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Commentary, Opinion

Curing the McLennan blues

by Leina Gabra on

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For many students, midterms, paper writing, and the pressure of the approaching finals season means that they must spend the majority of their waking hours in the infamous McLennan-Redpath Library Complex. McLennan-Redpath is known to evoke strong feelings of anxiety, dread, and stress among its dwellers, due in large part to its drab lighting and brutalist architectural scheme. The libraries’ condition is an issue that Tre Mansdoerfer, president of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), has raised with administration.

“Everyone, including the librarians, agree that [McLennan] is very outdated and that whoever originally built the building did a poor job of planning it,” Mansdoerfer said. “It’s a really sad place to be in.”

McGill must respond to students’ grievances regarding McLennan-Redpath with the extensive and necessary changes for students to be able to work productively in their library. To this end, McGill proposed the Fiat Lux project in 2014, a library improvement project that aims to address concerns by focusing on acquiring digital materials over print and expanding physical userspace. The plan includes a total overhaul of the library’s outdated construction and footprint. Fiat Lux is a three-phase plan that would begin by moving McLennan/Redpath’s unused books off-site and then completely rebuilding the Redpath Library, before, finally, renovating McLennan to increase much-needed natural light and allow for greater ease of movement.

The McLennan-Redpath complex is the largest library on campus, but students often cannot find space to work in the library, leaving them with few options for quiet study spots on campus. This is detrimental to students’ mental health and, consequently, their schoolwork. Little has been done to improve McLennan since it was built over 50 years ago, and its impracticality has burdened McGill students for just as long. Change is long overdue.

In 2018, McGill announced plans to shift some of its collection around over the summer to create 100 new study spots on the second floor. But, just from looking at the crowds of students in McLennan this midterm season, it’s obvious that more than a few hundred extra seats are necessary. According to the Fiat Lux Master Plan, libraries at a public research university of McGill’s size should be able to accommodate 15–25 per cent of the student population with 30-35 square feet allocated per seat. However, all of McGill’s libraries combined have space for a mere nine per cent of its population. So, it’s only natural that McLennan often feels so cramped and overcrowded that you can practically feel other students’ stress emanating throughout it.

Despite the 30-page master plan published in 2015, the Fiat Lux webpage seems to have been abandoned since then, with little information regarding the timelines of these improvements or whether they will ever come to be. The SSMU Library Improvement Fund website is also outdated and provides little useful information. McGill seems to have begun implementing the first phase of the plan, but this is also unclear: A common theme throughout the McLennan improvement plan. However, according to Mansdoerfer, the university plans to have the project completed some time in the next decade.

Improving McLennan and the rest of McGill’s libraries should be one of the school’s top priorities, although, right now, it clearly is not. Its lack of quiet study spaces or group study areas, sufficient lighting, and general inaccessibility make it much more difficult for McGill students to study. We should not have to worry about these factors on top of our already strenuous workloads.

The SSMU Library Improvement Fund Committee (LIFC) is accepting proposals to improve the downtown McGill libraries. Students will no doubt have a lot to say.

Science & Technology

Tuberculosis: Where are we now?

by Krithika Ragupathi on

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“We need to science the shit out of tuberculosis,” Madhukar Pai, director of the McGill Global Health Programs, said in front of the United Nations (UN) at their headquarters in New York in September.

The meeting was a historic event; it was the first-ever high-level UN meeting organized to address the ongoing tuberculosis (TB) crisis. Pai’s statement to the General Assembly was an appeal for politicians to increase investment in research and development.

TB continues to be the leading infectious disease killer, claiming the lives of about 1.7 million people in 2016– approximately equal to the entire population of Montreal the same year. An estimated USD$1.3 billion per year supplement to the existing budget is required to fund newer drugs and discontinue the use of antiquated diagnostic tools. Current drugs used to treat MDR-TB, a drug-resistant form of the disease, are highly toxic with side-effects that include deafness. Given the necessary funding, the UN aims to eradicate the disease by 2030.

