Inspired by one of Canada's most treasured artists and her love for Birdlife. This blend of Latin American Organic, Shade Grown coffees sets your taste buds aflutter with a mild and gracious backdrop allowing a supple caramel finish.

How lovely it is to enjoy your delicious coffee while knowing that you are helping to protect birdlife and the environment. Balzac's is delighted to partner with Canadian author and bird lover Margaret Atwood in creating The Atwood Blend, a Smithsonian Institute certified BIRD FRIENDLY® blend. $1.25 of the proceeds from each bag sold will be donated to The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and The Pelee Island Bird Observatory.

Purchase via Balzac’s Website - $15.50

Tags: Margaret Atwood, Balsacs, Coffee

Interview with Margaret Atwood, with special guests The Sadies on CBC Radio Q - July 28, 2010.

Listen Now! (Mp3 Format)

Tags: Margaret Atwood, The Sadies, CBC

Ron Mann said a couple years ago: "Eric Dolphy once said that when you hear music through the air it's gone, and you can never capture it again. So, if all this culture in the air was ephemeral, I started to think if I didn't document it then it would be like it never happened, and it would just disappear."

This quote applies not only to his fantastic jazz movie Imagine the Sound (1981) which he was referring to, but to basically every other cultural movement or figure he's covered.

Read More!

Tags: BlogTO

We’ve just found some old SXSW video bumpers that played the festival in 2001 in our archive.

Watch them here and enjoy!

Tags: SXSW, Video

FLAK and DREAM TOWER will premiere at the Buenos Aires International Film Festival between April 7 and 18th. We will announce screening dates as soon as we have them.

Tags: BAFICI

Ron Mann & Catherine Tait team up to executive produce LUNARCY by Simon Ennis.

What do you see when you look at the Moon? A man? A toad? A business opportunity? An outpost for future space exploration or the portent of all that’s sinister? The cure for our energy needs or the next vacation hot spot?
 
LUNARCY! is an out-of-this-world look at the past, present and future of humanity’s always fascinating, and often bizarre and hilarious, obsession with the Moon. From scholars to space tourists, billionaire entrepreneurs to fashion designers, science fiction folk singers to Saturday scientists, this film will spotlight an unforgettable group of geniuses, mystics, con men, academics, obsessives and oddballs.
 
With a sense of both wonder and humour, this funny, illuminating and irreverent documentary will explore all these aspects of this otherworldly subject. It will engage humanity’s enduring lunar obsession, delving equally into the ridiculous and the sublime.

Tags: Simon Ennis, Ron Mann, Catherine Tait

The only show on TV that doesn't lick balls.

Jeremy is a leet gamer, but he still lives in his mom’s basement. His n00b brother Kyle, an aspiring filmmaker, documents Jeremy’s life as he is forced to get off his ass and get a "real" job.

The Pure Pwnage web series has been spanking TV since 2004. Now that the show is an Internet phenomenon with millions of fans worldwide, it's time to pwn TV as well. Pure Pwnage on Showcase is the next step for this universe of uber gamers.

Premieres Friday March 12th at 10pm ET/PT

Visit the TV series at Showcase.ca

They do EXACTLY what you think they do! A Canuxploitation classic, Ivan Reitman's Cannibal Girls is being resurrected for another bloody go-round by filmswelike!

Second City TV regulars Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin star in this Canadian horror spoof as a couple on a romantic holiday who settle into a quaint little bed-and-breakfast run by a trio of flesh-eating ladies who fancy them for tomorrow's menu. Clifford Sturges (Levy) and Gloria Wellaby (Martin) are a happy new couple on vacation. When they take an unexpected stop in the quiet and secluded town of Farnhamville, they encounter a horrific world of blood and bed-and-breakfasts. This Canadian grindhouse classic has been re-mastered and restored from the original 35mm to HD!

Director Bio
Director/Producer Ivan Reitman has been the creative force behind films beloved by audiences around the world from comedies like Animal House, Stripes and Ghostbusters, to more sophisticated delights like Dave and Twins. Recently Reitman has completed 4 films: Hotel For Dogs, Uninvited, I Love You Man, and Post Grad, as well as Up in the Air starring George Clooney and directed by his son Jason.

