TheSocialEdge.com

Risa Shuman is the Senior Producer of Saturday Night at the Movies on TVOntario. She graduated in 1973 from York University with an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in film. Shuman has worked at Saturday Night at the Movies for almost 28 years.
     Last month we spoke about the Oscars and revisiting old movies. The conversation was so informative, we decided to make it a regular feature in our Arts & Culture section. Here is our latest chat.

Gerry McCarthy: The film director and screenwriter Billy Wilder died recently. I consider him one of the great film directors

RS: I agree

GM: Can you select two of his films that you liked personally?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Zygmunt Bauman is one of the foremost social thinkers of our time. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds and the University of Warsaw. Some of his numerous books include: Liquid Modernity, The Individualized Society, Modernity and the Holocaust, In Search of Politics, and Liquid Love. His new book Liquid Fear was recently published by Polity. I reached him in Leeds, England.

Gerry McCarthy: In Liquid Fear you write that: "All in all, human relations are no longer sites of certainty, tranquility and spiritual comfort. They become instead a prolific source of anxiety. Instead of offering the coveted rest, they promise perpetual anxiety and a life on the alert. Distress signals will never stop flashing, tocsins will never stop sounding." In liquid modern life, does this mean we’re unwilling to form deep friendships and companionship? If so: What are the consequences?

Zygmunt Bauman: Just on the contrary. It is precisely because we are willing "to form deep friendships and companionship," and willing more strongly and indeed desperately than ever, that our relations are full of sound and fury –saturated with anxiety and states of perpetual alert. We are willing, since, in Ray Pahl’s felicitous phrase, friendship bonds are our "sole convoy through the turbulent waters" of the liquid-modern world. "Turbulent waters" are the unstable and frail work places filled with mutual suspicion and all too often torn by cut-throat competition, neighbourhoods under constant threat by developers, uncertain and poorly marked roads to decent life, signposts to success that come up and vanish with no warning, dangers to the safety of one’s body and possessions too vague to pinpoint let alone to fight back, constant pressures to show one’s mettle and "prove oneself" with little help in mustering the resources such a feat would require, succession of recommended life fashions that are too fast to catch up with and to stave off the threat of falling behind, or be pushed out of the track altogether –you name it. Helping hand of a reliable, loyal, faithful, "till-death-do-us-part" friend, a hand that will be always there when needed, is what an island is for the shipwrecks or oasis for the lost in a desert. We need that hand, and wish to have it –the more of them, the better.

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by Robyn Lee

Trevor Van Der Gulik

Thirty-year-old Trevor Van Der Gulik has already spent more than half his life as an environmental activist. He recently spent over two months working as the Chief Engineer aboard The Sea Shepherd’s flagship Farley Mowat. Home again in Canada, he talked to me about the 2006 Antarctica Campaign to confront Japanese poachers of protected and endangered whales inside a designated whale sanctuary.

[Editor's Note] In this interview Captain Paul Watson is referred to as Paul. Captain Watson has spent almost three decades and 160 voyages enforcing international laws on the high seas on behalf of marine wildlife and eco-systems.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Garry Wills is the author of many acclaimed books, including: What Jesus Meant, Papal Sin, and Why I Am Catholic. All of these works were New York Times bestsellers.

     In 1992, Wills won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Lincoln at Gettysburg. He’s also been the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Medal for the Humanities.

     In addition to studying for the priesthood at one time, Wills also taught Greek at John Hopkins University for many years. Currently he’s Professor of History Emeritus at Northwestern University. His book What Paul Meant was recently published by Viking. I reached him in Evanston, Illinois.

Gerry McCarthy: In your chapter "Paul and the Troubled Gatherings" we learn that where once Paul had excoriated Peter for insisting on the food code, now he tells Romans to accept it out of regard for tender consciences. Later you add that: "Paul would have been far better off if he had taken this stand at Antioch. But he should be credited with the fact that he reached it in time. One of the ways he teaches us is by learning himself. We find out what Paul meant by seeing how he eventually came close to what Jesus meant." This is something we miss when reflecting on Paul isn’t it?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Martha Nussbaum is a philosopher and Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. She has taught at numerous universities including: Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Brown, and Stanford.

     Nussbaum has been the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees. This past spring she received a Doctor of Laws from the University of British Columbia. She has also written over 12 books, including: Upheavals of Thought, Hiding From Humanity, Women and Human Development, Cultivating Humanity, and Sex and Social Justice.

     Nussbaum’s new book Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, and Species Membership was recently published by Harvard University Press. I reached her in Chicago to speak about the book.