Although those fighting to eradicate TB pushed country leaders to be present at the meeting in New York and to support the initiative, attendance was underwhelming. None of the G7 heads of state, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, were present. The only key political invitee present was South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Pai described the turnout as disappointing.

“It is still very hard for TB to be a political priority,” Pai said in an interview with The McGill Tribune.

Between 2014 and 2016, Ebola caused an estimated 11,000 deaths while, in that same period, TB killed more than three million. Pai attributes the lack of concern among politicians to the fact that, unlike other epidemics in the past, TB continues to affect the poorest strata of the world’s population.

“People are quietly dying”, Pai said.“[Politicians] have become desensitized to it.”

In an op-ed for the Huffington Post, Pai stated that, if each country spent 0.1 per cent of its annual gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) on TB, the UN could collectively meet its $1.3 billion USD per year budget. Pai believes that the ongoing TB crisis is a result of an unwillingness on the part of political leaders to allocate funds, rather than a difficult scientific problem to solve. His sentiments allude to the colonial roots of global health, which the numbers suggest are still an influence today.  

“The fact that we have TB up north in our Inuit communities three hundred-fold higher than here tells you that this is not a science issue,” Pai said.

With regard to the future of tuberculosis research, Pai stressed that high-burden TB countries should lead the discourse going forward.

“[The] TB agenda is still being dictated by rich white people from countries with hardly any TB,” Pai said.

Currently, global health initiatives are mostly funded by the United States. According to Pai, this puts global health in a one-sided and precarious position.

“All of global health is under threat under the Trump administration,” Pai said.

Passing the baton to high-burden TB countries that have the money and tools to tackle the problem would be the next advisable step. Pai believes that China and India have the resources and money to take the lead. Furthermore, he thinks it is crucial to involve TB survivors in the conversation to foster a strong civil society movement that will hold politicians accountable for their progress on the issue.

Emerging Trends, Student Life

How students can use ASMR to decompress

by Alaana Kumar on

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Whispering, crumpling, tapping, and buzzing. These are among the most popular autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) techniques that millions enjoy over the internet. ASMR allows consumers to experience low levels of euphoria triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli. Though some people do not experience this phenomenon, it is a growing trend among young adults and students who use it as an easily accessible means of relaxation.   

Individuals who experience ASMR triggers believe that they help to cope with stress, anxiety, and even insomnia. Some describe the feeling as a ‘brain massage’—the equivalent of having someone play with their hair or trace their back. Though research on the effects of ASMR is still unfolding, a recent study at the University of Sheffield found that there are several mental and physical health benefits for those who frequently watch ASMR videos. The study concluded that individuals who experience ASMR tend to have lower heart rates and show significant increases in positive feelings such as relaxation and social connection. Madison Palmer, U1 Arts, explained that, for her, listening to ASMR videos is a form of self care.

“ASMR has a great calming effect,” Palmer said. “If you feel a panic attack coming on or are in the middle of one, it can really help.”

In recent years, ASMR videos have grown in popularity and developed into an art form of their own. ASMR producers, known as ASMRtists, creatively incorporate theatrics and detailed visuals into their video and, sometimes, even tell a story for the duration of the video.

There are currently more than 11 million ASMR videos on YouTube. The most in-demand video to date has over 20 million views. It features an ASMRtist speaking in whispered tones through a 3-D microphone which produces a binaural recording, mimicking how ears hear live sounds. Over the years, many ASMR videos have used this technology in combination with a variety of trigger-inducing techniques like cutting hair, turning pages, and speaking softly.

ASMR videos are ideal for university students since they are a free and calming coping mechanism for academic pressure. In fact, according to Think with Google, individuals between the ages of 18-24 make up more than half of the overall ASMR audience. To Vanessa Barron, U1 Arts, ASMR videos are appealing because they require no thought or brain power to view and are even less strenuous on the mind than music.

