April 8 2010: Remy Huberdeau

Remy Huberdeau. The Documentarian. The author of cinema.
Remy is an AWESOME sweetheart friend who i am so happy did this interview

You should really just listen to the radio interview, instead of reading this blog, but for an enticing peek at what we discussed,
Here is a list of things me and Remy talked about during this interview:

1. The different cultures around documentary production in English Canada and in French Canada

2. What consists of a documentary on television

3. Believing in two sides of a story as if objectivity is possible.

4. When the goal and starting point is subjectivity.

5. what happens when your truth and history is not recorded.

6. Remy's film of the letter to his father, of being a transperson. french canadian white settlers in an aboriginal continent.

7. Father figure , and father figure as metaphor for the patriarchy nationstate. Dad as also patriarchal father figure of the country

8. Writing yourself into history. family history. colonial history. your role in a family

9. Showing images and making links interacting on different levels

10. History finding life in people. history living in people. Emotional layers of history stored in our body

11. On television: if you talk about a banana, you show a banana

12. Collaboration

13. Sharing work that you have done with others. Integrating feedback into the work

14. Open yourself up to that vulnerability

15. Making videos on youtube.

April 1 2010: Jeff Woods! Trepid House!

Jeff Woods lives at Trepid house in Waterloo and he's recently been taking a couple of courses at the University of Guelph. I know Jeff from playing house shows at his house... and eating pancakes and burgers and blueberries in his kitchen. Jeff helps me take breaks at work. He walks down the long hallway in the University Centre, and we get coffee or fancy juice and wander around. If you've worked an NGO office job, you know what I mean when i say I can go for days and days without taking breaks. Its not healthy or good, its just the way it is. And the radio station doesn't have any windows... and thats not good either. If Jeff doesn't show up, sometimes its way harder to take breaks.

Sometimes we go to the little greenhouse next to the University Centre.


So. all this to say during our mini 15 minute break hang-outs, i've got to hang out with Jeff a bunch, and got to hear in bits pieces ALL THE STUFF THAT HAPPENS AT TREPID HOUSE. ITS A LOT. So, of course this was the perfect thing to do an episode of These Things That People Make. Trepid house hosts Trepid Arts Collective, the house itself is a House show DIY venue, CARL ,DIY film festival, attic Gallery Space and Trepid Records

In this interview, Jeff gives us an audio tour of the house, he talk about what kind of collective they are, the fish tank window, kitchen, show space, costumes, vests,Waterloo, the pirate room and all their future plans. They've been hosting house shows since 2005.

i'm sure i'll have Jeff on the show again to talk more specifically to talk about upcoming festivals, and projects coming out of Trepid house, and also Jeff's ceramic people/puppets... but for now, we've had this lovely over-arching rambling interview where i seemed to ask many questions at once, and Jeff didn't seem to mind.

March 25, 2010: Colour your gender yourself: An interview with Jacinta Bunnell

Gender gender gender gender gender .... what do you look like? What colour are you? Jacinta Bunnell makes good colouring books for those of us who love crayons and colouring but don't like Disney, or Warner Brothers, or Hot Wheels, or Pixar... or princess colouring books, or maybe you like those things but you'd prefer something better?

Young brains are like sponges! Children are so influenced by the images around them! We need to be careful about what images kids see the most! We need to make sure they are supportive and really, REALLY reflect the world (and not fucked up fairy tales!)

Jacinta Bunnell , Irit Reinheimer and Julie Novak collaborated on Girls Not Chicks, a feminist colouring book. Its cute, and stylish and punchy. Very girl butch enthusiastic... what a relief. Work like this is easily loved by those of us who are still looking for images of ourselves, or support our gender expression. We're looking and looking... and now here is not only a book of great images, but also you get to colour them! What fun!

In this interview, Jacinta talked about the history of Girls not Chicks Colouring Book, and Girls Will Be Boys will be Girls. She talked about the evolution of Girls Will Be Boys Will be Girls from zine, to published books.

Blowing up images really large, and hanging them, and everyone colouring together is one of Jacinta's favorite thing to do with the colouring book.

If we have kids in our lives, we (as adults) should have images and kids books and colouring books and images and art that we love, that validates our identities and our friend identities.. and this book does that.

It was really exciting to talk to Jacinta. I hope when you hear this interview, you get a copy of her colouring book and/or you and your friends make your own.

visit www.girlsnotchicks.com

March 18, 2010: Part 5: Zines about Medicalization, Sickness and Health: About Dave's Disappearance: An interview with Dave Roche.

My friend Sonia Edworthy gave me a copy of About My Disappearance #1 two years ago when I had just moved into a lovely apartment on Creighton St. in Halifax with my friend Mynah. I displayed it on a little shelf on the brick wall in the kitchen. I tried to read it, but I had just started dating someone who had colitis, and it was just too close. I wasn't ready for it. About My Disappearance is about Dave's body, and diagnosis, having Crohnes. He wrote it for his friends, to explain why he disappeared, and didn't return calls. You couldn't find him at shows, because he had Crohns and his body was doing scarey things like loosing tons of weight, not digesting food, and lots and lots of diarreha and pain.