Showtimes: Alamo Ritz 2, Saturday, March 13 at 11:30 PM

Visit the film over at the SXSW website!

Tags: SXSW

FLAK is now available on DVD! Purchase for only $9.99 from DVDSWELIKE.COM!

Made by Ron Mann when he was 16, FLAK is a look into an unpolished Toronto of the past, and an insightful window onto current social predicaments.

“It cannot be doubted that we live in a complacent time..." So says the introduction to this recently re-released work of angry, political drama, which Ron Mann made when he was just 16 years old. In 1970s Toronto, a group of young men living in the shadows of a gypsum plant discuss the political options availble to average citizens in a post-1960s world. To combat the befouling of their air, some advocate for "proper channels," others for bombs. Through raw, 16mm black-and-white footage of heated arguments, distractions and daily routines, and with a mournful soundtrack, Mann gives us a portrait of political frustration from 30 years ago which looks eerily like a cross-section of the same attitudes and issues that fuel today's headlines. BOUNUS SHORT: "Ron Mann's Lost Film"

Tags: DVD

FOR 2 WEEKS ONLY!

Purchase anything at DVDSWELIKE.COM and get 25% off the original price!

Starts FRIDAY NOV 27th, 2009
Ends FRIDAY DEC 11th, 2009

Tags: DVD

Zoom in to read!

Tags: Carlton Cinema

Cinefest Sudbury honours filmmaker RON MANN with a retrospective of his works.

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Flak - Tuesday, September 22, 4:00pm
Ron Mann, Canada, 1976, 30 Minutes
Made by Ron Mann when he was only 16 years old, FLAK captures the apolitical spirit of the 1970s – a drastic change from the intense activism of the 1960s – by following a group of roommates as they wander the city, work, play street hockey, and sit around debating political change.



Echoes Without Saying - Tuesday, September 22, 4:00pm
Ron Mann, Canada, 1983, 28 Minutes
ECHOES WITHOUT SAYING celebrates the development of Coach House Press, an innovative Toronto-based publishing and printing house that since 1965 has produced distinctive and experimental books of poetry, fiction and visual art.



Dream Tower - Tuesday, September 22, 4:00pm
Ron Mann, Canada, 1994, 47 Minutes
Rochdale College was one of the most controversial experiments ever to have taken place in Canada. Intended to be a radical educational institution, Rochdale rapidly became a meeting place for North America’s burgeoning drug culture and a focal point for the best and worst dreams of the Canadian generation of baby boomers.


Grass - Monday, September 21, 3:30pm
Canada, 2001 80 Minutes
Ron Mann’s much-celebrated GRASS presents a humorous and surprisingly balanced history of recreational marijuana use. The most controversial drug of the twentieth century – smoked by generations of musicians, students and workers to little discernible ill effect – marijuanacontinues to be reviled by the vast majority of governments around the world. With a rueful yet incisive script, extraordinary production values, narration by Woody Harrelson and an impressive soundtrack featuring original songs by Mark Mothersbaugh, GRASS charts the terrible loss in imprisoned lives and billions of dollars wasted fighting a drug that refuses to go away.

Know Your Mushrooms - Sunday, September 20, 3:30pm
Canada, 2008 73 Minutes English
In Ron Mann’s latest feature documentary, we follow uber myco visionaries Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans (two of the more expert and unforgettably mercurial characters in the community) as they lead us on a hunt for the wild mushroom and the deeper cultural experiences attached to the mysterious fungi. Combining material filmed at the Telluride Mushroom Fest, along with animation and archival footage and a neo-psychedelic soundtrack by the Flaming Lips, KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS opens the doors to perception, takes the audience on a longer, stranger trip and delivers them to a brave new world where the fungi might well guide humanity to a saner, safer place... with extra cheese...

Tags: Cinefest, Ron Mann

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The first film released on a 4GB re-usable USB flash drive!

includes:
• Mushroom Themed Mimobot
• Alaska Morel Mushroom
• Special Edition Booklet
• Hand-Crafted Collectable Wooden Box

Buy it only through dvdswelike.com!

Tags: USB Special Edition, DVD

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We are now taking pre-orders for KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS “Special Edition Box” and traditional DVD!