“It appeals to our generation because, let’s face it, we’re all stressed,” Barron said. “Hearing and watching something so simple, […] it’s just relaxing.”

Despite its usefulness, ASMR has a polarizing effect among individuals: Some are intrigued, while others struggle to understand the fascination and find the videos’ pseudo-intimacy odd or disturbing. However, no online content is the same. ASMRtists use different approaches and techniques. As a result, artists recommend sampling different content or watching a compilation of triggers. Christopher Cadogan, U2 Arts, agreed that viewers  should explore a variety of ASMR videos and explained that sampling different genres may better help students relieve stress.

“[In general], I struggle to watch ASMR videos,” Cadogan said. “But there’s one in particular that I can watch for hours. […] It’s just about finding what works for you.”

ASMR videos provide a simple and creative way for individuals to de-stress. For overwhelmed university students, the world of ASMR could be key to many students’ mental wellbeing.

 

Basketball, Martlets, Private, Sports

McGill Martlet basketball stifles Gaiters

by Ender McDuff on

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On Nov. 15, the McGill Martlets (2-1) made an early-season statement in Love Competition Hall against Bishop’s University (1-1). Their aggressive performance on both ends of the court enabled them to dismantle the Gaiters by a score of 67-44.

In a game during which McGill never trailed, the Martlets smothered Bishop’s on the defensive end: They limited the Gaiters to just 18.8 per cent shooting during the evening. The Martlets also benefitted from the heroics of fourth-year transfer centre Sirah Diarra, who posted a monstrous double-double with 20 points and 23 rebounds.

Scoring was slow to start: The first few minutes of action were a hectic and ultimately fruitless back-and-forth for both teams. McGill struck first on a well-executed out-of-bounds play when second-year guard Charlotte Clayton, who finished with 11 points, knocked down a baseline jumper.

After a subsequent 10-unanswered-point run, the Martlets found themselves up 12-2. However, after several turnovers and fouls, Bishop’s pulled back within four—the closest margin of the night. The period ended with the Martlets back up 10, leading 21-11.

In the second quarter, the Martlets truly took command of the game. McGill benefitted from a string of great defensive plays from Diarra and second-year forward Kamsi Ogbudibe as well as swift offensive execution. The Gaiters managed just seven points all quarter, shooting an anemic 8.7 per cent from the field.

In the third quarter, the Gaiters managed to pull within 14 points of the Martlets. Diarra responded with crucial plays at the rim, and Clayton drilled a deep, buzzer-beating three-pointer, ending the quarter at 48-31 McGill.

By the fourth quarter, every Martlet had gotten involved, either breaking the full-court press for layups, driving hard to the basket to make a play, or knocking down the open jumper. To the delight of the packed house, the Martlet lead ballooned to 24 points at one point before the final buzzer sounded with a final score of 67-44.

Head Coach Ryan Thorne felt that this was one of McGill’s most impressive wins in a long time.

“Usually, we’re very methodical with what we do offensively, and, […] today, we started to change it up to be a little more aggressive,” Thorne said.

Thorne stressed the importance his team put on matchups in their game plan, both in exploiting their interior advantage on offence and in focusing the Martlet defensive effort on Bishop’s two primary threats. Diarra, who attributed her personal success to quick and decisive playmaking, agreed that the team had done well in following through with its game plan.

“This week, we practiced [attacking the basket, moving the ball, and cutting], and today we executed [it] on the court,” Diarra said.

Ogbudibe spoke to the team’s defensive mindset, which allowed the Martlets to dominate Bishop’s throughout the night.

“It was [all about] the details on defence,” Ogbudibe said. “[We] tried to prevent them from rebounding and getting easy put-backs.”

The Martlets will look to build on the win on Nov. 22 when they host cross-town rival Concordia (1-1) for the annual Pots and Pans game.

Moment of the Game

The Martlet offence went cold toward the end of the third period until second-year starting guard Charlotte Clayton hit a pull-up, buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the quarter and put McGill back up by 17 points.

