, the police and spokespersons for the provincial and federal governments, unveiled a programme to assist young Black people and their families deal with the Canadian justice system. It’s called “The Ounce of Prevention” (OZ) program. Funded by Public Safety Canada, OZ is a newly established “wraparound Afrocentric initiative” aimed at assisting Black and racialized youth, (and their families), to navigate their way through the courts, encounters with the police and correctional facilities. Oz is made up of five partner agencies: the Delta Family Resources Centre (Delta Family), For Youth Initiative, Somali Woman and Children, Think 2wi...

The Winds of Change Blow Through the Offices of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival An edited/rewritten version of my story appeared on the  front page  of last week's  The Caribbean Camera newspaper Goodbye to Aneesa Oumarally. The Caribbean Camera has learned that the 40-something lawyer is no longer at the helm of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival. Veteran carnival administrators Denise Herrera-Jackson and Chris Alexander are now running the annual festival. In a conversation with me (Stephen Weir) Ms. Oumarally explained that she had not been fired and that the decision to leave the Festival was made after discussions with the Festival Management Committee Board about the future of the 53-year old festival. Oumarally, a well-respected Mississauga lawyer is returning to the practice of law but will keep her hand in Carnival by re-joining the Festival Board. The Festival Management Committee (FMC) Chair, Joe Halstead, confirmed her comments.  “ She wasn’t terminated,” he s...