Gerry McCarthy: In Frontiers of Justice you write that: "Ideas shape the way policymakers do their work. That is why, from its very inception, the capabilities approach has contested the idea of development as economic growth, insisting on the idea of ‘human development.’ Re-conceiving development as ‘human development’ does influence the goals that policymakers pursue and the strategic ones they choose." Are you hopeful more North American politicians will re-conceive development as human development? Could this lead to a reduction in poverty, an improvement in education, and a better health care system in the U.S.?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Alexander Shaia is an educator, spiritual director, author, psychotherapist, and professional speaker. He’s also the founder and director of the Blue Door Retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

     Shaia has a doctorate in clinical psychology. He travels internationally and conducts retreats and seminars on Quadratos, Christian Spirituality, rites of passage, and Jungian Sandplay therapy.

     His new book, Beyond the Biography of Jesus: The Journey of Quadratos (Book 1) was published by Cold Tree Press. Book 2 will be published this summer. I reached him in Orlando, Florida.

Gerry McCarthy: You’ve talked about fundamentalisms on the left and right in Christian denominations today. Can you speak to me more about this?

Alexander Shaia: Today both sides of the continuum are flattening the message of Jesus Christ down to one aspect. One side is passionately focused on the literal words in the scriptures. The other side is concerned about history, and the re-creation of the first century and Jesus’ original words. Quadratos uses both perspectives, but toward a new end. The Gospels were not intended to be about a dead philosopher, but a risen Jesus the Christ.

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Risa Shuman is the Senior Producer of Saturday Night at the Movies on TVOntario. She graduated in 1973 from York University with an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in film. Shuman has worked at Saturday Night at the Movies for almost 28 years.

We continued our monthly conversation when we met in Toronto recently.

Gerry McCarthy: One movie you’ve screened before is Goodbye Columbus with Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw. It was made in 1969, but it still holds up. Is it a film you like?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. He has lectured to academic and popular audiences throughout the world. A contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine, Kingwell’s work has appeared in numerous publications including: The New York Times Magazine, Adbusters, Utne Reader, and The Globe and Mail.

     Kingwell is the author of eight books including: Dreams of Millennium, Better Living, Marginalia, The World We Want, Practical Judgments, and Catch and Release.

     His new book Nearest Thing To Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams was recently published by Yale University Press. I reached him in Toronto to speak about the book.

Gerry McCarthy: In Nearest Thing To Heaven you quote Fay Wray. She once said that: "When I’m in New York, I look at the Empire State Building and feel as though it belongs to me, or is it vice versa?" You then add: "Of course, many people feel as though the Empire State belongs to them. It is, we might say, part of its iconic genius that the building, at once so forbidding and so familiar, becomes its own kind of monumental household possession, a shared treasure not just for all New Yorkers, but of anyone who has ever visited New York –in person or, sometimes more powerfully, only via the overwhelming imaginative medium of film." Can you speak to me about this? What was Fay Wray trying to say?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Diana Hayes is an Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Georgetown University, Washington. She was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in sacred theology from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium.
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by Gerry McCarthy

Zygmunt Bauman is considered one of the most influential and renowned sociologists in the world today. His numerous books include: Modernity and the Holocaust, In Search of Politics, Globalization: The Human Consequences, The Individualized Society, Modernity and Ambivalence, Liquid Modernity, and Society Under Siege....

by Maura Hanrahan

The Al-Noor Mosque sits on the eastern edge of St.John’s

Dr. Mahmoud Haddara is the imam of Masjid Al-Noor: The Mosque of Light in St. John’s, Newfoundland, a port city of about 250,000 people. An engineering professor, Haddara explains that as imam, he is the community’s religious co-ordinator and not a priest. Although he has a high profile in this province and is active nationally, Haddara is unassuming and modest. With his quietly friendly manner, he puts visitors to the mosque at ease.

     The Al-Noor Mosque was built in 1990, eight years after the congregation was founded (although it is believed the city’s first Muslim arrived in the early 1960s). More than100 Muslim families live in St. John’s, and there are 160 students at Memorial University of Newfoundland who are active in the Muslim community.

Maura Hanrahan: You grew up in Egypt, Dr. Haddara. Maybe you can tell me about that –the setting, the culture. I’m especially interested in the role Islam played in your early life, in your childhood.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Dominic Sandbrook studied history and modern languages at Oxford University. He holds a master’s degree from the University of St. Andrews and doctorate from Cambridge University. He teaches history at the University of Sheffield....

by Gerry McCarthy

Jesuit priest Robert Drinan is currently professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. He has been a visiting professor at four American universities and dean of the Boston College Law School....

by Gerry McCarthy

Bill Blaikie has been a Member of Parliament for Winnipeg-Transcona since 1979. This past June, he announced his intention to seek the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Canada.
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