Quotable

“I think this was probably one of the most impressive wins that we’ve had in a long time, just with a bit of a different style to it.” – Head Coach Ryan Thorne on his team’s aggressive offense.

Stat Corner

Sirah Diarra led the way for the Martlets with a dominant performance, as she hauled down 23 of her team’s total 49 rebounds, to go along with her 20 points and four blocks.

Science & Technology

The McGill Department of Physics presents its third annual Hackathon

by Keli Geers on

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“I think everyone wins, and that’s not just a fluff sentence,” Nikolas Provatas, professor in the Department of Physics, said at McGill’s Physics Hackathon. “Everyone wins just by being here. If they go back home and they have something positive to say about science, to me, that’s a success.”

From Nov. 3 to 4, 120 eager hackathon participants were assigned to teams of two to five members to  collaborate and solve any physics problem of their choosing.

“The idea is [to] come and hack a solution to a problem you think is interesting [….] At this high level, we try to limit it to some kind of fusion of science, arts, and creativity,” Provatas said. “At the end of the Hackathon, a panel of judges will go around the room, and you have five minutes to sell your hack.”

Participants designed projects able to solve a variety of problems. From finding a way to determine the most fuel-efficient route between two points to modelling Fresnel diffraction and distinguishing patterns created by waves when light is shown through a narrow opening, the projects were diverse. McGill University student Louis Richez, U2 Science, and his team began the hackathon with a preconceived idea: To design a program that is able to process images of handwritten numbers, particularly whether someone has written a three or a seven.

“We are classifying images of hand-drawn digits, particularly digits three and seven,” Richez said. “For each picture of a three or a seven, the neural network will try to identify it as a three or seven [….] The perturbations we are adding are to make the distinctions in the original images more ambiguous, so making threes look more like sevens and sevens more like threes and testing to see whether the network can still distinguish the images.”

Participation was open to high school students through to PhD candidates and most participants hailed from schools in either Quebec or Ontario. The Hackathon encouraged students of any background or specialization to register, offering a chance for younger or non-STEM students to spend a 25-hours learning from their more experienced counterparts.

“Let’s be honest,” Danylo Perkov, a grade 11 student at l’École secondaire Félix-Leclerc, said of the marathon coding event. “In a normal week, with all the activities and the homework, we don’t have much time to just sit and concentrate on a program. It [provides] an opportunity to bring everyone together in one place where we can work together constantly without other [interferences].”

At the end of the competition, judges assessed the final projects not just on technical ability, but also the respective team’s presentation quality and teamwork. The judging process was guided by each team’s individual skill level and experience, providing opportunity for young and inexperienced hackers to compete alongside their more advanced peers. The fair judging method levelling of the playing field allowed for a team of CEGEP students who modelled Fresnel diffraction to finish the competition in first place.

An enthusiastic team of nine organizers spent six months preparing for the event. At the Phi Centre in Montreal’s Old Port, an additional 20 mentors, many of whom were prize-winning participants of years past, joined the team. The hackathon hosted presentations by their partners including Google throughout the event, which also featured introductory workshops on Arduino, Python, and Machine Learning.

McGill, News

Cundill History Prize lecture explores colonization and punishment in Siberia

by Elizabeth Kearney on

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On Nov.16, the 2018 Cundill History Prize was awarded to Maya Jasanoff for her account of the life of Joseph Conrad in her book “The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World.” Juror Jeffrey Simpson, former Globe and Mail national affairs columnist and winner of Canadian literary prizes, commented on the winning book in a press release on the Cundill Prize website.

“Extremely well plotted, technically brilliant, and beautifully written, this is a work of history that presents us with new ways of reading about authors and their times,” Simpson said.

Last year in 2017, the jury of the Cundill History Prize, administered by McGill University in honour of its founder and McGill alumnus Peter Cundill, made the unanimous decision to award the first prize to Daniel Beer, a professor at Royal Holloway, University of London. Beer received USD$75,000 for his groundbreaking study of Siberian penal colonies in his book “The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile Under the Tsars,” while the two runners-up each received USD$10,000.

