Latest news with #Giller
Calgary Herald
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Canadian filmmaker Jason Buxton's second feature, Sharp Corner, a study in obsession
Article content Soon, another accident happens with similarly tragic results. Rachel demands they move, but Josh becomes obsessed with the two victims claimed by the crashes and increasingly transfixed by the potential that it might happen again. He spends much of his day looking out the panoramic window onto the road and waiting. Article content His private and professional life begins to unravel as he obsesses over saving future victims. Sharp Corner is based on a short story by Canadian author and journalist Russell Wangersky from his 2006 Giller long-listed debut collection, The Hour of Bad Decisions. Initially, Buxton wanted to tackle several stories from the book and weave them together in a structure similar to Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 episodic drama Magnolia or Robert Altman's 1993 comedy-drama Short Cuts, which was inspired by the short stories of Raymond Carver. Article content 'All of Russell's work really appealed to me, but with that story, in particular, I was looking for something that would talk about obsession,' Buxton says. 'As a writer, I would often become very tunnelled. Even when I put down my writing for the day, I would still be solving problems in my head at dinner and not paying attention to my family. I realized that this short story gave me a really good template to look at obsession and how turning away from one's family can happen and the dangers of that.' Article content Article content Buxton said he walked through bookstores looking for potential CanLit material he could turn into film. It's his first since his acclaimed 2012 debut Blackbird, a drama about a bullied goth teen wrongly accused of plotting a school shooting. Sharp Corner was a long-gestating project for the Nova Scotia-based filmmaker, who began developing it years ago but was delayed by his work on a CBC miniseries that was shelved by COVID-19. Article content He would eventually take a few liberties with Wangersky's work when adapting his story for the screen. Article content 'In the short story, the character doesn't develop a saviour complex, it was something I added,' Buxton plays. 'The way that Ben Foster is at the beginning, that's the character Russell had written. The couple in his story didn't have a child. Those were all inventions that I came up with when I adapted the story into a two-hour movie. It didn't have what we think of as a three-act structure; it was more about the character who became an expert on these accidents that were happening in front of his house, and his wife doesn't understand why he seemed to be fascinated and gain something from these experiences. In fact, the original title I was working under when I had the other stories of Russell's was The Misery of Others. I felt like the character is obsessively drawn to the misery of others. In a way, I thought of it as a character who doesn't have an understanding of his own psyche. He doesn't have a relationship with his interior life and is perhaps cut off emotionally, and so this reawakens something.' Article content Article content Not an easy character to portray. Foster first gained attention as a teen actor in the late 1990s and early aughts in films such as Liberty Heights and Get Over It but has developed into a versatile character actor with acclaimed roles as a ruthless cowboy in 3:10 to Yuma, a troubled Iraq war vetern in The Messenger and a wild bank robber in Hell or High Water. Article content 'He is often cast as the very macho, madman kind of guy and this character starts off as meek,' Buxton says. 'So it wasn't obvious that this would be a role that was right for Ben and also a role that would appeal to him. This character spoke to him in a lot of ways. But, to me, there was no way of knowing that. But I love that he decided to do our movie because I think he brings so much interior life and mystery to the character. I find audiences love watching him and trying to figure out what this guy is all about.'
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Two jurors withdrew from Giller Prize in the weeks before news of Scotiabank split
TORONTO — Two Giller Prize jurors withdrew from their positions in the weeks leading up to the literary award's split from its lead sponsor Scotiabank. Canadian authors Jordan Abel and Aaron Tucker say they dropped out for ethical reasons days after being named to the five-member jury for the $100,000 fiction prize. Executive director Elana Rabinovitch did not say whether the resignations or ongoing protests had anything to do with an early end to the Giller's decades-long partnership with Scotiabank, only saying of the departures by email: "I wish them well." The Giller Foundation has faced sustained pressure since November 2023 to cut three of its sponsors over their relationships with Israel, most notably a Scotiabank subsidiary's investment in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Abel and Tucker were quietly removed from a list of jurors on the Giller website sometime between their announcement Jan. 15 and news of the split with Scotiabank on Monday. In an emailed statement, Tucker said he was never fully on board with the Giller's funding, but initially thought it was something he could "tolerate" for the sake of uplifting writers. "As I read more and learned more and listened more, I found myself unable to continue as a jury member. I should have taken the time to do this before I said yes, and not rushed naively into my choice," said Tucker, an author of seven books including the novel "Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos." Both Tucker and Abel — a Nisga'a writer who most recently won the Governor General's Literary Award for his novel "Empty Spaces" — say they have no plans to return to the Giller jury, despite the end of the partnership with Scotiabank. The remaining jurors are Dionne Irving, Loghan Paylor and Deepa Rajagopalan, who are all recent Giller finalists. Many authors and other workers in the books sector have joined a boycott of the Giller, saying they won't submit their works or engage with the prize until the award also severs ties with sponsors Indigo Books and the Azrieli Foundation. Protesters object to the Giller's partnerships with Indigo for its CEO's charity that supports Israeli Defense Force officers from abroad, as well as the Azrieli Foundation, in part for its connection to Israeli real estate company Azrieli Group, which has a stake in Bank Leumi. The United Nations Human Rights Office has included Bank Leumi on a list of businesses involved in activities relating to settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. The initial protests at the 2023 ceremony came just a month after Israel declared war on Hamas over an attack in which the militant group kidnapped scores of Israelis. Israel says 1,200 people were killed in Hamas' initial attack. Gaza's health ministry says more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent bombardment, many of them women and children. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2025. Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