I picked up the zine again this February (2010), and devoured it quickly. I read it a second time, and emailed Dave to see if I could do an interview with him. And he said yes. And now I get to share this interview with you.

About My Disappearance now has three issues. They're all fantastic. Dave started this interview off by reading a short excerpt from About My Disappearance #3. Dave read about Sickness and Shit and Confusion. I asked Dave to talk about the relationship of depression and sickness. Dave also talked about what it means to finally have an accurate diagnosis. Dave talked about writing about things we don't think people (especially our friends) won't want to hear, because actually how important it is to write about this stuff. Dave talked about what it meant for him to revisit stories after his body was feeling better, and the importance to write about with the most honesty, without asking for pity, and just offering explaination, and advice for how to offer support that is really helpful.

Dave says " Writing helped me realize that sickness is not something you must do battle with. Its something that is a part of me. Its not that if I don't beat it, it doesn't mean I'm not strong enough,"

We ended with some very appropriate critiques of the medical industry... Listen to this interview, and email Dave Roche for a copy of his zine: poodrow@hotmail.com.

March 11, 2010: Part 4: zines about sickness, health and medicalization: Nailbiter Anxiety Zine. Repeated interview

Last March, I interviewed Chelle and Kerri about their fabulous collaborative zine project: Nailbiter.I replayed this interview because the project is so great and it fit so well with the theme of this show series. I blogged about the interview way back last march (when I first aired the inteview). This interview is great because the project is great. I encourage you to check out the old blog post, and get the zine!

March 4, 2010: Part 3: Zines/Comics about Sickness, Health and Medicalization: Funny (Awesome) Misshapen Comics: An interview with Jeffrey Brown

My friend Erin Crickett dropped off My Funny Misshapen Body by Jeffrey Brown with groceries and movies a couple days after I began my official hunt for zines and comics and resources about health, sickness and medicalization. I read the whole thing over two bus trips, to and from the daycare I am doing a placement at.

Jeffrey's comic style is refreshing because it is engaging real life. It is out of order, but thats how we remember things. I also like to include this book in this series in part because it is not just about medicalization and sickness. It is also about other things. And I like that. I mean, I emailed Jeff because I wanted to interview him about Semi Colon, which is the chapter in this book that focuses on Jeff's story of his early years of Crohns, but I like that there are subtler references to his body, his scares and his weight gain and weight loss (resulting from drugs he was on because of the Crohns) in other parts of the book, because it is a story of his life. and i like how all those things are told in the book.

In our interview, Jeff talked about finding a drawing style that fits with the content of having Crohns. Finding a drawing style with more depth than Clumsy, and other previous works. We talked about the seemingly out-of-order-ness of the stories in the book and how we draw memories so that they are accurate to how those memories feel in our brains. Because Jeff's work is so personal, I asked him how he makes sure he is not revealing other people's secrets.

Jeffrey Brown writes comics about love that are more real than TV and film - we talked about that, and we talked about having a kid, and re-arranging his routine and approach to fit in the routine of having a child, and the routine of getting creative work done.

We finished by talking about Jeffrey's new and exciting upcoming projects: Undeleted Scenes and The Incredible Changebots.

check out www.jeffreybrowncomics.com.

Feb. 25, 2010: Part 2: zines about sickness, health and medicalization: When Language Runs Dry: An interview with Claire Barrera

When Language Runs Dry: A Zine for People with Chronic Pain and their Allies, edited by Meredith Butner and Claire Barrera.

Its taken me so long to post this blog interview, because it is hard to sum up this interview in words (how ironic! this zine is all about finding words to accurately express chronic pain and illness !)

I interviewed Claire over the phone. This zine discusses limits of language in describing chronic pain and creates more language around it, by hosting many people's experiences. Explaining pain to doctors. Explaining pain to your friends/supports you have to put pain into words, requiring many voices. Seeking alternative and western medical care. Understanding your abilities and communities differently. Claire read her own piece found in the second issue " Fake it till you make it" This was the best part of of the interview. Fake it Till you Make it tells the story of navigating depression when she was 19 and reflects on how she used many of the same coping strategies when she developed chronic pain at 25. Development of personal spiritual practise. The fact that everything doesn't suddenly get better.

Calm and solid. Giving meaning and a project to their own experience of the pain they were experiencing. breaking isolation. creating a community around chronic pain and illness. Out of Portland, Oregon. personal stories (developing a catalogue of strategies and stories).

Community activism that grows out of it.

The things we connect our chronic pain.

The interview is way way way better than this blog post. Email me for a copy of this post: sarah.mangle@gmail.com

To contact Meredith and Claire, email nevertwice@yahoo.com
Visit www.microcosmpublishing.com to get both copies of the zine.

The third issue is underway! contact Claire and Merdith to discuss submission!