McGill invited Beer to return to McGill to deliver a lecture on his book as part of the 2018 Cundill History Prize event series. Beer’s lecture followed the gruelling 3,600 kilometre journey across Siberia made by one million Russian convicts on foot, in an attempt to both punish the prisoners and colonize the territory. Siberia had become a dumping ground for Russian criminals and political rebels from the beginning of the 19th century until the Russian Revolution.

“[In the book], I tried to humanize the large canvas of the exile system through a focus on individuals who were caught up in it,” Beer said. “That has its own frustrations, of course, because very large numbers of people who were illiterate left no record [….] Many of them vanish from historical records.”

One such untold story is that of Nataylia Sigida, a woman who was exiled for operating an underground printing press. Following the failed 1889 hunger strike protesting the harsh treatment in Kara, a Siberian women’s prison, Sigida escalated the conflict between the female prisoners and the authorities.

“Sigida requested a meeting to see the head of the prison, Masyukov,” Beer said. “[After being] admitted into his office, Sigida walked up to Masyukov and slapped him in the face.”

Beer explained that slapping Masyukov was considered a symbolic assault on the Tsarist system as a whole, an offence punishable by 100 strokes of a birch rod. Since educated Russians and women were usually exempt from corporal punishment, this event was considered an atrocity by Sigida, other prisoners, and the prison doctor who refused to condone the sentence.

“In the moments before flogging, Sigida declared [that] the punishment was, for her, the equivalent to a death sentence,” Beer said. “These were not empty words. After she was returned to her cell later that day, Sigida and three fellow women poisoned themselves.”

Beer critically examined the inadequacy of the Tsarist Empire’s exile system in the time period before the revolutions, explaining the difficulties the authorities faced in their attempts to control the exiled population.

“The authorities struggled to contain the exiles, let alone organize them into labour,” Beer said. “They couldn’t stop them simply walking out [….] In the last quarter of the 19th century […], up to a third of Siberia’s 300,000 exiles [were] on the run!”

Lyudmila Parts, associate professor in Russian Studies at McGill, concluded the lecture with a reflection on the significance and relevance of Beer’s lecture.

“The discussion this evening reminded us of how and to what extent the mechanisms of power continue to function across time and space,” Parts said.

McGill, News

Cracking the code

by Keating Reid on

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For the first time since 2013, McGill’s Code of Student Conduct is set to be revised. Proposed changes include expanding the formal definition of the ‘university context‘ which sets the code’s jurisdiction, removing intent as a requirement for charges of harassment and unnecessary endangerment, and expanding powers for disciplinary officers to issue Orders of Exclusion from campus.

The Office of the Dean of Students is responsible for the change, in coordination with a working group of over 40 representatives from student groups, faculty, and staff, which has been advising the office since Spring 2018. The group includes representatives from the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS), McGill’s Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education (O-SVRSE), the Legal Information Clinic at McGill (LICM), and last year’s Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice President (VP) University Affairs, Isabelle Oke.

On Nov. 8 and 9, Dean of Students Christopher Buddle held two open consultations at his office, giving students a chance to voice their opinions on the changes. No students attended the first consultation.

“We’ve received almost no comments from our online form, which suggests people either aren’t interested, they’re pleased with what we’re doing, or […] they [don’t] care about it,” Buddle said. “We’ve been pretty vocal with consultations [….] It’s a hard time of year, though. I know that.”

According to Buddle, creating a written definition of the university context was one of the primary motivations for the revision process. In April 2017, The McGill Tribune published an article revealing that, in 2015, then-dean of students Andre Costopoulos did not bring disciplinary charges against Conrad Gaysford after he assaulted Kathryn Leci at a party in Montreal’s Milton-Parc neighbourhood. Although both were U3 students at McGill, Costopoulos argued that the events occurred outside the university context.