Click here to pre-order KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS!



KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS - A film by Ron Mann
Special Edition Collectors Box (USB) - Pre-Order Now ($59.95) - Ships Sept 1, 2009
Traditional DVD Version - Pre-Order Now ($24.95) - Ships Sept 25, 2009

In celebration of the highly-anticipated release of Ron Mann’s latest film Know Your Mushrooms, comes a Limited Special Edition Collector’s Box.

KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS follows uber myco visionaries Gary Lincoff and Larry Evans (two of the more expert and unforgettably mercurial characters in the community) as they lead us on a hunt for the wild mushroom and the deeper cultural experiences attached to the mysterious fungi.

Also available on traditional DVD.

Tags: USB Special Edition, DVD

Pure Pwnage is based on the hit web series on www.purepwnage.com which receives over 10,000 unique visitors a day. This site has an incredible fan base who have been following the antics of Jeremy for over 4 years.

The series is written by Jarett Cale, Geoff Lapaire and Mark Steinberg with showrunner Derek Harvey (Testees and The Tom Green Show).

Exectutive produced by Catherine Tait and Ron Mann.

Link to announcement on Showcase’s blog.

Tags: Showcase, Ron Mann, Catherine Tait

FLAK will have its U.S. premiere at the 10th annual Woodstock Film Festival and Ron will be on this years documentary jury.
Made by Ron Mann when he was 16, Flak is a gritty improvised drama screening for the first time in 30 years as part of this retrospective. Influenced by John Cassavetes' Shadows, Michelangelo Antonioni's The Red Desert, and above all, Robert Kramer's classic film Ice, Mann's working title was Viva La Dynamite, a phrase borrowed from Anaïs Nin.

But Flak isn't about blowing stuff up-it's about inaction. The film emphasizes boredom, inertia, and our tendency to talk about problems while being unable or unwilling to act.

As the film progresses, its ragtag protagonists wander the city, work, play street hockey, and sit around debating political change. Suffering because of polluted air from a nearby gypsum plant, one young man registers a protest with his member of Parliament; another advocates bombing. Both efforts appear impotent. For Mann, Flak was a metaphor for the apolitical spirit of the 1970s. Raw, direct, restrained, and impressive,

Flak is a look into an unpolished Toronto of the past, and an insightful window onto current social predicaments. - Astra Taylor.

UPCOMING SCREENINGS:

Woodstock Film Festival - Woodstock Community Center Oct. 2, 2009 at 5:15pm

Planet In Focus (Toronto) - Oct 21 - 25, 2009

BAFICI (Buenos Aires)

Tags: Woodstock Film Fesival, Planet In Focus, BAFICI

Ron Mann Win's "Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts".

Tags: Premier’s Award

Download the PDF Press Release!

In celebration of the highly-anticipated release of Ron Mann’s latest film Know Your Mushrooms, comes a Limited Special Edition Collector’s Box.
 
For the first time in North America, a feature film is being released on a 4-gigabyte re-usable Mimobot(R) USB flash drive!
 
Ron Mann has always been on the cutting edge of film distribution. He worked with the Voyager Company, which pioneered CD-ROM production in the 1980s and early 1990s, and published The Criterion Collection, a pioneering home video collection of classic and important contemporary films. As digital technology began to revolutionize the film distribution model, Mann’s seminal documentary Poetry in Motion was one of the first films to be digitized with Quicktime.
 
“We fight piracy every day,” says Mann. “So we figured, why not cut out the middle-man (DVDs) and give the media-pirates exactly what they want? A movie as a digital download. DVD and Blu-Ray are simply optical disc storage. So why not use a Mimobot(R) flash drive? It’s more compact and you can re-use the stick after you transfer the film to a hard drive device.”
 
In a revolutionary move, Mann and his independent distribution company Filmswelike are releasing Know Your Mushrooms on commercial DVD as well as a Special Edition Collector’s Box.
 