According to SSMU VP University Affairs Jacob Shapiro, the university context was a significant point of discussion during stakeholder consultations.

“It’s something most students resonate with, the question of whether we’re focusing in on someone’s intent or the outcome and what someone experienced,” Shapiro said. “Hearing the other voices once [the proposed change] was raised, I don’t think there’s anything [to the issue that’s] more complex than that. It’s a question of what’s being prioritized by that word being there or not.”

Shapiro also highlighted plans for a guaranteed minimum amount of time for the accused to review evidence before a disciplinary interview occurs. The exact amount of time is still under debate.

“Time limits are important,” Shapiro said. “Anything that helps students’ expectations when they’re going into [the disciplinary] process [such as] understanding how long it’s is going to take [or] the minimum amount of time [for students to review evidence before disciplinary interviews is useful]. Anything that can give students clarity in what can be a bureaucratic and difficult procedure is important.”

The word ‘knowingly’ is struck from sections 10(b) and 10(d) in the proposed update, which would mean that the university no longer has to prove intent when finding a student responsible for endangering or harassing another student. The current section 10(b) prohibits students from creating conditions that jeopardize another person’s safety or well-being. Luke Walker, Residence Life Manager for New Residence Hall, pursues complaints under these sections the most often.

“That’s the article of the code that applies to smoking in residence,” Walker said. “For a repeat offender, that would be where we would go.”

According to Walker, disciplinary officers will still take intent into account, even though it doesn’t need to be proved.

“The definition of ‘knowingly’ is far more complex than the definition that’s provided [in the Code],” Walker said. “Even though it’s crossed out now, especially since residence is supposed to be a developmental thing for a lot of students […] that’s something that I think that [disciplinary officers], at least in residence, have to take into consideration, that these are members of the community.”

The McGill Senate plans to review the proposed changes on Nov. 21, with a final vote scheduled for Dec. 5. Feedback can be directed to the Office of the Dean of Students.

Student Life

Winter prep 101

by Lucy Keller on

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For students who have lived in a cold climate and those new to the negative temperatures alike, Montreal winters are brutal. The McGill Tribune details a few ways to make these dark months feel a bit brighter.

Invest in winter gear

Most students know to splurge on a winter parka and snow boots; however, it is also helpful to have other cold-weather accessories on hand. Wearing a hat and scarf helps stop body heat loss. Alternatively, students can invest in a blanket scarf, which multitasks as both a quilt and a neck warmer. Blanket scarves are particularly useful inside chilly buildings on campus, and, when bundled up under the scarf, students can even trick themselves into thinking that they are still in bed.  

Go to the gym

While it is easy to hide out in bed when there is snow on the ground, going to the gym can drastically improve students’ moods. Exercise can also help decrease symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). At the McGill Fitness Centre, students can participate in a wide variety of pay-as-you-go exercise classes and intramural sports.  

Additionally, research shows that regular exercise can strengthen the immune system. This health boost is particularly important in the dead of winter when the flu and colds are circulating among students.

Experiment with winter hobbies

Going outside in these dark winter months can seem like an impossible task, but Montreal’s lively social scene can make the season feel shorter. One of the best ways to take part in Montreal’s offering of fun outdoor activities is to visit the skating rinks across the city. From the skating rink located on Beaver Lake on top of the scenic Mount Royal to McGill’s very own rink, there are plenty of different parts of the city to explore through ice skating. Alternatively, students can rent snowshoes from the McGill Recreation Centre and hike along the base of the mountain.

Memorize McGill’s underground tunnel system  

While the tunnels on campus are not as extensive as the Underground City, many McGill buildings are connected so that students can stay inside in between classes and avoid low temperatures during the school day. The system is marked by snail icons, and its entrance is easy to spot beside the large staircases outside of the front of the Burnside Building.

Students can also access directions for the tunnels on Google Maps by searching for ‘McGill tunnels.’ Though icy pavements can make the campus commute laborious, the tunnel system can make students’ winter days a little more bearable.

Socialize with friends at home

Coat checks and the hassle of wearing boots can make winter outings arduous and expensive. For an easy and fun Saturday night at home, host a board game night with friends.

While many students might deem board games childish, they can provide endless hours of entertainment—especially when paired with a bottle of wine. At Le Valet d’Coeur, a charming game store in the Plateau, shoppers can peruse an eclectic selection of alternative, independent board games. This popular spot has a plethora of board games, puzzles, and interactive games that can make any night in more entertaining.

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV, Pop Rhetoric

Where does ‘Roma’ belong?

by Noah Simon on

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With new streaming platforms appearing left and right, the battle for viewers’ attention has become increasingly diffuse. And with more and more content to sift through on a daily basis right from the comfort of one’s couch, the movie theatre’s centrality in the cultural zeitgeist has taken a major hit. It has become a major source of debate: As movies assimilate further into the household, studios will cater their projects to that kind of viewing experience.

Filmmakers around the world are wondering what this shift might mean for their work and whether there will be sufficient opportunities to make movies for the big-screen as well as streaming sites like Netflix. Additionally, film purists worry that streaming giants will completely overtake the entertainment industry, resenting the move away from tradition.

Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma falls squarely into this debate. The film tells the story of Cleo, a housekeeper working in Mexico City, and her relationship to her wealthy employers. Set in the 1970s, the film’s gorgeous black-and-white cinematography portrays a time vividly inspired by Cuarón’s own memories. Filmed in a large 65mm format, Cuarón creates an immersive experience for the viewer. Only a master like Cuarón could draw as much beauty from shots of water going down a sewer as they could from wide Mexican landscapes.  Critics and fans alike have said this affect requires the big screen: It necessitates the clearest projection systems and best speakers. But here’s the catch: In April, Netflix purchased Roma’s distribution and the film is set to be released on Dec. 14. For many, this wonder of sight and sound will be relegated to their laptops. As the old adage goes, cinema is dead. 

Netflix offers eight billion dollars worth of content for its 137 million subscribers worldwide, which makes it a massive stage for curated productions.  Meanwhile, the average movie ticket price in North America is $9.27 and well over $10 in major cities. Netflix’s standard plan is $7.99/month.  Once you add transportation, snacks, or the added cost of a 3-D or IMAX screening, going to the movies has become an unsustainable expense. And with prices only increasing, more consumers are turning toward streaming platforms.  Cinephiles see the service as a blight, which is perhaps more indicative of the elitism of the industry and film nerds than anything else. Given the sheer number of people who have access to their work, in addition to Netflix’s relative creative control for filmmakers, it makes sense that independent directors like Joe Swanberg, and international auteurs like Cuarón and Bong Joon-ho, are flocking to the platform for distribution.

Industry giants have long contested this transition:  Steven Spielberg doesn’t believe that Netflix movies are real movies, and Quentin Tarantino hates streaming. But, streaming is the new reality of the entertainment industry, and Cuarón, who, admittedly, was granted a major theatrical release, still concedes to it.

“We’re going to live with this format,” Cuarón said in a press conference. “It’s important the two things exist not clash. It’s just a question of finding something that works.” 

Fortunately, it appears that Netflix and theatre companies are approaching some sort of synthesis: Roma will be released in select theatres on Nov. 21 before expanding nationwide up until its Netflix premiere. The Coen brothers are employing a similar model for their new film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, as is David Mackenzie with Outlaw King, which hopefully predicts a new symbiotic relationship between movie theatres and Netflix.

With the successes of films such as Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories and Bong-Joon Ho’s Okja, Netflix has shown it can nurture prestige films of any scale. Additionally, other recent films like Beasts of No Nation and Mudbound have solidified Netflix’s place as a perennial Oscar contender. With Netflix churning out quality films, it’s ideal that they are trying to get them onto the big screen in addition to their platform. This will allow viewers to watch movies how they want; they can seek out the theatre experience or stay at home. Having the choice is optimal. To deny that is to perpetuate the tradition of dividing art between the binary of ‘real’ and ‘populist,’ as if Netflix’s accessibility inherently worsens the film.