• a Mushroom-themed 4 GB reusable USB flash drive (plugs into your computer’s USB port) Portable, re-usable and great for storage!
• Flash drive contains the feature film Know Your Mushrooms, Formatted for Mac and PC. AppleTV and iPod. Quicktime 7 required.
• Dried Alaska Morel mushrooms hand-picked by the film’s star, Larry Evans, the “Indiana Jones of Mushrooms”
• A booklet with an original essay about the film by Canadian film critic, Jennie Punter
• Packaged in a hand-crafted collectable wooden box

 
Spread the Spores!
Coming August 2009

Tags: USB Special Edition

A slew of Ron’s films are now available on iTunes USA.

Click on the iTunes links below to visit the film’s site on the iTunes store! Coming soon to Canada!

TALES OF THE RAT FINK
GRASS
COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL
GO FURTHER
TWIST
POETRY IN MOTION
BRAKHAGE

Tags: iTunes

Made by Ron Mann when he was 18, Flak is a gritty improvised drama which will soon be available on DVD.

Influenced by John Cassavetes' Shadows, Michelangelo Antonioni's The Red Desert, and above all, Robert Kramer's classic film Ice, Mann's working title was Viva La Dynamite, a phrase borrowed from Anaïs Nin. But Flak isn't about blowing stuff up-it's about inaction. The film emphasizes boredom, inertia, and our tendency to talk about problems while being unable or unwilling to act. As the film progresses, its ragtag protagonists wander the city, work, play street hockey, and sit around debating political change. Suffering because of polluted air from a nearby gypsum plant, one young man registers a protest with his member of Parliament; another advocates bombing.

Both efforts appear impotent. For Mann, Flak was a metaphor for the apolitical spirit of the 1970s. Raw, direct, restrained, and impressive, Flak is a look into an unpolished Toronto of the past, and an insightful window onto current social predicaments - Astra Taylor.

The Ontario Arts Council nominates Ron for the "Premier’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts"

“This year’s finalists for the Premier’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts showcase the enormous impact artists have on our province’s economy, and our quality of life. Our artists help us exchange ideas, images, stories and experiences that are uniquely Canadian.” - Culture Minister Aileen Carroll

Read the Press Release!

Tags: Premier’s Award

To celebrate the US premiere of Ron Mann's newest flick "Know Your Mushrooms", Mann and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema have literally cooked up a tasty treat for audiences . 

Calling it "The Electric Kool-Aid Mushroom Test", the Alamo will serve up slices of pizza topped with freshly picked wild mushrooms. The cultish director of "Grass" is also handing out kool-aid while playing music by the Flaming Lips. 

Wait, what kind of mushrooms are those again? 

Details : "Know Your Mushrooms" screens Friday 13th, 930pm
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema 320 E 6th St. 

Experience the film, then walk (if you can) to the opening party! 

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We're elated to announce Canadian director Ron Mann’s “Know Your Mushrooms” is selected for the 2009 SXSW Film Festival.

Every March, thousands of film fans, industry and press descend on Austin, TX for the SXSW Film Festival for the very best of international independent cinema, essential docs and cutting-edge storytelling. Over 9 days, from March 13-21, 108 features, including 54 world premieres, will screen over various sections and sidebars.

Know Your Mushrooms is one of three films to represent Canada, along with RIP a remix manifesto and Iron Maiden: Flight 666.

Mann’s mushroom doc, a surprise critical hit, is currently playing in movie theaters across Canada.

For more information contact :
Nancy Yu nancy@vkpr.com

filmswelike presents
Opening Night Co-Presented by Hot Docs

KNOW YOUR MUSHROOMS
A film by RON MANN
 
Opens in Toronto at The Royal on Friday, January 30, 2009
 
From the award winning director of Comic Book Confidential, Grass, Go Further and a host of paradigm-shifting films reappraising the backwaters of popular culture, Ron Mann investigates the miraculous, near-secret world of fungi with his newest piece of cinema, Know Your Mushrooms.



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filmswelike presents
EXAMINED LIFE
A film by Astra Taylor
A Thoughtful Way to Begin the New Year
 
Opens in Toronto at The Royal – Friday, January 23, 2009

Thurs Dec 18, 2008: An intimate, engaging conversation with some of the greatest minds of our era, Examined Life conveys the wonderment and curiosity that drive philosophical thought. This feature length documentary also introduces the world's most formidable thinkers and some of the most compelling theoretical debates taking place today. Read More...