I was fortunate to catch Roma at the Toronto International Film Festival and can vouch for the impact of seeing it in theatres. However, not everybody shares the same priorities when it comes to watching movies. Roma is a cinematic masterpiece, but it’s also a personal, poignant tale of how to find meaning and fulfillment despite life’s adversities. There is no need for a big screen to convey that message.

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

RIDM offers stunning portraits of humanity

by Leo Stillinger on

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The 2018 Rencontres Internationale du Documentaire de Montreal (RIDM) took viewers on an unconventional cinematic journey. In ReMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening the director takes a job as a teacher and basketball coach in small-town Alabama, while Distant Constellation sees Shevaun Mizrahi visiting residents in a Turkish retirement home. Such themes may not be typical subject matter for the big screen, but anything goes at RIDM, the documentary film festival that brings stories from every nook and cranny of the globe to theatres around Montreal.

Hale County is Ross’ portrait of a small, predominantly-black town in rural Alabama. Filmed over the course of five years, Ross accumulated more than a thousand hours of footage. The result is an intimate and impressionistic picture of life in Hale County. Viewers watch grandmothers play and banter with grandchildren and men stay up late playing video games. The sounds of teenage boys yearning to make it as basketball players, hope and doubt mingling in their voices, echo throughout. Hale County follows a child named Kyrie as he grows up, from the crib to a small plastic basketball hoop of his own. There is a certain tenderness immanent in every situation and every shot.

In a post-screening Q&A, Ross explained that his emphasis on tenderness was intentional: He wanted to defy traditional narratives of blackness in America. The documentary does not gloss over systemic injustice—the red and blue lights of police cruisers lurk in the backgrounds of multiple scenes—but nor does it dwelt upon it. Rather than the typical essentializing narratives of oppression, which Ross only half-jokingly called ‘trauma-porn,’ Hale County shows the real lives of real people, illuminated equally by beauty and pain.

Distant Constellation takes the viewer to an entirely different world: A retirement home for minorities in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey. Mizrahi’s patient camera captures the testimony of various residents, and the results are amusing, insightful, and sometimes heartbreaking. Two friends ride an elevator up and down, just to chat; a stuttering ex-photographer manages to take a photo out the window. One woman recalls her childhood experience of the Armenian genocide. Best of all, a man proposes to Mizrahi mid-interview.

“You’re very nice to me,” he says. “And, besides, I’ll die before you anyways.”

Outside the windows of the nursing home, an immense construction project is taking place, laying the groundwork for a massive skyscraper. In the Q&A portion, Mizrahi described her desire to construct a visual dialectic between two worlds: The realm of memories within the home and the rapidly modernizing face of urban Turkey just across the street.

The dialectic between nation and citizen is one with pointed political implications: Turkey’s surge toward modernization has left the country in an economic crisis, while Erdogan’s increasingly autocratic government has censored dissent and persecuted minorities. To even acknowledge the Armenian genocide is prohibited, and Mizrahi duly gives a measure of anonymity to her subjects, never revealing their names or the home’s location.  This context elevates Distant Constellations from simply an interesting art film to a radical tribute to memory.

Mizrahi, like Ross, touches on such political realities obliquely. Both Hale County and Distant Constellation seek to recover what lies at the bottom of political, historical and geographical circumstances: That is, the people themselves.

By slowing down, taking a deep breath, and really listening, each film bestows its narrative power to those in front of the lens. In an age dominated by visual culture, Misrahi and Ross have each sought to defy the standard subject-object relations of documentary filmmaking.

“I wanted to avoid the traditional use of photography as an objectifying lens,” said Ross.

Ross’ choice to privilege his subjects’ perspectives is as political as it is aesthetic. Depicting very different circumstances, the films are united in their reminder that behind every headline, every stereotype, and every work of art, lies a human face.

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